A Week of Old Photographs and Suspicious Jays

This week at Nordic Forest Echoes has been a mixture of looking back through older photographs and trying, unsuccessfully, to create something new.

Ten photographs have been added to the archive during the week.

None of them are newly taken. They come from outings in 2024 and 2025 and include birds, a frog, mushrooms, moss, acorns and other small details from the forest floor.

Some of them have been sitting on my hard drives for quite a while, so it has been good to finally give them a proper place in the archive.

One of my favourites is The Little King, a photograph of a goldcrest. As far as I remember, it was the first one I had ever seen. Until that encounter, I don't think I even knew the species existed.

Another is Autumn Companions, where a tiny insect is sitting on top of a mushroom. I briefly considered removing it during editing, but decided against it.

It was there. It can stay.

Trying Something New

I did actually spend a couple of hours outside with the camera this week.

For some time now, I've noticed quite a few Eurasian Jays gathering around a small grove of mature chestnut trees. Apparently, they have found something there worth returning for, so I thought I would try to photograph them.

The idea was simple enough.

Find a quiet spot, keep a low profile and wait.

Unfortunately, the area turned out to be a little too busy.

The jays don't seem particularly bothered by passing cars, but people moving through the area are another matter entirely. They are extremely suspicious of anything walking around nearby.

It is also possible that some of their suspicion was directed towards the strange man sitting partly hidden in the vegetation with a camera and a long lens.

A long lens which, it should be noted, is a wonderfully discreet shade of bright light grey.

So much for keeping a low profile.

I stayed there for a couple of hours, waiting and watching.

The jays stayed suspicious.

And I came home without a single photograph of one.

That is fairly normal for nature photography.

You can choose the place, bring the right equipment and spend plenty of time waiting, but the wildlife still gets the final vote.

There will be another attempt.

Preferably on a quieter day.

Slowly Building the Archive

So this week's visible progress has mostly come from older material rather than new fieldwork.

Ten photographs have found their way into the archive, while the attempted jay photography produced nothing except a couple of hours outdoors and a reminder that camouflage works considerably better when your largest piece of equipment isn't light grey.

Not every outing produces photographs.

Sometimes you simply learn where to sit next time.

Per