Wagtails wag wings

I was concentrating so hard on these that I have ended up with a bad eyestrain type headache tonight, but it was well worth it, nearly 20 stonking shots of the Pied Wagtail in flight and 6 or 7 of each of the male and female Yellow Wagtails............... oh and hundreds of dud shots too!

More Wagtails

The site I have for Pied and Yellow Wagtails has been very productive this year, its be an intensive job keeping the pools filled up and making sure the mealworm feeders are kept topped up, its not just the wagtails that visit though, the Lapwing bathing shots were taken at the same site and also the Corn Buntings and Linnets. The muddy edges of the pools have just started to attract the local Swallows and House Martins too, so hopefully they will be one of the next subjects on here.
For lots more of my most recent images see http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/

Lapwings

Lapwings galore this week, the reasonably confiding ones that come to bathe and drink at a pool on the Yellow Wagtail site have been well photographed now, but I also got some others in the Yorkshire Dales this week too.

Nest building

Another visit to the Yellow Wagtails, they are well underway with nest building, the female being incredibly confiding, I was able to shoot from ground level and follow her around as she gathered material, at one point she was just inches from me! I am also getting several Corn buntings coming to the pool on site as well, but mainly they were feeding on the margin around the growing crop.

Flava of the month!

I have been having a very busy spell of late, so it was really good to get out and shoot some images without the pressure of deadlines etc today, it didn't start too well but later this afternoon I got my first Yellow Wagtails of the year.

The model Robin

I have been shooting garden birds quite a bit over the past few weeks, (apart from going to see the Vulcan at RAF Cottesmore, see my aviation blog for pix). I have never tired of photographing Robins, and no matter how many images I get of them, there are never any two alike, apart from usually being quite tame this bird has so much charm, character and charisma its hard not to point the camera at them and enjoy taking photos as they bob and pose like a model.

The lowest of the low

More from the hole in the lawn, I think the way that you shoot a subject reflects how you feel about it, puting yourself on the same level is like showing them as your equals in this world; I always strive to shoot things a little differently than most others would, (its getting more difficult these days though) the last thing I want is to end up as a sad old git shooting the same old tired production line images from the same old hides day in, day out!
What appeals to me mostly about low POV images is that there is, if the hide and background are suitably situated, nothing that detracts your eye from the subject, the more colourful the bird, the bolder it looks! but even "little brown jobs" like the Dunnock and House Sparrow leap from the image and invite you to view them in all their fine detail.