Classification: Art House Location: Sossusvlei, Namibia

Another Art House image (only because of the border). This is a Capped Wheatear taking off!

Here's the situation, I'm in a jeep with my guide and we are driving through 30 degree temperatures towards the centre of Sossusvlei. He's more of a twitcher than me and he spots this bird sitting on a branch. He doesn't have his book of birds to hand and enlists my support to get a picture.

A little tip! If you ever want to catch a bird taking of, wait for it to have a poo! Yes, lighten the load, makes for an easy take off or getaway. It something worth remembering for other animals as well. Especially ones that are flight animals (as in running away from danger, not taking off). Horses will do that as well, they'll reduce their weight as much as they can before running away!!

I like this picture for a few reasons. In no particular order, the colours are pleasing. The bird is flying out of the picture the wrong way, which means its breaking the rules!! However, the branch is coming in from the corner leading the eye in. The bird isn't quite frozen, some blurring exists giving motion to the image, and the background is nicely soft!