It was a wet birdless early summer's day & I was cursing my decision to visit the Black Wood of Rannoch. The forest was dark, dour & dreich fully living up to its name. I had already decided to cut my losses so I turned back down the track towards my car. The brooding forest seemed to close in and the ancient gnarled Scots Pines whispered of a time when they were saplings in the once great forest of Caledon. I passed a glade bordered by an old, extensively branching Pine tree whose limbs were festooned with Old man's beard lichens. A Spotted Flycatcher was working the glade in the rain when suddenly a beam of sunlight broke through the clouds to illuminate the far end of the glade. In a split second the scene was transformed into one of intense beauty & I stood transfixed. The moment would have passed unrecorded had the Flycatcher not flitted in front of me to perch on a branch inviting a photograph.
This image comes nowhere near recording the beauty of the scene but it at least demonstrates that the camera doesn't have to be put away when the rain comes on!