The Cootling and Camera Connection

Further to yesterday's history lesson about poor old General Leslie meeting a sticky end at Duns, we realised much later that we had both taken the William Wallace* meaning of 'quartered', when in fact, it's the much more probable, and nicer, meaning of having his 'quarters' there - ie living there for a while. We laughed! But I like our fictitious ending better, so I won't change it. I hope no descendants read this garbage.

I was tipped off yesterday by my bird watching Uncle A, that there had been a Happy Event down at the duck pond! So I hot-footed it down there this morning. I had meant to be early, but accidentally dozed off to a more reasonable hour. And yes! There they were.

Cootlings!

I've only just learnt this word, and now I keep seeing it/them. Funny how that happens. Same with 'bokeh'. I keep seeing it now. Both of these I learnt from Chamaeleo's rather good journal.

I was fortunate that they were just near the edge for a long time, but I was frustrated with my compact camera. It's not good for wee darting cootlings, in low light, too far away. In fact, for most of the time, I could hardly see what I was aiming at on the screen. When I got home, I was pleased to find a couple of usable, in focus ones, but they were entirely good luck. Another coot flew in and the parents were annoyed the wee cootlings were a bit anxious, and so stood up on a nearby branch and stayed still for oh, seconds. Most of the photos were of parts of them disappearing behind a branch.

There are many symptoms of blipfoto that nobody warned you about when you signed up, and I've caught most of them:

I can't lie in bed on nice mornings.
I can't lie in bed on not nice mornings.
I have begun to take an interest in the names of flowers and birds that have passed me by so far.
Every day's activities are dictated by blipportunities.
I start using words like 'blipportunities'.
I spend far too much time on blipfoto, even in the ads during 'Homeland'.
I don't read the local rag on my ipad of an evening, preferring to browse blipfoto to gasp at lovely photos, and find out who's gone on holiday where, how the dog is, whose parents are visiting, how autumn is progressing in NZ etc etc.

But now, I have the ultimate blipfoto symptom:

I want need must have a DSLR camera!


*William Wallace was hung, drawn and quartered in 1305. NOT nice.