Obviously, this is something of a false dichotomy. But yesterday I went out to my local RSPB reserve. On the drive in I spotted two short-eared owls hawking one of the fields. One of the birds was so pale as to make me think it was a barn owl to begin with.

The two owls flew very close, coming to within a few feet of the gate.

I stayed to photograph them for a while, but in the end the birder in me won out, and I dragged myself away to go look for the pair of serin that have been around this week.

I missed them by ten minutes and then stood in the freezing cold for an hour and a half waiting for them to return. Such is life, and such are the choices facing all those who love wildlife, particularly those who enjoy both looking at it and trying to capture it in their art.