Day 99: Struck gold

Another dull day, but this time I had the new camera. I started off with a few flower pictures as usual when I noticed the sheer number of swallows circling and swooping low over me. I knew better than to try and get photos of them. Really, I did. OK so I couldn't resist trying one or two... Fortunately a heron flew overhead which gave me something big enough to focus on, and I got a couple of photos of it. A little under-exposed but in sharp focus, at least.

Then it was back to the swallows... I gave up after half-a-dozen failed attempts to get something decent. But luckily I caught sight of another bird flitting from one lupine to another: a bright yellow American goldfinch. It settled on one seed-stacked lupine and I was able to line up a few shots. I needed full zoom on the telephoto lens and I still needed to crop it quite heavily to get a good shot, but it'll do. As far as I was concerned I had proverbially struck gold :-)

American goldfinch