Ever missed a perfect photo opportunity because you left your camera at home?
On Sunday afternoon, my girlfriend, Janey, and I decided it would be nice to take a quick wander around Stockley Park. We've been there on many occasions over the past year or so, usually ending up taking hundreds of photos of ducks and geese. This time though, we decided that the light was not conducive to photography so we left the D80's at home. We did consider taking our compact cameras along just in case, but even these were left at home in the end.
For those who don't know the park, Stockley is a large business park in West London. It used to be a massive rubbish dump before it was converted into a business park and golf course. The park is beautifully landscaped and several small lakes and streams are littered about the site. At the center of the park is a Wetherspoons pub with the beer garden overlooking one of the lakes. This is our usual haunt when out and about as we can photograph the wildlife while supping a pint or two of real ale.
Stockley has a photography policy which prohibits members of the public from photographing the buildings, but allows for photographing the flora and fauna. This suits Janey and I down to the ground, as quite frankly, you can keep the architecture.
Anyhow, this weekend, while enjoying the walk in the surprisingly mild autumn air we really regretted the decision to leave the cameras at home... Big time... As we walked around the outside of one of the smaller lakes I spotted what looked like a Green Woodpecker hammering into the ground. Though apparently common in Southern England, I've never seen a woodpecker before and even though it was probably too far away to get a decent photo of it, it would have been nice to have added it to the collection. Ho hum...
Continuing our walk, we wandered round the larger lake by the pub. The usual suspects were out and about again, Coots, Moorhen, Mallards and even the Cormorant which sits on one of the statues in the lake. The Heron was nowhere to be seen, but that's not unusual, nor were the Canada geese, who had possibly migrated.
Finding ourself in the pub with a pint, we found our usual table in the beer garden and sat there chatting about life, the universe and the web. Coming back from relieving my bladder, Janey gesticulated towards a chap on the other side of the lake waving his arms about and whistling. Eventually he threw something up in the air, and a bloody great bird swooped down and plucked it out of the air before flying up to the roof of the pub. Janey wandered over to the chap while I guarded our beers but when she returned she explained everything. The chap was from a pest control agency. Once a week he brings a pair of Harris Hawks to Stockley Park to scare the pigeons and the gulls away. The chap continued exercising the Hawk for about half an hour after that. Yet another great photography opportunity missed... Bugger...
The plan for this week is to get the D80 ready for the coming weekend. Batttery fully charged, all memory cards checked and formatted, lenses and filters cleaned, etc. If the Hawks are back, I'm damned if I'm missing it again.