Woodpeckers close call

The BBC's local forecast got it all wrong Am today showing unbroken sunshine from sunrise until rain moved in from the East around 1 PM,  The sunny morning just did not even get started so I headed for Stithians southern cut-off hide in a cold easterly wind that brought nothing but cloud and drizzle,  Within 30 minutes of my arrival all local birds suddenly scattered by the Sparrowhawk that featured in one of my earlier blogs:

It suddenly made a classic long ground level swoop through the feeder assemblies and on out over the water to disappear behind the tree line,   I had noticed in the past that the Great Spotted Woodpeckers seemed to judge safety around the feeders by the number of other birds present and in general this seemed to show that they saw some safety in numbers or perhaps a sign that all was well,  Today was different for the female Woodpecker that was not present during the Sparrowhawk attack was now the first bird to show on a moss covered tree trunk near the far peanut feeder,  The sparrowhawk suddenly swooped through again this time coming in across the water on a direct line towards the woodpecker which appeared to freeze but then it suddenly made a split second rotation by 90 degrees around and up the trunk that was now between the two birds,  Smart move!  and the rumbled Sparrowhawk just flew on by as if to say  ' I was just Passing ! '    It might have been a different story had the woodpecker been busy feeding

The two local pairs of Little Grebe were as noisy as ever and busy hunting,  No Newts caught today but several Sticklebacks were taken some of which were passed between the pairs,  What amazingly efficient little hunters these birds are

Below are a few 500mm lens close portraits of the smaller bird life that visit these feeders on a daily basis

                                                                  Long Tailed Tit

                                                                   Male Chaffinch

                                                                  Female Chaffinch

                                                                   Male Reed Bunting

Stithians feeder

I spent a couple of hours at the hide AM without taking many images,  I missed the woodpecker and the Sparrowhawk which I believe made a successful strike because of the awkward current position of the feeders,  I also noted that there was no show from the Water Rail,  The feeder assembly has been moved from a reasonable right hand front position to the side and is now only really viewable from the side window,   It is far to close to the hide for many bird species, birders

and photographers to be at an acceptable distance apart,

I returned my attention to willows on the right hand side to enable working at a reasonable distance and came up with this rather pleasing natural looking Goldfinch portrait below,

I was joined in the hide by Shaun Martin one of the voluntary feeder fillers around lunch time,  Shaun is also a keen wildlife photographer and the positioning of the current feeder assembly came up fairly quickly during our conversation regarding the photo opportunities available at this hide,  He seemed to agree with my comments regarding the feeder frame positioning also stating that he had another peanut feeder available which he filled and placed on old feeder frames that were at a more comfortable distance near a mature tree line to the left of the hide,  During the following hour we had three visits from a male Great Spotted Woodpecker that knew we were in the hide but was reasonably comfortable with our distance from the nuts,  Images of the SparrowHawk, Water Rail  and other more skitty birds would also be more achievable and frequent at this distance,

During our conversation regards to photography in general,  Shaun and I discussed sequence montages relating to various subjects,  The one below is for you Shaun,  It was good to meet you today

Stithians Reservoir,

During wet and windy days when lots of wildlife has gone to ground I often head for the cover of local hides which I select according to wind directions, Time of day for subject choice and natural light angles at the viewing area,  During November and December this year I worked at the Southern cut off hide at Stithians reservoir,  The attraction was not the feeders that subsidise a large variety of local birds but the opportunity to work at close quarters off the feeders on many otherwise shy and unapproachable subjects.

This fine male Great-spotted Woodpecker, Its mate (  and their young during summer months ) all visit the feeders regularly providing you keep your head and lenses well back from the viewing slots,  The trick is to be ready and capture your images prior to them moving directly onto the feeders

Water Rail have been high on my hit list for the last two years with only limited success on birds that were always half hidden by reeds etc at water margins,  I heard through the Grape vine that they were sighted at this feeding station regularly which has proved to be reliable information as I have worked on this bird on each of my last four visits

Many finches visit this location including this fine pair of Greenfinch

During my visits here I had seen this Sparrowhawk pass though on several occasions and during my last visit it surprised me as it flew onto the feeder frame assembly out of the blue.   At just five meters from my lens I knew it would be gone if I tried to move to avoid the out of focus foreground feeder framework,  I moved only my shutter finger for forty minutes as I watched it preen every feather it had while occasionally looking up with those piercing yellow eyes at the sound of my shutter firing,  Wonderful !

The composition of this image has been cropped to remove the out of focus foreground feeder frame and  to produce a pleasing close portrait.