Far a long time I’ve had Siskin, one of our smaller winter visiting finches in the treetops all around the hides but not one would come to the feeders, then to my relief one by one they started to take the Niger seeds and sunflower hearts left out to encourage Goldfinch to visit and as of today they feed most days either one or twos and even small groups, best being ten at a time.
So today I spent the morning trying to capture there beauty, first in my newly designed reflection pool and then by the main hide for half hour.
First some photos from the reflection pool shoot and what I think can be done to improve for next time.
Here is a female coming to drink. (Click the arrows to see more)
I then sprinkled some Niger seeds on the soil and to my surprise they where on it.
On the ground they behaved more like Larks or Pipits feeding very quietly and methodically searching for the tiny seeds.
(Click the arrows to see more)
What I could do to improve.
1) I could have used a longer lens or put a teleconvertor on as I shot with my 300 ml and full frame camera and the birds where just a little to far so had to crop quite a bit to give a decent image size.
2) Picked a brighter day as today wasn’t the best light of the week.
3) Group shots where shot at F5.6 my mistake as cloud came over and ISO was already 3200 I was trying to keep the ISO down so couldn’t get more than one in focus, remedy maybe try slower shutter speed and larger depth of field or pick brighter day (2).
4) Always can be sharper something I can work on.
Anyway as long as you learn something and can make changes its a valuable lesson, so thoughts for next time.
Then I move on to the main hide as light had gone on the pool and managed to get these before I left.
(Click the arrows to see more)
I just love these bright little males.
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