Back Again

Nesting Great Crested Grebe

More than four months have passed since my last blog post and it’s come to the point where I have to make a choice. Until now my style has been to post a daily image on social media, with this website being bottom of the list. It’s no surprise that such a long gap has resulted.

My intention now is to turn my style on its head and the website will be first and foremost, with social media in it’s variety of forms following on. Sure, the daily posting might suffer at times, but if we’re going to have a website, we should concentrate more on it.

While I intend to move in this direction as of now, I don’t expect to be firing on all cylinders until early July.

Since my ‘Close Fox Encounters’ post in January we’ve completed a couple of trips, firstly to Trinidad and Tobago in February. More recently we visited Mull, with two friends who, like us, are wildlife photographers. In the coming days, I intend to blog about both trips, which have been both rewarding and frustrating too.

Locally, the frustration is even greater and it’s rare for us to spend a day out in the field. There are a few reasons for this, but primarily it’s the inevitability of having photographed what there is to offer and the challenge diminishing. I avoid the scrumages that result from the arrival of a rare species, only being tempted if the bird hangs around and interest wanes. A rare occurrence.

I suppose the best example of that is the sad demise of the Barn Owls at Lorton Meadows. I spent a fruitless evening down there, which only served to strengthen my resolve to get some decent pictures this year. Within a week, that project was over.

Great Crested Grebes at Radipole Lake were another failure this year. I only witnessed one pair on the lake this year where there had been three last year. Consequently, the weed dance shot and the female with a chick on her back image have to wait until next year.

I guess it’s those frustrations that keep us going and coming back for more all the time. That is the same resolve as I need to apply to this blog and website in general.