Kestrel, Bittern, Blue Tit, Marsh Harrier, Blackcap. 29.3.12.

Shots from today. Kestrel at its nest box, Female Harrier, a distant shot of a Bittern. The nesting Blue Tit and the fisrt shot of this years Blackcap.

Marsh Harrier male. 28.3.12.

Distant shots, taken in the early morning sunlight.

Adder 24.3.12.

Adders at a local forest today. Taken using canon 60mm macro lens. I quickly learned that this lens has a shallow depth of field meaning small apertures are a must in order to get the snake in focus across the frame. This means lower shutter speeds and tripod required. Problem was I didn't take a tripod head suitable for mounting either the lens or camera body. My tripod is set up for the 500mm lens which has a gimbal plate fitted. I did my best using the camera hand held. The lens seems a cracking lens despite me not been able to acheive quite the results I would have liked today. I couldn't quite get a small enough aperture hand held whilst keeping the shutter speed up and avoiding camera shake with no image stabalization facility on the lens. Still macro is pretty new to me, next time the camera will be on a suitable head and tripod mounted. Hopefully results will be better then. I did by the way try using the inbuilt flash which turned out to be way too harsh. I also pushed up the ISO which compromised the image quality.

Treecreeper shot makes Flickr Explore and is a Springwatch favorite.

One of my Treecreeper photos from yesterday was today selected as a springwatch favorite. It appears on the BBC nature website on the the flickr link. It has also made has made Flickr Explore, The ultimate accolade on flickr is to have a photo in the top 500 in the world at a given time. Its my second explored photo on flickr.

Treecreeper obsession session! 22.3.12.

More Treecreepers today. I can't get enough of these fantastic little birds. A real challenge to photograph though.

A bit of Kestrel luck. 20.3.12. on Far Ings road.

Taken on a wire at the side of  Far Ings road. This is the female of a pair of Kestrels which has taken a liking to a nest box on the tile yard grassland. Watch this space.

Chiffchaff at Far Ings this morning.

Blue Tit checks out a box I put up recently.

Another Treecreeper 11.3.12

Treecreeper in a local Wood.

Far Ings 9.3.11.

All taken today, Treecreeper, Chaffinch and Blue Tit.

Greylag and Graet Tit at Far ings.

A couple of oddments from todays Far Ings outing.

White Fronted Goose at Far Ings Nature Reserve.

Many thanks to Andy Sharp and Graham Catley for tip off about these Geese.

In the Local Wood and Far Ings Nature Reserve.

A day of nice sunshine today saw me visiting the local wood to check out the Resident Tawny Owl. Today the owl allowed me to approach close enough for pictures while keeping a close eye on me from one of it's five roosts I've seen it using. I then retreated leaving the Owl to roost in peace. Then on into the wood following the sound of Treecreepers. Three birds at one pont were feeding and chasing around me as I sat on the ground in the wood. Onto Far ings and a pair of Blue Tits was seen checking out the nest box at the Monolith. I then walked along the humber bank to spend the last hour or so at Ness Hide,  A Marsh Harrier was flying low over the reeds, dropping into the reed bed on a few occasions while trying to avoid being mobbed by the crows. The Harrier didn't come close to the hide despite being around for over an hour. All in all a great day out today, even though I only managed average photo's.