Every morning, there are a couple of birds patrolling the pond. I sit and drink my coffee and watch them play. I always forget to take my camera with and when I run back to get it, they are done patrolling. This morning, I took the chance again and made it in time! I saw a baby olive thrush (Turdus olivaceus/luister) being fed what looks like a poor baby gecko. It also took a nice bath!
But sadly, my old camera with its cheap zoom lens could not autofocus quickly enough and I missed a couple of shots, plus some of them are out of focus. But I thought the moment was truly special and I wanted to share it. It is the second time in my life that I have captured a moment like this, and in both cases, my camera did not bring its best side. So hopefully third time lucky.
The baby sits on the rock whilst the mother and father patrols the pond. Every morning, I hear them in my room, zooming past my room with their familiar call.
Unbeknownst to me, the mother was on her way to feed her young!
I just held the shutter button down and I caught the feeding in action! But the ISO was too low, the shutter too slow, and the perfect rare moment was not caught in perfection! Alas, such is life. But see below what I think was a poor gecko:
It sat between the rocks for a little while longer, but it then took a quick bath! Again, the shutter was too slow because the ISO was not high enough. How amazing would it not have been if the camera just worked!
But in any case, what a moment to have witnessed firsthand. It was truly a special and intimate moment I think few people will ever experience. I hope that you enjoyed it.
This again just showcases how important it is to garden, to keep bio-diversity afloat and alive. When we kill all these small critters and bugs, the birds will also go away, on their search for a place where more bugs are. It is imperative that we gardeners protect the bugs so that the birds can have food.
I hope you are doing well! Happy birding.
All of the musings are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and Tamron 300mm zoom lens.
