Getting the bird!

[rosie55.livejournal.com]

Some of you may know that I contribute to various photographic challenges which is a great way of adding interest to your photography. This month's list on my Flickr group included:
11. Bird(s) native to your country
Yikes! I may be a keen photographer but my camera is not really up to serious wildlife stuff. So I've spent quite a bit of time over the last week trying to take a suitable "native bird" photograph.

My first thought was to take pictures of one or more of my collection of Goebel porcelain birds. My first one, collected more than 25 years ago -  was the thrush, followed shortly by the robin. These two remain my favourites. Here they are:

Over more recent years, mainly through e-bay, I have added numerous others, though I only collect their models of British native birds and only the matt versions, not the glossy ones. (Goebel are a German Company, connected with the Hummel brand). I have most of the ones I want now - only a couple of the rarer (and more expensive!) ones I would still like. Here are my flock!
and
so that was one option. (OK, they're not all birds in that cabinet, some native flowers crept in and a fieldmouse. And a couple aren't Goebelpieces but hey! It's all British wildlife!)
But it would be nice to be able to get a photo of a real bird for the challenge.
A few times I have caught birds in my local views - like this little flock of pigeons against the hill - their wings just catching the morning sun - or on the aerials around - here  and here  and even the odd one on the wing  but none of those were really what I was looking for!
There were a lot of birds up in the top field today - flocks of gulls and  crows strutting around amongst the sheep! you can see all three on this picture -  but they're a bit indistinct. Hmmm!
I lurked near the windows for a while, waiting for our usual suspects to turn up in the garden and, as you might expect, they were mostly conspicuous by their absence! But here's a couple I managed of our blackbird - here  and here  and this is (if you look closely)  our robin on the fatball but I wasn't really thrilled with any of these.
We went for a drive up to a local viewpoint this afternoon and I suddenly spotted a whole flock of rooks or crows on a tree at the side of the road. Naturally we were past it by the time I had my camera out of my pocket and poor M had to turn round at the next junction and go back so that I could take a picture! This is  -
what I captured before we had to move on and I snapped another as we moved off. There are various names for such a gathering - a clamour or a parliament but one that I came across several times when I checked was a "storytelling of rooks" - isn't that evocative, somehow? On the way back I was more prepared and there were more birds and more action - so this  again was snapped from the moving car. But when we got home and I uploaded this - the second,  the quick snap I had snatched on the way out, I immediately thought this had potential!
So I played with just one section, cropped and enlarged and I finally had my picture of "birds native to my country" - here it is!




                                                      

Now that I was pleased with! 

Okay, only one more item to find for my list now - a paint brush or roller. Right, off to the garage for me then!
Hope you enjoyed scavenging for a bird photo with me!