There are a lot of brown and beige birds that exist in the world. They not only camouflage with their surroundings, but they often also look similar to other birds, as a result. If ever I see one that I think looks slightly different or I'm not really sure, I'll snap a photo anyway, just in case, especially when they're at a bit of a distance. That's what I love about having a good zoom lens is being able to see close up what I can't see or really determine with my eyes alone. This is how I discovered I had photographed a rock pipit. When we were in Penzance recently, we had gone to St. Michael's Mount, and as we got off the water taxi, I saw this little bird hopping around back and forth across the rocks along the moor.
This is exactly what rock pipits do and where they can be found is on the UK's rocky shores. It was hard to get a good photo of it, not only because it wouldn't stay still for long (so many birds are unsympathetic to your photography plans), but it was also sunny, and I found the light was bouncing off it enough that the photos were a bit fuzzy, despite the fact that I was maybe only 10 or 12 metres away from it. Maybe one day I'll see one again and be able to get a clearer shot, but as I mentioned in a recent post, I'm always happy to get any photo of a new bird for me, if I can't get the best photo. These were good enough for ID purposes and allowed me to learn about a new bird. What I also like is that this is a bird that is unique to the region. I'm not going to see this bird in London because it's not the type of terrain a rock pipit would live in. So it makes me excited to get to see something that I wouldn't otherwise see if I stayed closer to home.
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