More Water voles

I have been visiting the Water voles daily for some time now. This is taken with the Lunix GH4 camera and a 14-42mm lens at 14mm. It is totally silent when the shutter is fired so does not alarm the subject at such a close distance, but on the first day the vole would not approach. On the second day he accepted the camera and in fact started to paw at the front lens element leaving it wet and dirty. The camera is fired from my mobile phone and you  can change many of the camera settings and review the images you have taken from the phone. Very useful as the camera is just above the water level and hard to reach from the bank. When a boat comes past the vole does not move, but today there were no boats about. Maybe over the weekend I will get a boat in the background.

Water vole

Water vole, Arvicola amphibius, single mammal by water, Warwickshire, December 2015. Canon EOS 1dx. 800mm lens and flash.1/200th at f9. 800 iso. Flash 1 2/3 thirds underexposed.

Such a common mammal when I was a child. They would be seen on every walk in the countryside and were very close to my home. Now I have to go twenty miles to the nearest colony in Warwickshire or to another site in Worcestershire. The site I have chosen to photograph them is a thriving colony and I have been many times already, but only taken pictures twice. At this time of year there is no light reaching the bank so I am using flash or waiting for cloudy bright conditions. In the spring I would expect the sun light to reach one stretch of the bank in the morning and evenings, but that is a while away yet. Apples are the main attraction and they seem to pick up the smell of them quickly when I put a cut apple down.

Great-spotted woodpecker

Taken with the Panasonic Lumix GH4 in 4K video mode and a grab from one frame. 1/4000th second f4.8, 100-400 lens. The bird was coming from an upright post to the peanut feeder, a flight of about 5 feet and I prefocused in the gap. I leave the camera running on a loop and only have to press the shutter button when I think the bird has flown close to where I have focused. This stops the loop and saves the file.