Finally!

Posted on by Brian Scott

We’ve now lived in this rural location for just over three years and in that time I’ve had so many fabulous photographical experiences.

Birds I thought I’d never see, live in our hedges. Raptors I wasn’t aware of can be seen, some yet to be photographed. A pair of White-tailed Eagles flying over my head. Discovering a pair of Black-throated Divers that I hope might nest within my area.

Tree Sparrows, Yellowhammers and Great Spotted Woodpeckers visit our feeder daily! All wonderful for both of us but especially for me and my cameras. I hoped that some day, the birds I’ve been seeking might join our list of garden visitors.

There is one bird in our area however, that I’ve been kind of following, keeping track of and even tempting to a feeding area in the hope of getting some decent shots of, I’ve managed a few distant shots, between tree trunks just up the lane, that’s it.

A few days ago, one of them landed in the garden under the feeders, VERY briefly then gone.

A Jay! I saw it land, watched it leave but just knew, it would be back! They’re opportunists, like most Corvids, bright, clever and in our case, extremely shy ….. until today!

I’m sitting at the Mac as usual, editing photos and listening to music. To my left is my window that looks out on the trunk of an old Ash tree and our feeders. There’s been a good selection visiting this morning; GSW, Tree & House Sparrows, Goldfinches, Blue, Coal & Great Tits, Chaffinches and the now aggressive Mistle Thrush.

08:58. A bird lands and catches my eye, then two more! I try to turn, grab the camera and point it out the window without actually moving!

I’d honestly forgotten how big they are!

One of them chased another off some food, then grabbed some itself and checked me out!

It was quite dull and overcast with light rain falling, hence the hairdo! 🙂

One thing a love about all Corvids Is their intelligence. Just look at this next shot.

That bird knows I am here, maybe it’s light off the lens, my movement but, it is very aware of something through this window.

Beautiful, clever birds.

08:59. Gone!

I’ve just checked the image data, they visited for around 20 seconds! It could have been 20 minutes!

A happy (Jay) chap at last. Got them 🙂

8 thoughts on “Finally!”

  1. Hey Brian!
    Beautiful photos of this Jay — it’s a common bird here in Belgium as well. Sometimes it’s hard to capture on camera because they’re quite shy around people. I saw that you also visited my site and subscribed — thank you very much for that! It really keeps me motivated to continue.

    In return, I’ve also subscribed to your site — and now I get to see your beautiful photos too. There are so many of them, so I’ll be visiting regularly to look at both the older ones and see what’s new.

    That’s all for now — all the best from Belgium!
    Marc

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Marc, thank you for your comments, I am pretty new to this blog thing but I have always wanted to tell a story with my photographs so, now I get to do just that.
      It’s great when you start to make connections and get some feedback, I gave up the standard (anti)social media some time back and now use only Mastodon, Flickr and I am looking at a few new photo sharing apps.
      I look forward to browsing your blog and sharing comments.
      All the best to you from Central Scotland

      Liked by 1 person

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