One personality trait I have, that makes me quite ill suited to the bird photography related goal I’m about to talk about, is that I’m extremely impatient. And I don’t understand it. If it’s a beautiful day with the sun shining, and I see an amazing bird, and I’m within striking distance of getting a photograph but the bird is too quick, wasn’t that a great experience anyway? It’s a beautiful day, and I got to see an amazing bird, even if the creature got away, surely that’s still a cool experience. Sadly, I’ve been cursed with horrible impatience for as long as I can remember.
I already talked about my other bird photography goal for the year of 2024 here:
Now I’ll talk about my other goal for this year, that I had to consider giving up on many, many times, because it’s so damn hard. And that is:
Photograph ten species of bird and in each photograph their face must be clearly visible.
This goal I had to seriously consider altering several times, changing it from a “2024” goal, to a “complete whenever” goal, it was that hard. But yesterday, I photographed bird number ten, and the goal was complete.
The reason I’m so interested in capturing birds in flight, with their face visible is, because, what I’m about to tell you, you’ve known since you were a child, and nothing about that, nothing about that at all, alters the fact that it’s bloody amazing.
On this planet, live intelligent creatures, and their main method of movement is flight!
That’s why I’m so interested in capturing the face. You don’t just see the creature in flight, but the amazing intelligence of the creature that is doing the flying. You could argue there’s a bit of projecting human characteristics onto the bird, after all, birds don’t have facial expressions per se, but I’m hoping seeing the face of a flying bird communicates something that we should all be in amazement and awe at, all the time and not be bothered with what Generic Celebrity 14-7B is up to this week. I’ll say it again.
There are intelligent animals right here on Earth that possess the amazing power of flight!
Funnily enough, when I first got into bird photography, I never even entertained the idea of photographing birds in flight, except as maybe getting photos of groups of birds where you can only see them as a blurry mess. But then one day, I was in the Lough. And there was a herring gull above me. I thought to myself, “This’ll probably be an out of focus mess but what the hell I’ll give it a try.” So spur of the moment I photographed the herring gull, and to my surprise, I got this:
A face for the ages!
So then I realized, photographing birds in flight, face and all, was something possible even for someone like me, who doesn’t understand what most of the functions on my camera do, and by most of the functions I of course mean all of the functions.
From this point I had no serious interest in a bird-flight-face photography goal, just getting close ups of the bird’s wonderful brain while they were flying whenever I could. Like this super awesome black headed gull!
I still don’t know how I managed to get this photograph!
I spent a week staying near Courtmacsherry in August, as I usually do, and I got this photograph of a dinosaur. Look, not only are all birds dinosaurs, but herons look like dinosaurs, so can we just start saying, “I saw a dinosaur on the estuary the other week?”
Spared No Expense!
So after photographing this bird that proves Jurassic Park is real and that some of their dinosaurs escaped and now live In Courtmacsherry, and Fitzgerald’s Park and the Lough, I came up with a goal that I thought would be a nice easy goal to complement my other goal of photographing fifty different species of birds.
I would photograph ten different species of bird where you could clearly see the bird’s face.
I had already gotten three. How hard could it be to get ten?
What should have tipped me off to the fact that this would be harder than I realized, is that every time I described it as an easy goal, myself from the future would arrive and laugh at me for fifteen minutes straight. Undeterred, I set about getting this goal done so I could get back to my goal of photographing the fifty species of bird. Who would have thought photographing the fifty birds would be easier by comparison?
But why was it so hard? Well, for the goal of photographing fifty different species of bird, picture quality didn’t matter per se. If I got a blurry, horribly out of focus photo of a bird, and it was just clear, only just clear enough to identify the bird, then that was fine. With the goal of ten birds in flight, clarity was everything, and I had to deem photo, after photo, after photo, of a bird in flight, as too blurry. If you couldn’t see the face, it wasn’t what I needed in terms of completing this goal. I even had to judge some photos, like this one, as, while it’s a photo I really like, as not really fitting the goal of being able to see the bird’s face.
One of my favourite photos, but nevertheless not fitting the goal.
This is actually one of my favourite photos, but nevertheless doesn’t fit the goal. But, seeing mallards in flight is quite a sight to see. Seriously, next time you see a mallard in flight, drop everything and have a look. Literally, not figuratively, don’t actually drop anything, you’ll break it!
Mallards in flight for all the world remind me of a jet fighters. I can imagine some military general saying, “We’ve got a Code Red Emergency, scramble the mallards!” When you see them you think, am I looking at a bird or some high tech military plane? They zoom by so fast, their flying so elegant and skilled, quite a sight to see!
So, the next few face flight bird photos were actually easy enough. Here’s bird number four.
In August I spied a feral pigeon in the Lough.
And here’s bird number five, a gralag goose, just a few days later.
They may be called gralag geese but there’s certainly no lag when these guys are flying! I’ll show myself out.
And, on the same day, a rook!
Checkmate! Get it, because it’s a rook, like chess? Okay then, I’ll show myself out.
So that was six then! I only needed four more, and then I could get back to the main focus of photographing and identifying fifty different species of bird. So, with only four to go, why was myself from the future still travelling back in time to laugh at me for fifteen minutes straight?
Because, the first six birds were easy to photograph, it would be very, very hard after this.
Not just because the bigger slower moving birds, like seagulls and herons, are easier to photograph then say, a woodpigeon, but, frankly, I was just lucky. Rooks are not that easy to photograph and capture their face, it seems to be a combination of good lighting and good luck that I managed to get that one.
I spent the next few months in the Glen River Park, the Lough, and the walk from Fitzgerald’s Park to the Lee Fields. Wonderful memories during beautiful weather, getting photographs of the beautiful birds and wonderful insects that live in those places. But the goal of getting my ten photos of birds in flight was proving illusive, and my progress slowed to an absolute crawl.
All of September, despite being an amazing month for being around wildlife, produced no new bird flight face photos, then, on the 1st of October, at the Lee Fields, I got this. A woodpigeon, one of my favourite birds!
WOO, WOO, WOO, WOO!!
I think there’s an interesting contrast to the way woodpigeons walk about and the way they fly. Because on the land (and yes, I know I’m projecting human characteristics onto them, but sometimes that can be fun) they’re just so jolly and fun and free spirited! The hippies of the bird world! The other ultra conservative birds are embarrassed by those radical hippies called woodpigeons!
So it’s a surprise to see them in flight, for some reason, I was just expecting them not to be skilled fliers, but they are. Maybe it’s because they remind me of myself a bit, because, woodpigeons can’t manage to do anything without making a bunch of noise. Can they leave that tree branch quietly? No! Maximum noise, all the time, always. God I love woodpigeons! They’re so like me!
But it’s a treat to see them fly. On land, and when taking off from a tree, they seem so awkward and clumsy. (And that’s not to say they are, just kind of look like that true human eyes.) But once they take to the sky, they’re as skillful and graceful as the best of fliers.
So I was up to seven birds, not too bad. But I was aware of the fact, having gotten no new bird face flight photos for the month of September, and now being only three months left, I’d have to really not take me eye off the ball if I wanted to complete this goal. So, I encountered a lesser black backed gull a few days later. (Interestingly enough, I have so many bird photos that I forgot that I actually have a clear lesser black backed gull photo in flight somewhere, but I took this photo not realizing that.) The lesser black backed gull was just sitting down, so I decided, I’m getting a photo of this bird in flight. I set the camera to “sports” where it takes a lot of shots rapidly, and just, waited for the bird to start flying. Actually, now is an important time to discuss one of my rules for getting birds in flight.
If the bird unambiguously flew away, because I was there, it doesn’t count. There are two reasons for this rule. Firstly, I’m trying to, to the best of my ability, get photos of birds, just doing what they do, not reacting to a homosapien like me. Secondly, if I didn’t have this rule, then, there’d be this temptation to startle the bird so that they took off. I hope I would never be so cruel as to frighten a bird just to get a good photo, but I was afraid, given that photographing birds in flight was proving harder than I anticipated, that that temptation would be there. So I took it out of the equation.
No photos where the bird definitely flew because of me, counted.
This means there were a few grey areas. How do I know that a bird that was standing around for a few minutes, all of a sudden decided, “To be honest that human looks a bit dodgy I’m getting out of here?” So there are some photos where I don’t know for sure. But if I were to take any photo where the bird definitely flew because of my presence, it doesn’t count towards the goal.
So, I stood near the seagull, camera set to rapid fire at the ready. The seagull seemed fairly indifferent to my presence. And just stood there, for a very long time. But I knew I had to persevere, this was bird number 8, and we were into the end of the year. Perhaps the Winter months would be too horrible for going out doing photographing. And it’s not about whether or not I can endure the discomfort of the rain, I’m able for that, it’s that nothing ruins a good photograph faster than getting rainwater on the lens!
So, I just stood there, camera at the ready, for a very long time, and then, takeoff!
You took your time but it was worth it gull!
So I was up to eight, and it was only October. Surely I’d complete this goal with ease? But myself from the future was still returning periodically to laugh at me, and most of November produced no new bird face flight photos.
I remember a day at the Lough, where I just had to tell myself, “Put away the camera, and get out the binoculars.” So I did, I sat there, with the binoculars, watching a heron in flight. Nothing about this contributed to my goal, but in that moment it didn’t matter. It was simply a magical experience seeing the giant dinosaur bird flying around the Lough.
With frustration setting in, I got a photo of a buzzard in flight that frankly, I don’t know if it’s good enough to count towards the goal, but I was so frustrated I think I may have talked myself into thinking it counts.
Quite dark lighting here.
While I quite like this photo, seeing the buzzard flying near the Winter trees, I debated with myself how good of a bird face photo it is, but I ended up counting it towards the goal, possibly subconsciously afraid I wouldn’t complete the goal if I didn’t.
But, whether this bird photo counts or not, the next buzzard photo definitely does!
I was in the Glen River Park, on the 1st of December, on an absolutely beautiful day. And I heard one of my favourite sounds in the world. “WEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!” That attempt to represent what a buzzard sounds like was absolutely pathetic. But anyway, I heard a buzzard, so I did what is often an exercise in frustration, and followed the sound. But this time, I saw the buzzard, really high up in the sky! I was lucky enough to get an absolute ton of photos of this majestic creature, a true ruler of the sky. This is not just my best photo of a buzzard in flight, but, out of thousands of bird photos over the last few months, this is one of my absolute favourite photos of a bird that I ever took!
AWESOME!!!!!!!!
So, at this point, I had a great experience pursuing this goal. The failures to get photos of birds increased my knowledge as much as the successes, when you try really hard, and end up with a horribly out of focus photo of a bird, all of that effort actually teaches you a lot about the way they fly. When you give up on trying to photograph a bird after a lot of frustration, because they’re just too hard to photograph, well, you learned something about the way they fly didn’t you? So, both the successes and failures in this venture increased my bird knowledge a lot, so, was it time to call the adventure off, and just take photographs of birds that made me happy regardless of fulfilling this goal?
Well, part of why this would be difficult for me as my odd fixation with certain numbers. I like “rounded up” numbers, like 10, 20, and 30. But I dislike numbers such as 9, 19, and 29. They just feel incomplete to me. (And yes, I’m aware of the irony of the fact that I write this at the age of 39!) But this was a great experience, was I at risk of turning it into a bunch of frustration, by not just trying to photograph that final bird next year?
Well, it became a moot point yesterday, because I managed to photograph bird number 10!
A magpie sitting in a tree. I’m honestly not sure whether I was trying to get the magpie in flight, or whether the magpie happened to take off just as I took the picture, but here it is, bird number 10!
YAAAAAAAAAAAY MAGPIE!!!!!!
So that’s it, ten face flight bird photos for the year of 2024! And, while I’m glad I succeeded, I think I learned as much from the unsuccessful attempts at getting birds in flight as I did from the successful attempts.
I have photo, after photo, after photo, of blurry cormorants. But without these, I’d have never known how spectacular it is to see a cormorant in flight. I didn’t even know they flew that much, I assumed they flew in that awkward couldn’t be arsed way that moorhens and coots fly. And if anyone thinks that’s offensive to coots and moorhens, well, you haven’t seen then fly. I’m sure if they could speak, they would admit that when it comes to flying, they really couldn’t be bothered.
But cormorants in flight are swift and elegant, one of the most spectacular sights I’ve seen this year. And I’m glad I tried and failed to photograph them.
So, will there be any wildlife goals for 2025? I haven’t decided. I’m looking forward to the remainder of the year being just photographing birds with no specific goal in mind. Or just, not take photographs. I have a really high powered binoculars, and some of my most treasured memories were, as already mentioned, seeing a heron through the binos, but also, seeing a buzzard in flight through the binos, even though I wasn’t able to share this with anybody else. So, December, no goals, just relaxed encounters with birds!
Haven’t thought of what 2025 will be like yet for wildlife. I’ve seen but haven’t photographed a kingfisher, so that’s a possible goal. I’d love to get a curlew in flight, and to get an audio recording of one. And it’s about time I got an audio recording of a woodpigeon, those delightful hippies I love them so much!
I don’t know how 2025 is going to go, but I know it’s going to be full of amazing animals. I’m just glad I live on Earth, and not the moon. Where there aren’t any animals.
Ponderings Of An Autist 
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