Stithians Reservoir Bird Portraits

It was wet and windy here in Cornwall today but I went to Stithians Reservoir as planned looking for a recently seen small herd of Red Deer.

Well the deer either saw me coming or had headed off to greener pastures over night so I spent some time working with the mixed bag of small birds at Stithians southern cut-off hide and enjoyed the challenge of capturing portraits of fast and flighty subjects.

Young Blue tit

Young Greenfinch

Chiffchaff

Wren

Male Bullfinch

Female chaffinch

Male Chaffinch

Young Great tit

Stithians Southern Cut-off yesterday

 A visit to Stithians Southern cut-off hide to duck out of the wind and rain proved to be Quite a productive morning with all the usual birds making a good show around the feeding station.

I was working with my new Nikon D500 DX camera body looking to obtain full frame portraits of small birds in the low light levels that were prevailing at the time so it was a bit of a challenge for the camera.

I was using my 500mm F4 lens with a 1.7 Tele-converter fitted which on the DX D500 body gave me a reach of 1275mm and I was pleased with the close-focus Portraits posted below and the cameras low light performance while working on ISO 6400

Birds at Stithians southern cut-off yesterday

While working with the Great Spotted Woodpecker recorded in the previous blog I also recorded the following birds which started with a dark form Pheasant in the fields on the way into the hide and was followed by a disturbed Grey Heron on arrival.

Next up came a feeding Coot and many rather well fed male and female Chaffinch and Blue Tits, Goldfinch and Great Tits.  A rather wet looking raiding Magpie. Two pairs of reed Bunting and to finish a fine looking pair of Bullfinch

Spring Colours Count

In the Spring time its the colours that count when male birds are looking for a mate,   At Stitians southern cut-off this morning all of the males were sporting their finest plumage and it seems to be working for the male Great Spotted Woodpecker on the right in the image above as a female moves in to take a closer look !!

This is a great time of the year to capture images of many species of birds at Stithians some of which are shown in the portfolio posted below.

Recent Stithians flight portraits

Following on from 'The Pecking Order' blog I have added here a few more flight Photo opportunites produced by the attraction of birds to Stithians feeding station,  First up the female Great Spotted Woodpecker is alerted by the sound of my shutter firing and the second image of her immediate departure is merged with the first,  Blue Tit, Chaffinch,  Long tailed Tit and Coal Tit form part of a steady stream of birds flying to and from the feeders, and male and female Bullfinch will often feed under the feeders and on surrounding vegetation seed heads as in the final image.

Watching 'The Pecking Order'

I was watching 'The Pecking Order' today at Stithians southern cut-off feeding station and was quite surprised at the outcome of some of the squabbles that went on between both the different species and birds of the same group.  Like most wildlife photographers I dislike images of birds on feeders however rare or interesting they might be but I do like the opportunity of capturing action flight shots in the immediate area around them,  The image below shows a split second in time as two species of bird go head to head in a dispute over pecking rights around a hanging feeder, This shot would prove to be extremely difficult to predict and capture in totally natural surroundings but due to the volume and competitive nature of birds visiting feeders it happens on a regular basis in a predictable small area that can be concentrated on using fast continuous frame exposures.

I find the above image of a feisty little Blue Tit backing off a larger female Chaffinch quite intriguing especially then it was the Chaffinch that was initially flying towards the Blue Tit on the attack and I am now going to break my own rules by showing the lead up sequence of five images of these two birds behaviour around a nut feeder which lead up to the image shown above.


In the first image it looks like the Chaffinch will land on the opposite side of the feeder and both birds could feed away happily

But the Chaffinch looks to go around the back and the Blue Tit does not like it and starts to make a counter move

The pair meet beak to beck at the back of the feeder as the Blue Tit blocks the Chaffinch's path

The Chaffinch stalls and the Blue Tit takes the advantage and flies forward

At the peak of this action the Blue Tit steps up the aggression with her talons and beak at the ready and the chaffinch backs off in defeat leaving the 'Lion Hearted' Blue Tit to return to its nuts and with a simple crop I gain another ' Aerial Dispute Portrait'  to add to my Stithians Collection,

Redwing under the feeders

There are plenty of Redwing and Fieldfare showing in the fields around Stithians southern cut - off at the moment which probably accounts for the lack of shows from the pair of local Sparrowhawk at the feeders but today was the first time that I have seen the Redwing foraging under the feeder assembly as opposed to fly-byes, Other birds snapped were several male and female Reed Bunting, A pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker,  A dozen or so feisty Chaffinch and a couple of pairs of Blackbird,  Out on the water was quite today but for a single Chiffchaff  foraging amid semi submerged margin foliage and the Male Mandarin did put in a brief show late afternoon but being infamous for being quite skitty as he was,  he took offence at the sound of my shutter and departed leaving me with a final flight shot.