Just a Greenfinch, nothing more

I woke up alone and early this Saturday morning. Maria had been at an Aikido party celebrating becoming a black belt Aikidoka.

My mind wasn´t set on anything particular, but when the sun was starting to rise I could see a clear blue sky so I decided to eat breakfast and then head out to Stora Amundön to see if I could find anything of interest there.

When I walked the short distance to the car I noticed a compact cloud bank to the south but I hoped it wouldn´t be over Stora Amundön. Sadly that wasn´t the case and when I got there I couldn´t see the blue sky at all. The wind had also picked up so the weather wasn´t nice at all. But I couldn´t just give up and head home so I thought I should give it a try.

I could see many smaller birds around the parking space but I had primarily come here in search of waders. I started to search the bank of the small channel and could see a whitish wader, that I suspect were a Common Greenshank. The wind was blowing straight at me and that made me to search for some wind cover. I found it on the other side of the building with toilettes. Here I stayed for a time watching the small birds that I now could see mainly where Greenfinches.

I made up my mind and took the bridge over the channel and started to walk out onto Stora Amundön. I searched the open fields but they were mostly deserted except for horses and White Wagtails.

The wind got me to rethink my decision and I went back to get some protection from the wind. Still I couldn´t just give up so I wanted to see if I could take some pictures of the Greenfinches.

When I tried to approach them they just took off but I got this picture of two Greenfinches eating from a Rose Hip.

Soon these two followed the flock and I was left alone. I stayed there for some time without any more luck. Instead I started to see more joggers and dog walkers than birds. I started to consider going home just before I saw a fellow photographer walking out onto the bridge. I decided to go and have a chat with him. He introduced himself as Lars Lundmark, a name that I recognized because I have his Home Page as a favorite. We had a good chat about everything ranging from home page design, camera producers to persons we both know. He gave me some good tips that might come handy another time at Stora Amundön.

When he bade farewell and headed home for second breakfast I went after the Greenfinches again. Now the sun had made an appearance and this made the light better, but harder. I tried the same place as before and it turned out to be an okay spot.

I like that the Greenfinch is sunning its head in this picture. I like the type of picture when the subject isn´t completely out in the sun or back in the shadows. They are hard to get but this turned out nicely.

When I headed back to the car I could see that most of the Greenfinches had headed to the Rose hip around the parking space. That gave me the possibility to use the car as a portable hide and the 3 last pictures here are taken from inside the car. The only downside was that the wind had picked up and I had to raise the shutter speed to get decent photos but it also meant I lost sharpness because of the raised ISO.

Still I hope you enjoy my Greenfinch picture and I would recommend you all to pay a visit to Lars Lundmarks page, it’s worth the time.

Photo Gallery: Just a Greenfinch, nothing more