Nuthatches in flight (at last).

A great deal of planning and patience has gone in to these two pictures.

I have been planning and then trying for literally months to get a half decent photograph of a Nuthatch in flight and just like a bus, two came along together this afternoon. The secret ingredient, if indeed it is a secret, is bright light. After a process of elemination and hundreds of failures I came to the conclussion that you need a shutter speed of at least 1/3000 second and ideally more like 1/4000 to freeze the action of small common birds whose wings beat at incredible fast speeds. To acheive this, bright sun light is essential. I managed to place myself in a perfect spot with the sun from over my shoulder and illuminating the post just perfectly and then it was a case of waiting for the birds to arrive and hope that the sun kept shining, not a guarantee this summer. After not too long a few birds started to fly in to the food. I saw a Nuthatch in the tree branshes to the right of the post and I timed it perfectly for once as it flew down and on to the post…….. bingo as they say……. and what's more I managed to press the shutter at the right time as it flew back. A very satisfying result at last.

If you were hoping to see more Kingfishers today well the brook is flooded today after heavy rain over night and this morning, the hide is almost totally submerged. Not to worry though, I knew that would happen from time to time so I am sure once the water level goes down everything will be fine. Still trying with the Buzzard baiting, this is turning in to a real waiting game. In the mean time here are more birds in flight from this afternoon.