Goldfinches Fighting Over Food In The Snow

This was one of those rare occasions when I was in the right place at the right time with my camera and 100-400mm lens, poised and ready to snap away. I had been watching Greenfinches, lots of them, all battling it out to get to a seed feeder, but two or three Goldfinches attracted my attention and I turned my lens towards them. At first I got a couple of photographs of one of them perched on a branch in some snow, and then, unlike the Greenfinches, the goldfinches tend to be a bit more polite and seem to take it in turns to feed. However, in the frozen temperatures when the ground is too hard for the birds to find food all hell breaks loose and its bird eat bird, so to speak. Even though there was a spare perch on the other side of this small Niger seed feeder the Goldfinch on the left obviously wanted it all to himself because he seemed determined to get rid of the one on the right, of course it could have been a rival male. Anyway, I captured this image as it happened and a couple of others that were no good, heads hidden behind wings or blurred with motion as they fought, it was a relatively dull day so I couldn't get very fast shutter speeds (as you can tell from the slight blur of the wings) and was already using the largest aperture available.

Hopefully the sun will show its face more often soon and I can continue with some more bird photography.

Photographing Birds In Snow

The snow arrived here in the UK yesterday and since this means our birds have to work even harder to find food it was a great opportunity for me to photograph some in my garden. I put some extra feed out and waited, and soon enough down they came, and with the snow and the sunlight it made for very interesting bird photography. Here are some of my favourite shots including a Dunnock, male Chaffinch and Starling.

I was finding that each shot needed to be overexposed by about 1 or 2 stops simply because the snow is so bright and reflects so much light that the camera is fooled into thinking there is more light than there actually is. Shooting using the camera's meter reading underexposes a snow scene and makes for very grey murky images, and there is also the white balance to consider too. Automatic white balance is usually pretty good but on the day I was shooting the sky was clear and blue which results in the snow appearing very blue, therefore I tried the cloudy setting which was better but found that I needed to set a custom white balance using the white of the snow as a reference.

Pigeon In Flight & Magpie

I have not had much experience photographing birds in flight so this is something I thought I would have a go at when the next opportunity arose. I was visiting the WWT centre at Arundel when I noticed loads of pigeons swooping back and forth from the roof of the visitors centre as seed was thrown for the various wildfowl in the ponds/lakes. So I turned my camera on the pigeons and waited for them to make another pass, which the soon did, and I tried this several times with a mixture of results. Two of the best shots from this attempt at 'birds in flight' photography are shown here, and although the exposure is a bit dodgy on the wing of the bird in the first image, I am still satisfied that this is a good starting point to build upon.

Magpies are such beautiful birds and although they are not the best loved of all British birds I think they make great subjects for bird photography, they are charismatic and large enough that you have more time to capture them as they fly by or hop along the ground. This shot was taken when the sun was fairly low in the sky which makes for a warm and bright image with the magpie framed by the greens and yellows of the leaves on the tree.

Various Bird Photographs

Over the last few weeks I have photographed a fair few birds near my home and here are a selection of the best. At the top we have one of Britain's smallest birds, a Wren, then a colourful Greenfinch, the hugely popular Robin and at the bottom is a male Chaffinch.

Chiffchaff...More Bird Photography!

I was delighted to find that I have attracted another new bird to my garden that I have never seen before, this time a Chiffchaff. Before I got a good view of this well camouflaged little bird I had mistaken it for a Greenfinch, however, once I got a good view of it I soon realised that it was not only too small but also had a distinctive green flash through each eye. I looked on the RSPB website and in a reference book of British birds and found it to be a Chiffchaff. I didn't get many shots but am pleased that I have been able to photograph a different garden bird and have seen him once since so hopefully there will be more and more now they know there's food and water available.

Nuthatch On A Peanut Feeder

I went back to the WWT Arundel a couple of weeks back and came away with some decent shots. Having wandered around for a while I finally settled in a small hide that has dozens of bird feeders that attract loads of small varieties of birds and on the day I spotted Blue Tits, Great Tits, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Robins, Sparrows, Coal Tits and Marsh Tits to name but a few. Pictured here is the Nuthatch, which until I took these photographs, I had never set eys on before so it was an exciting moment when he darted in and settled on the peanut feeder for a few moments.

RSPB Reserve - Pulborough Brooks

A few weeks ago I took a day trip over to an RSPB reserve, Pulborough Brooks in West Sussex, armed with my camera and praying for a bit of sunshine which luckily I got on and off throughout the day. Previously I have only visited a couple of RSPB sites and not only loved them for their natural beauty and the chance to be out in the country, but also because of the wide variety of birds and other animals that you can see with a bit of patience. So not knowing exactly what to expect I arrived at Pulborough Brooks and set off into this rather large and very beautiful reserve, stopping almost every few steps to watch birds, butterflies and rabbits, and also to try and snap a few of them too. Unfortunately I am somewhat restricted by my 100-400mm telephoto lens as it mean that I have to get closer to the subject than is often possible, particularly from the hides that are, in this instance, set back from the wildlife. This is to be expected to an extent because the RSPB aims to preserve and protect our natural world and I respect that. So despite my technological restrictions I made the best of the day and had the opportunity to photograph some birds I haven't so far, along with deer and rabbits which was a welcome surprise, and also to learn more about being out in the field. I realise that it would have been exciting to be able to zoom in even closer but for one of my first field trips I am pleased to say that I did get a few decent shots and will be continuing with wildlife and bird photography and hopefully developing my skills further.



In these photographs you can see a Song Thrush perched on a branch and chirping, wild rabbits and a grey heron in flight that was some distance away but I took some shots nonetheless. The top image is of the view that greets you as you arrive at the visitors centre at the reserve, for more information about Pulborough Brooks RSPB nature reserve CLICK HERE.

Crow Pulling Branches For Nesting Material

Well we actually had some hot sunny weather here in May and early June which meant that photographing birds is a little easier seeing as though they often move so fast, particularly the small ones. However, with larger birds it can be easier to avoid motion blur, and here I have a shot of a crow perched on a tree near my house. It seemed as though he was searching for nesting material as he was trying to pull small branches off and eventually he got one, as you can see.

for me, another great thing about photographing birds in bright sunlight is that the background can be so vibrant and colourful.

Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Day of Photography

Mallard Males Fighting

It seems like a distant memory at the moment but the fact is we did have some gorgeous hot sunny days in the last month, and so I took the opportunity to visit the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in Arundel. Armed with my digital SLR and long lens I arrived there fairly early and was fortunate enough to have to sun with me all day as I spent around 6 hours photographing more species of wildfowl than I can remember. These are some of the best shots from the day, the results were varied but as you can see I did get several great images also considering it was my first time out in the field so to speak.

Mallard

Mallard Female

At first I set about getting some record shots and probably got a bit carried away photographing every bird in sight, whilst still trying to get good shots, however I really wanted to try and capture some of the birds behaviour and after the initial excitement I knuckled down to business and had to have plenty of patience to wait for the right time to release the shutter. My patience paid off and whilst I did get some great record shots I also got some much more interesting action shots.

White-headed Duck

Wigeon

Lenses For Bird Photography

I have noticed a lot of click-throughs to my blog from the search phrase 'lenses for bird photography' so I thought I might make some suggestions and recommendations based on my experiences as a bird photographer so far.

If you have read this blog before you may know that I only took up bird photography at the end of 2008 and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I started with my Canon EOS300 35mm film camera with the 70-300mm zoom lens and quickly discovered that this lens would not be long enough to get as close up as I would like. I got some results shooting larger birds but not small garden birds, which I found to be an ideal place to start building up experience and knowledge on how best to capture these quick little creatures.

Having yet to switch to digital I decided that if I was going to be serious about photographing birds I would have to invest in some new equipment and so with my limited budget I purchased a Canon 450D 12.1 mega pixel digital SLR with 18-55mm lens and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. This lens has so far served me very well as I am able to get fairly close to my subjects, the robins, blue tits and finches that visit my garden to feed. There are of course limitations and to get extremely close you could try adding an extender, but with this lens you lose auto-focus and this is an essential as you don't have enough time to manually focus and will miss shots. If your budget will allow I would suggest the Canon EF 500mm f/4.0L USM IS that will retain auto-focus with the Canon EF 1.4x II extender increasing your reach to 700mm, or the Canon EF 600mm f/4.0L USM IS that will give 840mm with the 1.4x extender. Of course we are talking about several thousands of pounds above the £1100 I paid for my 100-400mm for either of these but they are regarded as two of the best lenses for wildlife photography.

It is important to know your subject before you buy any new cameras or lenses, for example, with my 100-400mm I can only get moderately close to garden birds because they are particularly small. However, for larger birds and wildfowl I have found the lens to be perfectly adequate and it is lighter and smaller than the two I mentioned before.

For my full article please go to Which Lens For Bird Photography.

Brave Blue Tit Close To The Window

Talk about right place at the right time! I was at home scrolling through some images on my cameras screen when all of a sudden a blue tit landed on a branch close to the window, so being careful not to move to quickly I raised the camera up and managed to get about three shots. I am delighted to say that this is one of them and is probably the very best image I have of a blue tit so far. Any other time I would have missed it but I just happened to have my camera in my hands at the time.

Song Thrush

I was looking through and reviewing some of my recent attempts at bird photography and came across this image of a Song Thrush, a bird that is not a very frequent visitor to my garden. However, on this occasion I followed his progress around the flower beds as he searched for snails, which when found would be smashed open against the brickwork and devoured, it was fascinating to watch. Anyway, this image reminded me of another couple of shots I got of the Song Thrush during the snow we had in February. I had a look through them, since I hadn't got round to viewing them properly before, and found that I had a got a few decent images.

Robin Perched On A Branch

This has to be one of my very best bird photographs to date, a Robin perched on a tree branch just before he swooped down to the ground to feed on some seed I'd put out to attract various small birds. This shot was actually taken through a window so I made sure that I cleaned it meticulously first and that there wasn't anything causing major reflections. As with all the bird photographs I've taken I've found that you have to be patient, try not to make any sudden movements and once you spot your subject be quick as it's easy to miss a shot, here for example I got just two frames fired and he was gone.

Shot at 400mm, f5.6, 1/200s at ISO 400.

Snowy Days Wildlife Photography

If you live in the UK you will know that recently we have had our fair share of snow and whilst this has caused some problems it's been great for bird and wildlife photography. I often see Robin's around and this one came pretty close as I had scattered seed on the wall to try and attract them, and with the ground being covered in snow and frozen he took the bait. I recently read that most of our small birds can only last a matter of days when it's been snowing because they can't get at the worms and insects they need to survive, so I made an extra effort to put bird feed out, and on the first day of the snow fall I captured hundreds of images of around a dozen species.

Below is one of the many Grey Squirrels that inhabit these parts, I was able to capture him searching around his log for food before he lept on to he fence and disappeared.

Goldfinch Pays A Visit

I was very excited to see a new visitor to my garden last week in the form of a beautiful Goldfinch, who didn't stick around for long but just long enough for me to grab my camera and take his picture. This is a very pretty bird with bright orange on its head and vivid golden yellow on its wings, I am assuming that it's natural food source is becoming more scarce as winter draws in and so the Goldfinches will be more frequent visitors to the bird feeders.

I have really gotten in to bird photography recently, it's something I had never done previously so when I bought my new digital SLR I bought a decent zoom lens too so that I could get as close as possible to these tiny garden birds.

Dabbled Sunlit Collared Dove

More bird photography, I've really been getting into it and am enjoying it so that's a bonus, and when I spotted this Collared Dove perched in the dappled sunlight that was being filtered down through the leaves I knew that it would make a decent image. Armed with a long lens I framed up and shot several frames just as he turned his head to one side, I guess I was lucky that the sun happened to be highlighting his head.

Bright Sunny Day Ideal For Bird Photography

This is one of the first digital bird photographs I have produced, using a long lens, a sturdy tripod and a lot of patience I was fortunate that the sun was shining and the birds were hungry and I was able to photograph this beautiful female Chaffinch as she ate.

Blue Tit Bird Photography

One of my favourtire, and one of the smallest birds that I have photogrpahed, is the Blue Tit, and let me start by saying that this is not easy. Blue Tits ar even faster the the other birds I have photographed so far and the do not sit still for long so when this little fella settled on the bird feeder I grabbed the chance to snap him and managed to capture about five frames before he flew off, and here are the results.

Male Chaffinch In Flight At Feeding Station

This is one of the few shots I have taken so far of a very small bird in flight, they are so fast that it is very difficult to capture them and as you can see even in this image the male Chaffinches wings are blurred, although I do like the effect it creates. Once he had landed I only had time to take one other shot before he flew off and luckily I was fast enough to get him stationary on the feeder looking very bright red even on this slightly overcast day.

Wood Pigeon & Collared Dove Photographs

Another frequent set of visitors to my garden in Brighton are wood pigeons and collared doves, and let me start by saying that they are a whole lot easier to photograph than the smaller birds that are so quick you can easily miss a shot. Sometimes these birds tolerate each other and feed on the ground, usually under the two bird feeders I have hanging from trees in the garden, and when they aren't fighting the other away they just get on with feeding. On this occasion they were ignoring one another and as you can see they weren't in the slightest bit bothered by the other and got very close. I snapped these two crossing each others path as they picked up dropped pieces of sunflower seeds from the small birds that use the feeder over head, the collared dove in the front is in focus with the larger wood pigeon just behind him.

As the sun continued to go down the wood pigeon kept coming back and forth from the garden looking for more food, so waiting very still at the back of the house I took this shot as he turned towards me and with the long shadows and the sunlight bringing out the rich colour of his neck and breast I'm glad I stuck around. This is one of my favourite bird photographs so far, a bit of luck capturing the bird in this stance with the perfect sunlight right across the image, and a lot of perseverance and patience. I took this using a 70-300mm lens set to 300mm, f5.6, handheld and on a 400ISO colour negative film.

Blackbird Catches Me By Surprise

This was one of those 'quick or you'll miss it' moments when suddenly out the corner of my eye I noticed some movement, I turned slowly to see this male blackbird perched very close to me on the top of this branch. Carefully I raised my camera and managed to get just two or three shots before he flew off, here's the best of the bunch.

Shot using aperture priority mode, f2.8, hand held camera with 100-400mm lens.

Determined Magpie

Ever since I put bird feeders out it has attracted a variety of birds, mostly small breeds that can actually perch on them and feed without any problems, however, the magpies and squirrels are very determined despite the fact they cannot get to the seed very easily. Take this very determined magpie for example, I had been photographing small birds such as the chaffinch and greenfinch when I noticed them all quickly fly off. I heard the magpies harsh throaty song just as it landed on the fence close to the feeder furthest from the house, then without hesitation he took off and flew straight for the feeder. Fortunately I had my camera on a tripod standing next to me in the room so I grabbed it and snapped away. As you can see the magpie did it and after not much practice, he would fly towards it, tilt up and then grab the perches on either side whilst still flapping his wings to steady himself and then use his relatively long beak to grab the seeds. This amazed me really as I had seen a pigeon attempt the same with no success at all, in fact it was fairly amusing watching him try, unfortunately I didn't capture this on camera and haven't seen any pigeons try again since. I was lucky that I had left my camera set up as this really was a case of right place right time, rather than the patient sitting and waiting for the birds to appear.

Bird Photography - First Attempt

I have recently taken the decision to explore wildlife photography, and in particular, bird photography. It's an area that I have little experience in but have become keen to progress towards and having just hung up two bird feeders in my garden I soon discovered that I could attract plenty of common garden birds down. As a starting point I thought that this would be a good way to get to grips with the ins and outs of capturing these fascinating, yet very fast and sometimes elusive creatures. So I got myself a relatively fast colour film, 400 ISO, took my camera and 70-300mm zoom lens and had a go!

As you can see the results are mixed, however, not bad for a first attempt. These are simple shots that I took through a window on a moderately bright day, and when I started I figured that it would be more beneficial for me to start off not too worried about the composition and framing, but to allow myself time to test out different exposures and camera settings. I wanted to blur the background and retain focus on the birds themselves so I opted for a large aperture, around f2.8 or f4, and using aperture priority mode I allowed the camera to determine the shutter speed, and although I kept an eye on it this wasn't a problem because it was fairly bright outside.

Top image - Greenfinch feeding.
Bottom image - Chaffinch feeding.