The weather was just perfect for bird photography. It was foggy, but it was the light autumn fog that allowed the sunlight to break through a little bit because somewhere above the fog there were blue skies. Which means, I can use a lower ISO for the birds while the background will be distraction free.
I borrowed my neighbour’s camouflage suit to see how it works. The camo net I’ve been using so far is very clumsy so I would much prefer to use something that allows a freedom of movement. I set up the camera about 2.5m from the feeder and when a great tit came and stood on the lens, I knew that the suit works for sure! Although I have a suspicion that the small birds would almost tolerate me without any camouflage at all. A jay wasn’t fooled – I saw it in the background taking a look, but it decided against approaching the feeder. Just as well, because I was way too close for a big bird like that!
It was such a good photo session that I stood there for two hours and only came in when I started to lose feeling in my fingers and toes. By then I had a lot of keepers and some of the made me really happy. The coal tits and blue tits have always given me a problem, I only seem to have a couple of each at my feeder and they are very small and don’t like to stop for a second. Especially the coal tits, never a quiet moment with them. But now that I was so close to the feeder I got some portraits that didn’t even require much cropping! To top it all off, I got a picture of a treecreeper. I heard the nuthatches suddenly get very agitated and had a look around and found the treecreeper climbing up a pine. I quickly swung the camera around and managed two frames before it disappeared. A new species in my catalogue!
