Everything is Permuted

Sometimes the opportunity doesn't present itself. Sometimes it does, and you're ready. Sometimes you simply don't have the right equipment with you. Sometimes you do. And on some occasions this happens.

I was out at lunchtime and had the long lens (70-300mm) attached to the camera. Nothing unusual about that, and I caught a decent shot of a juvenile goldfinch.

Juvenile Goldfinch

As I walked a little further, the view opened out across a valley, and for once I had my wide lens (the Canon EF 24-105 F4L IS USM) with me. So I switched lenses, and took various views of the Downs, including this next one of cattle moving across the middle of the valley as clouds cast racing shadows over the grass.

South Downs view

While I photographing landscapes, I glanced up. I do that a lot. You never know what will be flying past, and to my absolute delight I saw a buzzard swooping low (well relatively low) over the field. It was in clear view and at a reasonable height. I've only ever previously managed absurdly long range shots of this bird, so I turned, aimed and fired off some shots. With the wide lens which has barely any reach at all! That's the downside of DSLRs. You need to pick the right lens for the job.By the time I'd swapped lenses again, the bird - as the saying goes - had flown.

The buzzard

I'm really pleased with the shot as it happens. The light was perfect, the sky clear. But these opportunities are so rare that this has to go down as a miss.

Yesterday's pheasant photo was good, but it wasn't my first sighting. Today was altogether in a different league.

The gulls were flocking and behaving somewhat erratically when I went outside. Generally they flock at fairly high altitudes round here, but today they were tending to come in lower and fights were breaking out among them. Also they were heading away, rather than the usual defensive circling.

Gulls fighting on the wing

As the sky cleared of gulls I looked up and saw a large slow-winged bird coming into view. It wasn't a sparrowhawk. It was too large. Blow me away, it was a buzzard! Although common in the UK, they are generally located further north and west. In recent years they have been re-colonizing in the South East and sightings are not unusual. But until today, I'd never seen one.

Buzzard

Buzzard

Buzzard

I spent much of the rest of the day with my eyes towards the heavens. No more raptors, but I did manage some decent flight shots of pigeons and magpies which are in the March Birds album.