Saturday 24th December
It was Christmas Eve and, with an hour or so free in the morning, I decided that I'd neglected my Little Owls for too long, and headed off for my local patch. At various times I've had five LO sites on my patch, but I'm currently down to two. I first went to my Site No.02 - my most photographed site (by me and the rest of the world!). To my delight, both birds were out (a rare occurrence!). The bird in the roof didn't budge as I took my photos, but the bird on the chimney was off as soon as I got out of my car.
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| Little Owl (A) - my Site No.02 |
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| Little Owl (B) - my Site No.02 |
At my nearby Site No.12 both owls were in the back of a barn where there was only just enough light to see them - so no chance of photography. Until this morning I'd only seen one Little Owl in December so it was great to see four in the course of about 20 minutes!
I had a couple of hours at my local Short-eared Owl site in the late afternoon, but the owls didn't come out until very late, so no images.
Sunday 25th December
For quite a few years now my wife and I have had a picnic Christmas Lunch, sitting in the car in some pleasant part of the English countryside not too far from home. A couple of times we have done this on Cannock Chase, and enjoyed it, so we went back this year. I did take my camera and, although it was a rather dull day weatherwise, I did manage a few images of little'uns - this time just small birds, rather than Little Owls. Nothing very special in the way of subject matter (although the Willow Tits that are here are always good to see), and no outstanding images, but it was a very enjoyable couple of hours spent here.
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| Bullfinch (female) - Cannock Chase |
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| Bullfinch (male) - Cannock Chase |
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| Coal Tit - Cannock Chase |
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| Willow Tit - - Cannock Chase |
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| Nuthatch - Cannock Chase |
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| Fallow Deer - Cannock Chase |
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| Great Tit - Cannock Chase |
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| Blue Tit - Cannock Chase |
A magnificent collection of shots Richard, and the header is a brilliant use of one of your superb recent Little owl shots. The little bird shots are classy too!
ReplyDeleteThank you Christian. It was really good to get back to the Little Owls again, and get some half-decent images, even if they do repeat what I've done before!
ReplyDeleteyep I agree with Christian, cracking first image of the LO and looks really good on the banner. Some other nice images too, good to see you had some good light for a change...
ReplyDeleteThank you Paul. As for good light, I've found that playing with white balance (never really bothered with it before) can do wonders in transforming a dull scene,
ReplyDeleteLovely set of shots Richard. Bullfinches are always a treat.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mike. I am also rather fond of Bullfinches - I just wish that they visited our garden more often. It's pretty well even chances whether we see one in a year, or not.
ReplyDeleteGreat capture Richard.
ReplyDeleteThank you Antonio. Wishing you all the best for 2012.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post Richard and always enjoyable to read, sorry i dont comment as much! Are the Bullfinch from the Coppice Hill feeding site? I have been a few times and never managed to see one!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ben.
ReplyDeleteI've let you know by separate e-mail where the Bullfinches were. I'm purposely a bit cagey about publishing exact locations on my blog.
All the best for 2012!