A month back I saw a cloud of small birds flying over my back garden. They were light brown and that’s all I knew. You can’t take bird pictures with a mobile phone, even though I tried. I had a cup of coffee and remembered. I’d bought a pretty decent camera about ten years ago so I could take holiday shots. Now I am retired.

These birds needed a zoom camera a bit stronger than a mobile phone. The camera I’d bought was in a black padded camera bag somewhere. It would be dusty and it might have inadvertently been carted off to the charity shop, or worse, the tip. I started searching.

It wasn’t in the junk room and it wasn’t in any of the drawers by my desk. My husband hadn’t a clue what it even looked like and he swore he hadn’t disposed of it.

As I got into my pyjamas that night, I had a vision. Amongst a pile of discarded shoes and several pairs of winter boots I imagined the black padded camera bag. I ran across the room and opened the wardrobe door; I got down on my hands and knees and scrabbled around in the dark. I could feel dried mud under my fingernails as I disturbed last year’s winter boots.

And then, something soft. My heart rate went up. The instruction manual had a hundred pages but I persevered after rushing out and taking 30 rubbish pictures.

On this day I am looking in amazement at a photograph of a bright blue kingfisher sitting on a rock at the end of the Water of Leith.

A birdwatching group has published my picture and several of the members have posted ‘like’ and some of them have said encouraging things like ‘great shot!’ and ‘you were lucky to see a kingfisher!’.

I know I was. I have an exciting new hobby and this day is a milestone.

Shirley Muir