Bullfinch, Siskin, Redpoll, Gsw, Robin, Goldfinch, Great tit

A few bird images taken yesterday at Lochwinnoch RSPB nature reserve.

1)Bullfinch f8.0, 1/1250sec, ISO 400


2)Redpoll f8.0, 1/1000sec, ISO 320


3)Great spotted woodpecker. f7.1, 1/800, ISO 800


4)Robin. f5.6, 1/1250, ISO 500


5)Siskin. f8.0, 1/1000, ISO 320


6)Goldfinch. f9.0, 1250, ISO 500


7)Great tit. f8.0, 1/800, ISO 500


8)Bullfinch. f8.0, 1/1000, ISO 400


9)Redpoll punk (female I think). f8.0, 1/1000, ISO 320


10)Mrs Bullfinch. f8.0, 1/1250, ISO 400


11)Siskin. f8.0, 1/1000sec, ISO 320


12)Robin. f5.6, 1/800, ISO 800


13)Redpoll. f8.0, 1/1000, ISO 320


14)Goldfinch. f9.0, 1/800, ISO 320


15)Chaffinch. f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 400


16)Goldfinch. f8.0, 1/1000, ISO 400

Some crackers there Grant, 2 6 8 9 14 15 are me faves

Some fantastic shots here! Which lens were you using?

Thanks Azz, safneo

I used my Canon 50d and Canon 400mm f5.6 L lens for all these shots

Another fabulous set.
I think number 14 is my favourite - that composition really appeals to me.

Excellent, super crisp and squeaky clean as always, you always manage to get the "glint in the eye" shot!
I particularly like pose in #12 and the colours in #16

As always, simply glorious, and I am very very jealous of the bullfinches! I see them all the time, but never in a suitable place to shoot. It's very miserable having no good feeding stations here and having my own station utterly ransacked by bloody sparrows!

xx

Thanks again everyone

Thanks Laura.

I was really suprised to see the Bullfinches near the hide and was lucky to capture a few decent shots of them as they have not returned

I think the birds have gone on strike now as there is only the odd bird from the usual species that makes an appearance near the hide. I was at the reserve from early morning till about 7pm one day and did not capture anything worth keeping. Maybe it's just the season?

There have been several sightings of Osprey fishing on the reserve and Kingfishers too, as well as some other rarities. Would be amazing to get some images of those birds, but very doubtful I would.

I really want to get out to the Isle of May to photograph the Puffins, Razorbills, Shags, Terns etc and I'm hoping I'll go there sometime in the first two weeks of June.

Since you only have Sparrows visiting your feeders why not try something different and try capture them in flight? you could get some amazing images if you manage to capture them with wings fully spread on the hover, sparrow or not

Here is a quicky example I captured the other day. f5.6, 1/1250 sec, ISO 640, spot metering... I would have prefered a smaller aperture but I need the 1/1250 for hand held hover shots and I don't like to increase ISO beyond 800 if I can help it. I also used auto focus (AI servo) middle point. I also got a few collared doves (btw don't you think they sound like kazoos?) in flight which can look amazing if you can catch them good backlit or side lit against a dark background. Have fun if you give it a go

Yes, the collared doves do sound like Kazoos! Thanks for the tech info there - would very much like to give it a go - but I'm not sure the Bigma's up to it - it struggles to get those sort of shutter speeds with it's horrible fstop! Added to which, the birds here don't do the hovering near feeders thing I've seen birds do elsewhere - it's infuriating! Still, at the moment, I'm happy enough practising on Sparrows. It's just nice to be able to shoot stuff again.

Very much want to get out to the Skelligs or the Saltees for auk photography, but sadly I'm not physically up to it yet

xx

They don't need to hover Laura, as long as they fly to your feeders then you can still catch them in flight approaching the feeders, like in my example. You just have to anticipate the take off from where ever they are to the feeder. What I do is use both my eyes. (it sounds impossible, but works) if you are far enough back that you can see where the birds are coming from and where they are going to land then that is half the battle. It will be much easier for you since you will be using a tripod. If you can see them take off the you can get the shots in just before they land on the feeder, that is the easy part, the only difficult part is focus, you will have to decide whether to pre-focus manually or use continuous autofocus.

What do you mean horrible fstop, is you lens soft at it's widest? I've seen a few of your images and you seem to be getting faster shutter speeds combined with small apertures and low ISO that would be ideal for these types of captures. You have a greaqt lens and camera not to mention good light in Ireland

Hope you get back to your normal self soon