You know that you have it sorted when you go to bed excited about getting up tomorrow because you cant wait to see what birds and photos you are going to get. So imagine my disappointment when I woke at 9.30 and realised that I had over-slept. Looking out of the window,the sky was as clear as it could be, it was going to be a good one! But I had missed half of it!
I took my coffee and camera down to the bottom hide and took a few photos of the activity on the sunflower feeder and decided quite quickly to come back up to the house to have a look on the screen at the results. Coming back up the garden I disturbed a cock Blackcap eating apple in direct view of the hide, it wasn’t going well so far! But undaunted I got myself in to the hide and waited for a chance at the Blackcaps again. Well, I had only been sat in there for a minute when the female Blackcap made her way down on to the apple and this photo is the best of that little encounter.
She stayed for a minute or so stuffing herself with apple. It was quite a sight and I was feeling very pleased with myself. Another one of those plans coming together. I bought the hide, I waited for the birds to come, I adjusted the camera properly and the sun was bright at the right moment. Lots of little elements need to be in place. This morning they were!

You can see here that she is looking at the apple before moving off. Then literally a second later, in came the male and had his turn. Firstly sidling down, he seemed to study the apple before getting stuck in. I snapped away, I couldn’t believe my luck!

He stayed in this position for 10 seconds or so before feeding giving me the chance to zoom the lens in to the full 500 mm.

I saw both birds several times during the day, for some odd reason mostly the male bird. The female tends to keep in the cover more than than male.
I have to say that I am very pleased with these photos and can’t wait for tomorrow when we are expecting some good bright conditions and I am hoping for even more photo opportunities.