Went for a brief butterfly walk in our local woodland, Les King Wood. Saw my first Speckled Wood of the year, lots more European Peacock, Whites (Small and Large), and numerous male Orange Tip. No Brimstone nor Comma on this outing.
Just as I was about to head home, I heard a Bullfinch making its plaintive call. Couldn’t see it, so walked along one of the footpaths to bear round the patch where it seemed to be. Still no sign. And, it sounded like it flew off. So, I did a U-turn and headed back to the gate to leave. As if to taunt me, it seemed to come back, calling closer than ever, so I turned again and slowly walked towards where I imagined it was perched. It flew out, perched on an overhead power cable and looked down disgusted at the togger on the ground below.
Not the most evocative photo. The bird looks fine. But, that cable! So, over to a photo algorithm that claims to be able to replace objects. I selected the cable in the app and prompted it to replace the cable with a branch. I had to edit the claws on the branch to make them look slightly more realistic as the app had generated some weird artefacts that weren’t really claws at all. I’m sure there are other apps that do the same job, but this one will do for now as a demo. It’s called photo.ai, by the way.
There had been a very obliging Linnet and some Long-tailed Tits along the edge of the wood earlier.