Both Stefano and I have found birdwatching to be a very relaxing activity. You have to be incredibly patient, though. Sometimes you get some spectacular photos as soon as you reach the birdwatching hut…sometimes, perhaps most of the time, you end up just sitting and looking outside, and you may not spot anything worth photographing. But in the end, for me the important thing is that we’re spending time together, out and about, in a lovely natural setting, doing something that we both enjoy, something that we find incredibly relaxing. The photos we take are not as important to me, although of course I’m thrilled when we end up with some great shots. This didn’t happen yesterday, as you can see… 🙂

Yesterday we went to our favorite birdwatching place, the Parco della Piana, just outside Florence. Reason: Stefano had found out that the resident kingfisher (see my Sept 24 2012 post for a nice photo taken by yours truly) was being very cooperative with the regular photographers/paparazzi who were posting stunning closeups of this gorgeous creature. Well, we wanted to try our luck, too, so off we went, armed with binoculars, cameras, tripods and heaps of enthusiasm…

We chose the best hut…and we sat…and sat…and walked around…and sat some more…and stretched…and yawned…and finally, thanks to my fabulous new set of binoculars, we spotted a tiny blue dot with a red tummy on the other side of the lake…

But I didn’t care that it was so far in the distance. I took several photos anyway. So did Stefano, but he thought his were terrible (well, hello, they’re much better than mine…Men…!). Here are a couple of mine. I know, yes, they’re terrible…and yes, they are crops…

But I even got the little guy in flight, a first for me…It’s a totally out of focus flurry business, I know, but hey, you try shooting a speck of blue flying at one million kilometers per hour! 😉

We also saw a pair of greenshanks. They’re very cute, too…And so much easier to photograph!