2012-11-27

Birds and Birds and Birds...

I got out of bed yesterday morning (more like lunchtime to you), came down into the kitchen and outside the window the birch was full of birds. Not any of our regular tits either, but large, beautiful waxwings (Sw. sidensvans).

I came close to one of them on a spring morning a few years ago, it was only a meter away from me and it stayed there for several minutes as I stood frozen still, just watching. Birds are such beautiful creatures, and while I am nothing like a twitcher, I can get quite excited about them now and then.

Of course, it was impossible to take proper photos from indoors, in the crappy light of December at our latitude, but perhaps you get an idea. All the trees further away were also full of them, there were many hundreds, perhaps thousands in the air, all around the house. It was like watching one of those shoals of herring in a nature programme on television. Overwhelming. And simply impossible to photograph.

And then they were all gone.

5 comments:

  1. i wish i could take better nature photos, but i just do the best i can.

    we get cedar waxwings here, but i never see them. they come and go so quickly!

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  2. These are, more specifically, Bohemian waxwings. Not sure if they are called so because they were considered natives of Bayern, or if it´s something to do with them travelling around in large groups, gypsy-style.

    I wish I could take better photos, too, but it´s still amazing what a silly little Samsung can do (a kid´s camera, that´s what I have), compared to my first Kodak Instamatic! Remember those, with the Magicube flashes? All they were good for was group photos in nice weather, outdoors!

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  3. oh, yes! i remember my old instamatic! i tried my best, even at that age, to take pictures of flowers and trees and birds but didn't have much luck. great for vacation pictures, tho.

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  4. You will love New Zealand. There are loads of fun birds here.
    Gela

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  5. I had never heard of waxwings. What a stunning introduction to your day! Whenever I hear a bird sing it brings me to the present, reminds me to let go of my much too-serious self.

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