Last winter we were ringing gulls at Pitsea landfill using cannon nets, organised by North Thames Gull Group.
The leader of the session let me have my camera at the front of the cannons, giving me an opportunity to sharpen my lenses on the moment when the cannons had been fired but the net is still in the air over the camera, closing down on the birds. Whoever has been on the session knows that there are frustrating times before firing the cannons as the guy on the button has to make sure that there are no birds in the air in the range of the cannons. The right moment does not come too often when you have up to a thousand gulls to watch out for. The operator was about to fire when a fox carelessly, and from our point of view quite bravely, walked in the front of the cannons chasing up all the gulls into the air and luckily for me had found something to eat right at the front of the camera. The next minute I learned that one man actually can swear louder than a thousand gulls can caw. After the fox ate whatever it'd found we had to wait an extra hour before firing. I was not quick enough to take the picture I was originally aiming for but I got this one instead.
The picture did well in the BTO's 'Bird photographer of the year' competition in 2017.
