The one that didn't get away

I found myself sitting quietly in a hide (again) on what was yet another windy day (it seems to have been windy for weeks now), with a small group of committed wildlife enthusiasts (none of whom I know, but who seemed to know each other - the "amigos").  

The amigos had to have been committed because there was a significant windchill factor from the strong breeze when you take into account an air temperature that is already in the low teens.  It's not what you expect in July and I can't have been the only one wishing that I'd put on another layer this morning.

It was at this point that the elusive Bittern chose to break cover and fly low over the reed beds, before landing and immediately disappearing once more.  Doing the honourable thing, I'd made the call "Bittern moving across"  to alert the amigos, as soon as I spotted it.  

The whole thing took just a few seconds but caused great excitement and consternation amongst the amigos.  Excitement from all, but consternation mingled with much muttering and possibly even cursing from those who were struggling to find and then get the moving bird in frame and focus before it disappeared.  

At this point the usual inquest started among the amigos.  Which of the them had managed to get it, was it in focus, was their shot as good as the one "Dave" got the other morning, had they downloaded the latest camera firmware (that's the other two Nikon Z9 shooters, not the Canon or Sony chaps), did they think that it made a difference, etc.

Eventually, the inquest over, the amigos fell quiet and all that you could hear was the noise of the wind across the reeds and hide ... until the next bird was spotted and the whole process repeated.  

:-)