Eurasian Oystercatcher DSC_8627
Eurasian Oystercatcher / haematopus astralegus. Titchwell, Norfolk. 30/09/15.
I love going out to the mussel beds and beyond at low tide. On this visit the sun was shining and there was a strong NE wind. I spotted this solitary Oystercatcher who had found some shelter behind a raised part of the mussel bed.
It isn't easy to edge closer in a location like this...nothing to hide behind and wet sand and broken shells preventing a 'belly-crawl' approach! I inched my way forward, footstep by footstep, freezing like a stooped statue in between each one and watching the bird's reactions. When its eye remained open and fixed on me, I knew I had gone far enough. Having made a couple of images I backed off. I was happy, the bird was left in peace.
Later on, while sitting hunkered in the mussel beds with bird life all around me, everything sprang into the air in alarm. Two photographers strode out, tripods and huge lenses high in the air above them. They made it ...to an EMPTY beach. Had my muttered oaths reached them in the wind, I fear they would have fallen on EMPTY EARS.
Eurasian Oystercatcher DSC_8627
Eurasian Oystercatcher / haematopus astralegus. Titchwell, Norfolk. 30/09/15.
I love going out to the mussel beds and beyond at low tide. On this visit the sun was shining and there was a strong NE wind. I spotted this solitary Oystercatcher who had found some shelter behind a raised part of the mussel bed.
It isn't easy to edge closer in a location like this...nothing to hide behind and wet sand and broken shells preventing a 'belly-crawl' approach! I inched my way forward, footstep by footstep, freezing like a stooped statue in between each one and watching the bird's reactions. When its eye remained open and fixed on me, I knew I had gone far enough. Having made a couple of images I backed off. I was happy, the bird was left in peace.
Later on, while sitting hunkered in the mussel beds with bird life all around me, everything sprang into the air in alarm. Two photographers strode out, tripods and huge lenses high in the air above them. They made it ...to an EMPTY beach. Had my muttered oaths reached them in the wind, I fear they would have fallen on EMPTY EARS.