Great-spotted woodpecker

The Great-spotted woodpeckers are not that regular at the feeding station at the moment, but when they do show they are performing well. They take a short flight (one metre) between a post and a feeder, which means one wing beat I think. Canon EOS 1dx with the Canon 400mm f5.6 on manual pre-focus.  Shutter speed of 1/3200th, iso 3200 and whatever aperture the light allows, but usually almost fully open. I want to have a go at this using flash, which will mean a false background.

Sparrowhawk

I have done more digital manipulation on this Sparrowhawk than I normally can find time for. It has just taken off from an ugly, metal perch at a feeding station. I have cloned out the perch, which was a bit fiddly around the feet. I normally do not have the patience for such time consuming work and claim to have done about 7 pictures with this degree of manipulation since I started on digital photography.

#flight #Sparrowhawk

Little grebe

Little grebes nest on the estate where I photograph, but in previous years the lake they have used has been unsuitable for photography. The reedbed is too thick and the angle of the light wrong. This year a pair nested on a pool which is far more open. Little grebes are surprisingly nervous bird away from city parks and urban settings, where they can be very tame. A wild little grebe will be very wary of a hide even when put up at a distance. Because of the depth of the water I could only put my hide up in one place and that required an 800mm lens plus a 1.4 extender to reach the site. Even at this distance you could see they did not like the hide at first.

I was wearing chest waders and sitting in the water up to my waist with the camera just above the surface and a right angled finder fitted. Not a very comfortable position, but I never did more than two hours at a time. I had hoped to be in the hide when they hatched, but having no idea when they laid this was unlikely. I visited twice a day, but missed the event when one afternoon I had to be elsewhere. Pity as they are so tiny and gorgeous when first hatched and clambering over the parents back on the nest. They are so small it is hard to believe they are birds at all, but they grow very rapidly in the first few days. Once left they never returned to the nest, which I hoped they would.