So there I am standing out in a field on a hillside. Beautiful, bright sunny afternoon. Temps in the mid seventies. Nice gentle breeze. Sky clear except for a couple of dissolving contrails. Perfect! Aaaaah.
I start looking around for something to photograph.
One of my neighbors’ crabapple trees is in full bloom and looks pretty good. I decide to take a pic…, wha?
Damn…, left the battery in the charger. Oh, well…, at least I noticed before I went too far.
Turn around, trudge back up the hill to get the battery.
Snap, click. Ready to roll. Head back down the hill, muttering.
We have resident crows on the hillside. As I approached the bottom of my driveway they started to make a ruckus.
Aha! Something’s in the sky. Start scanning.
There…, it flashes by. A sparrow hawk?
No! Much too big. It’s a Merlin! First of the season. It disappears behind a stand of trees.
Grab my camera, do my best Grandpa McCoy imitation as I hustle past the trees.
Damn…, too far away to get a good shot. I watch as it disappears beyond the tree line at the far side of the field with two very angry crows in hot pursuit. [Like they really had a chance to catch a Merlin, and just what do they think they’ll do with it if they do catch up?]
Tough crows! Well, they have to be. When you build your nest right smack in the middle of the main migration route of the Eastern raptors, you toughen up fast, or you die!
Last spring I watched one of our resident blue-jays take down a kestrel…, hard!
It ain’t easy being a predator in this neck of the woods. The food keeps fighting back.
Trudge, trudge, trudge.
Well, I’m back in the field again, watching and listening. Dum de dum de dum….
A couple of crows fly by on perimeter patrol.
Dum de dum de dum…
Ah…, squawking. There’s a predator in the air again. This time it’s a red-tail, circling over the hill, heading my way.
Once again the crows rise to intercept the threat. They are trying to harass him into leaving, but him, he just keep circlin’.
I’m gonna get a great shot. I raise the camera, adjust the lens, point and click…, wha?
Nothing!
Shut it off, on, try again.
Nothing!
Take the battery out, reinsert it. Quick, get the shot!
Nothing!
Check the controls on the camera.
Aha! I had accidentally moved the auto-focus switch on the lens into a position that was neither auto or manual. The poor thing doesn’t know what to do unless I tell it. Set it back on auto.
Now…, where’s that damn hawk?
Gone, that’s where.
Oh, well. I can always take pictures of flowers. They don’t fly away. And one thing is sure. Here on
