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| Waxwings in sunshine |
The weather of New Years Day in East Sussex was
glorious, unlike the previous day when it was wet, and cloud reduced
light levels to impossible levels for photography. With little hope, my
wife and I drove into Lewes to try and take a nice series of photographs
of the flock of waxwings that have taken up temporary residence in an
area with luscious, bright red berries. One reason for the lack of
optimism was an experience we had a day or two previously when there
were no waxwings present when we arrived. We were told that they had
been driven off by a few over enthusiastic people. The birds had been
chased backwards and forwards as they attempted to descend from a row of
poplars to feed on the berries below. The berries were on the other
side of the road from the poplars. After we had parked the car, it was
another two hours before the flock returned, and I achieved silhouette
photographs of them sitting high in the poplars. There were still one or
two people sitting in their cars, but as soon as the birds arrived,
without any care taken, they were out of their cars, and rushing towards
the best vantage point, between the poplars and the berries. While I
was there, sitting patiently in my car, my wife off shopping, the birds
never did descend to feed, and I left without any photographic success
at dusk.
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| Best shot in the rain |
It was a different story on New Year’s Eve. I decided
to go into Lewes to do some supermarket shopping, and to see if the
waxwings were behaving. Before shopping, I went to have a look at the
roadside hedge with the berries. No sign of waxwings, or of people.
However there really was plenty of rain. I did my shopping, and then
thought I might as well go and have another go. There was one car there,
and I could see its occupant was pointing his binoculars up at the
poplars. A few starling like dots in the trees proved, with the help of
my binoculars, to be waxwings. After a few minutes, he came and asked me
if I had managed some good photos. All I had achieved were a few
distant silhouettes. He drove off. The waxwings began to descend from
the poplars, and feed on the berries. For me, the hedge with the berries
was on the opposite side of the car, so I drove off, and turned round.
By inching the car ever so slowly towards the berry laden bushes with
the window already down, I was able to stop opposite, and within about
four feet of several feeding waxwings. Two problems arose however.
First, as soon as I had lowered the car window, I was splattered by
rain, as was my camera lens when I tried to take photographs. Secondly I
had not checked to see how much space there was left on the card in my
camera. At that definitive moment when a row of three waxwings posed for
me on the top of the fence, no more than six feet away, I pressed the
shutter button, and nothing happened.
