Back to the car and the key fell apart as I unlocked the door. Then the car wouldn't start. Thinking this was a problem that has sorted itself out after a rest of a few minutes I took another stroll round the pit with the camera as the sun was shining again. Part way round the path I remembered that the chip had fallen out of the key once before, causing the car not to start. I checked the key and the chip was missing. When I got back to the car again I scrabbled around looking for the little bit of black plastic among the equally black shale on the ground.
After a good few minutes and a thorough search I called the AA. I'd have fifty minutes to wait so I had another look for the chip. In no time at all I found it! A quick call back to the AA and I was on my way to the litter pit, which was uneventful. Just a lone swan on one of the small ponds was worth photographing.
Heading out to the river I stopped off at a favourite spot and had a wander along a footpath through a field. Although I saw a kestrel there wasn't much else around. Walking back past the car I saw some pied wagtails in another field and tried creeping up on them. Very flighty birds in my experience, although they will come close they don't like people approaching them. I sat and waited but they worked their way away from me. A flock of starlings made for some interesting attempts at backlit group flight shots, but I didn't pull them off. Next port of call was the mere.
There was precious little to be seen in the way of wildlife until the geese started to rise up in the distance. I thought I might be able to find some where I could get some closer shots of them and set off along the single track road. Passing a farmstead I spotted two pied wagtails, very close to the road, in a field that was being ploughed. Stopping the car I grabbed some shots of what looked like a young wagtail, then got the car closer. The bird stayed put, although the other one had flown off. The field was somewhat higher than the road, so shooting through the open window gave me an apparently low level view.
The light was poor, it was getting late, so I deliberately underexposed in order to keep the shutter speed high and the ISO low. It seemed to work.
Monday was a day of work, apart from shooting the coal tits in the garden, which I also did this morning. The restless little birds are getting to be an obsession. But given good light I reckon I'll get some decent shots.
Work beckoned, but when I was making my evening meal I was distracted by a bobbing, yellow and grey bird on the rockpile by my pond. A grey wagtail was looking to get a drink. The silly bird could have flitted over to the small pool I made as a bird bath and got a drink easily, but it wouldn't leave the rocks! I might make a step down to the water by he rocks for any other daft birds to take advantage of. The only photos I managed were taken through the window, and it was overcast so the detail isn't fantastic. A nice first for the garden though, and probably a result of having the pond.
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