Psilos
Bird Journal |
Sunday August
19th 2007 |
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"Cat
and mouse" |
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This summer the weather has
been lousy. What with this and other commitments I havent been watching
the terns at Doffcocker this summer as much as I would have liked. I
do know that they have done reasonably well and in previous weeks I
have seen several juveniles fledge and leave. Today I decided to take
a walk and was surprised to see that some terns were still there. Even
more thrilling was that there were still juveniles present. |
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When I first arrived I could
see that three of the juveniles were at the waters edge over on the
far spit. I would have loved to have gone over and tried to get close
to them but my ideas were thwarted as the adults returned bearing fish,
their calls luring the youngsters back to the raft. |
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Today light was
very poor (not good for photography)and the juveniles spent most of
the time on the raft. The adults were bringing in plenty of fish to
keep them satisfied and as always the youngsters knew how to beg for
it.
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For a good hour nothing much
happened. The juveniles slept on the raft and the adults disappeared.
I decided to go home. Typically as I left everything started to happen
at once. Two adults returned with fish and the three juveniles left
the raft and flew to the spit. I stood totally undecided by what to
do next. The juveniles were out but the light was awful. I knew even
if I got close enough the quality of my photos would not be good. In
the end I think the challenge of whether I could get close to the birds
finally made me take the short walk round to where they were. |
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By the time I got closer the
adults had once again disappeared. This in the end was to help me in
my aim to get closer to the juveniles. All three birds were in the water.
I love their expressions and the way they behaviour, just like children
that have never seen water before. They splash and wade about and pluck
things from beneath the surface in order to find out if anything is
good enough to eat. |
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As I crept slowly closer they
seemed comfortable with my presence. By now I was at the top of the
banking and within fifteen feet but I wanted to get lower. Not fully
expecting to photograph antything today I had no waterproff matting
with me and the ground was saturated and thickly coated in goose droppings
Did I really want to get so wet and filthy. Short answer yes I did for
I may never get this close again.... |
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