Tag Archives: Squirrel

Birds in Sherwood Forest

These are the bird photos from the trip to photograph the oaks in Sherwood Forest. It was a bit dull and the birds were quick (unlike the oaks) so they aren’t quite as sharp as I’d like. I missed a couple of Coal Tits that came down to feed, plus Blackbirds, Chaffinches and Dunnocks that lurked in the undergrowth. There were two pigeons too, but I ignored them as I don’t want to encourage them to steal food from small, cute birds.

It’s a lot better than Rufford from that point of virw, as there are more pigeons there, plus a lot of gulls which can polish off a handful of sunflower hearts like magic.

I filled three feeders in the car park and heard a clattering behind me, as birds started feeding before I’d got out of the way.

I need to work out a better way of doing this. Do I just fill one so I can stay focussed on it all the time, or do I fill six so they don’t chase each other away all the time? Even with six there were probably enough Great Tits to chase everything else off.

They were changing places so fast that once I pressed the button to take a Great Tit and ended up with a picture of a Nuthatch!  OK, my frozen fingers were moving quite slowly, which would have helped.

I presume the cold was one of the reasons they were feeding so eagerly.

 

Birds at Rufford Abbey

If, like me, you’ve ever thought that ducks aren’t the brightest of birds, think again. Instead of dabbling and chasing children with bread these Mallards are standing in the mill race at Rufford Abbey waiting for it to bring food to them.

Spotted the Grey Wagtail and Goldcrest whilst standing here – both off like a shot as soon as I raised the camera!

This Song Thrush, after allowing us time for one shot, decided to hide in an outcrop of twiggy growth.

Here is a selection of shots from the bird table in the woods, it feels a bit like cheating when I should be stalking them through the woods. Even so, I still missed a Coal Tit and a Marsh Tit that dropped in but shot off too quickly for me to focus.

Three Long Tailed Tits also dropped in but for some reason the autofocus couldn’t lock on. I had three shots of blurred round bodies and long tails. Oh, the trials of bird photography!

Finally I managed some more half-decent Nuthatch photos, including one on a tree. However, to put it into perspective, I missed shots of three different Treecreepers in the woods (ending up with several shots of tree trunks).

I also had several Siskin shots – blurred bodies shielded by alder twigs. Lots of work to do!