Three little birds

Whilst it’s always lovely to go out when its warm and sunny, I enjoy going out to the coast in the winter, when it’s cold and fresh. The wind chills the face and you have your hands deep in your pockets and back against the wind. The beaches are pretty much deserted and you feel like you have the world to yourself. Its nice just to walk as far as you can and then come back. In some places you can brave the beach, walking out as far as you dare across the mud flats.

I have lived in the area all my life and have never thought of the Thames estuary as being somewhere to find wild birds. It was a very, very cold blustery day by the coast. That day the tide was out and there were some redshanks, dunlins and sandpipers they are so well camouflaged on the mud that I have previously not noticed them.  I have a photo of one, with his feathers ruffled by the wind. There were also a young seagull, it was easier for him to skim across the mud then fly in this blustering wind.

Further along the sea front towards Shoeburyness I watched a flock of starlings, they were doing ariel displays. They would settle on the sea wall for a moment or two, and then fly up again. The group on the wall would vary between two or three to a dozen or so. These three were braver than the others and hung around a little longer.

People don’t really take much notice of starlings, and just see black feathers, but they have a metallic green and violet sheen to them and there are yellowish-white spots in the plumage too. Their winter plumage is a little browner and their beaks are darker and not so yellow as in the summer. These guys are a little fluffed up against the cold, giving them an interesting spiky hair style. Huddled together, its warmer than on your own.

I had a reasonably long lens on my camera and I stopped and watched them flying for a while before trying to photograph them. I leaned against the wall to steady my hand and took as many images as I could before they flew off. The three birds were the perfect distance away so that the background faded with the narrow depth of field which so perfectly highlights the three birds. They are so close that you might be mistaken in thinking that there are only two.

I fall in love with this image every time I see it.