Living near the Norfolk Broads, my wife and I often go for an early(ish) morning walk down to the river – mostly for exercise. I take a small compact camera just in case there is anything unusual to photograph – mostly there isn’t. This morning was an exception:
We saw a flutter of white in the trees by the fishing lakes as this bird flew away from us to another place to perch. I got my camera out, zoomed full in (5x zoom and a small compact camera) and slowly walked to another vantage point where I could see it clearly. Above is a crop of the first photo I took.
I couldn’t get closer – the bird was watching me and twitching – I managed to get this second photo before it flew off; we didn’t see it again:
This is the full image, the the lens fully zoomed in, showing how distant I was from the bird, and below is a crop from the above photo:
Today was the first time we had seen such a bird, which we later identified as a small egret. Usually there are swans, various ducks and geese and the occasional heron.
I wouldn’t claim any photographic merit for these images, but as personal grab shots they are fine. Next time though I will take my DSLR with a 200mm lens just in case…