I really, really wanted a Pink Robin but the day was terrible. Gloomy, cold, awful light, and raining, raining, raining. I stuck at the task for hours, wet through and battling to keep my cameras sort-of dry. Alas, no Pink Robin. Hour after hour I stood and waited, tried another spot, waited again.
Finally, I had to admit defeat. It was half-past one in the afternoon, I’d been up since before dawn, and I had nothing to show for it. Disconsolently I wandered back to the car, put my gear away, put the billy on, made a mug of tea. I sat there in the driver’s seat (the only dry place!) drinking hot tea and there - right there! - was a Pink Robin, sitting on my mirror!
What could I do? All my birding kit was in the boot - the best cameras, the bird lenses, the flash rig, everything. There was no chance of the bird sitting there on the mirror while I opened the door and opened the boot and got all the gear out. All I could reach, and that by twisting double to get into the back seat, was the 5D II (wonderful old camera in many ways but a very bad choice for bird photography) and a very short 24-105/4 lens - pretty much the last thing anyone would choose for the job.
But the robin sat there while I did all that and fumbled for a sensible setting, and then sat there while I took this picture.