Far Project sessions 3-5

A few days off allowed a couple more trips to the woods.  One of the challenges is which lens to use, or more accurately which extender - none, 1.4 or two. The problem is siskin and redpoll are really pretty small, but as you will see a couple of bigger visitors appeared.  Slowly making some progress with props and backgrounds.

One of the sessions was dominated by a large number of siskins, feeding not only on the niger/millet mix, but also down on the ground on the sunflower seeds (another problem - the seeds do sneak into the pictures and with a lack of fallen leaves to scatter around they are hard to hide).  If any of you saw the recent BBC Africa series the outstanding image was a bull elephant towering over herds of antelope - the greenfinch brought this to my mind!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The range of birds is slowly increasing, with a pair of great spotted woodpeckers (I'm pretty sure I've seen their nesthole fairly nearby) getting the courage to stay even when I'm snapping and a dunnock, goldfinch and squirrel or two.

 

 

 

Best of all there was a fleeting visit from at least one hawfinch, but the slightest twitch from the camera and it was off, not to be seen on the next 2 visits.  That said I know from the Forest of Dean how unpredictable they can be with relatively short visits at seemingly random times.  Worth hanging in there for!