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Little Auk (Dovekie) Alkekung, Søkonge

 

Litlle Auk diving in the harbour entrance of small town Gilleleje, Northern Sjælland, in the sun of Monday, November 19th 2001.

 

On my way back I had already decided, maybe a little ahead of things, how it was to be handled. And a nice walk it was. Wind on my back, pushing me forward and the low November sun warming my face.

A couple of middle aged men were drinking beer taking them from underneath the seat of a small, well warn motorbike next to them..

"Hi". One of them said, as I passed. I didn’t know them, but returned their friendliness, and having left the EOS in the car I went on heading for the harbour’s small buildings to find some lunch before continuing.

If this was going to be done, it might as well be done the proper way.

First things first.

Lunch and coffee, then back to work.

The waitress was very kind and offered me one of her special huge mugs for my coffee, but as I knew I was going to carry quite a lot, I really preferred a simple plastic cup for the job. Her friendliness did work on me though and walking back to the car, coffee in hand, to pick up the gear, I had a really good feeling.

Put the cup on the cars top while I was pulling out the tripod and the oldest camera. The legs of the tripod adjusted as usual a hands length out and the centre pole one hands length up. Camera fixed. I like the click that tells me the camera is safe. Turned it vertical, for transportation, and swung the whole thing over the right shoulder as usual, picked up the coffee with my free right hand, and went off for the pier.

On my way out I noticed the little black spot was still present. The Eider male and female, on the other hand, had drawn farther away.

Found a comfortable seat on the concrete stairs just under the man still fishing. A nice spot. Sheltered from the wind and right in the midday sun.

The bird surfaced again and again in its razor sharp reflections.

ed.