Why its always worth putting in a little extra.

This weekend was the Ayr Flower Show, meaning the show team were away and the reserve was a little short staffed. I love getting down to the centre, and Saturday was Rita's birthday so there was a fair chance of cake, definitely a good day to put in some extra hours. So in the morning I threw my laptop, camera and bins into the car and battled the traffic over to get to the reserve... where it was deathly quiet, bird- and visitor-wise. 

The weather was great, the feeders were full, but it was just not happening. A full set of staff and no one to talk to... Feeling the need to get outside, I grabbed an excuse in the form of the litter picking gear and headed out on the trails (obviously with camera to hand), praying for a little magic.

Well I was almost to the end of the Aird Meadow trail before it struck. A little moving russet in the corner of my eye. I backtracked, and was confronted by a young fox, who was so shocked to see me that it started to move towards me despite itself, before slipping back into to scrub.

I carried on around the corner to be confronted with a feeding frenzy of tits and finches, distracted by the swarming insects. Then as I got to the seat at the end of the trail, the single monotone note of a male bullfinch, which slowly flitted out of the bushes before heading off toward Castle Semple. I even came back with rubbish in my bag to justify my wander in the sun.  Not so dead a day after all.

Sometimes my manual focus isn't that bad!

The best of a year's worth of LTT hunting.