Those Lucky Shots

You know the sort of day. When things just go right. When, perhaps unexpectedly, you have your camera with you just when one of the flighty, nervy Neighbourhood Squirrels is posing nicely, as ours was one day last week.

When, camera in hand, you manage to point-and-shoot at just the right moment. These images come from a long-past day in the Farne Islands when the Arctic Terns, frantic to protect their young, wheeled and dive-bombed overhead, giving chance after chance for action-packed shots even to a strictly amateur type like me. We had no idea where their nests and babies were and certainly weren’t going to go looking.

There were those red squirrels in Málaga, who managed to forget me for just long enough for me to whip my camera out …

Or that heron in Córdoba. It wasn’t so much the heron I was afraid of losing, as this collage of evening light.

Sofia, of Photographias fame wants us to showcase those moments for this week’s Lens Artists Challenge: Lucky Shot. Thanks Sofia, for helping us remember those joyful lucky seconds.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

56 thoughts on “Those Lucky Shots”

  2. I adore that bird (gull?) with the spectacular red feet and beak. What was it so upset about? Or just posing in the most possible dramatic way?

    BTW, your first photo, the bird flying – before I looked closely it looked like a Pterodactylus and I thought: Wow, that is incredible lucky!

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    1. I’m not THAT old, Elke! But yes, birdsquite often show us their dinosaur ancestry, don’t they? The terns were upset about US. We were clearly baby-murderers of the worst kind.

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    1. It was a memorable day with those terns. We were advised – nay ordered – to wear hats. Very necessary! They attacked our heads more than once. With those beaks. And Málaga? Yes. red squirrel paradise.

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  6. Sorry but being attacked by Terns is so good 😂 You must have missed the initial “Hey you, where do you think you’re going” call.
    Those Red Squirrel ears……..

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  8. You certainly know how to make the most of these ‘lucky’ encounters! I love your action-packed Arctic Tern shots, especially the one coming straight at the camera with open mouth, while the colours and light in that final heron shot are beautiful!

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  13. Pingback: Those Lucky Shots – QuietMomentsWithGod

  16. Beautiful colours in the water and dangerous attack by the terns! I know how dangerous they can be- We were heavily attacked in Iceland. Great shots you captured!

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  22. Margaret, those were special moments. The light, the birds, and everything all came together right before your eyes. Glad you captured those moments. Beautiful photos!

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  24. I think I’m with everyone who loves the heron and the gorgeous reflections around it. What a shot! The squirrels are cute no matter what they do. I think I read that they were very helpful to get things back to normal after Mt. St. Helen erupted. Their tunnels helped the new trees grow where the squirrels were brought in. Where they weren’t, the area remained unchanged.

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    1. Well done those squirrels! How interesting. I’m all in favour of red squirrels. Sadly they’re an endangered species here, and not present at all where I live. Grey squirrels, introduced from America during the Victorian era have driven them out. So lot of people call grey squirrels ‘tree rats’. Sorry!

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