Wild Bird Trust photographers of the week

Glad news as one of my photos has been choosen by Steve Boyes of Wild Bird Trust and therefore it has been posted in the Top Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #22.

It is always a pleasure when this happens and this time the photo is of a Common Whitethroat.

I took the picture on the first trip to Öland this summer. It was a Saturday morning and the rest of the people were still asleep so I and Maria took the car to Ölands most northern point because I just wanted to see what I could find there.

The morning was beautiful with almost no clouds in the sky. The first that I noticed when I parked the car was the amount of Great Cormorants in the bay. I suspect that this wasn´t a big colony but it was the biggest I had seen to that date. I would guess it was around 100 Cormorants there. Of course we could see Gulls and Terns but what caught my eye that morning was the Barn Swallows. They had nests under the bridge that leads to the lighthouse. The Swallows were sweeping over the water catching insects and they did it a little bit slower than they use to so I had hopes of a good flight shot.

I stayed on the bridge for a couple of minutes taking photos of the Swallows before I went after Maria. At the other side of the bridge there were trees and bushes along the walkway and it was among these that I saw the Common Whitethroat. It actually sat still and that isn´t the most common thing for these small birds so I got 4 or 5 photos before it decided to get away from the paparazzi.

I like the photo in all its simplicity. Of course some might say that the branches ruin the photo for them but this is actually one of the things I like most about it. It shows the bird in its natural environment and it’s not just a portrait, it’s something more. The light is also great because of the early hour and then you have the eye. I really like glint in the eye and the color, many small elements that together makes this a good picture.

You´ll find more pictures from this trip to Öland here.