goldcrest regulus

It's been so dark and wet since I got back from Scotland that I haven't been able to take any pictures. Hope that changes over Christmas/New Year because I've taken a lot of days off work, mostly public holidays admittedly. In the meantime this is a remake from the Raw image of a shot from 1st...

One more picture from Scotland Many thanks to all those who sent messages of condolence on the death of my father. I was very touched.

The Goldcrests were showing quite well but constantly on the move so it was click an hope that at least one shot would come out with the Goldcrest and not the twigs in focus.

When you freeze the action like this they can look quite thoughtful. I wasn't going to include this one as it's behind a lot of twigs but the bird is sharp and it's somehow so typical that in the end I thought why not.

...or two for the price of one as someone commented on another image yesterday.

Everything happens so quickly in their world that I expect this was just a passing glance really. :-)Sometimes they do display genuine curiosity but in my limited experience that happens more often in the archipelago when they spend more time out in the open. These are the last 3 pictures from...

I was amused to discover that in several pictures where I thought I'd captured one bird, there were in fact two.

As they weave in and out of the branches and twigs in a frantic search for food, chattering surprisingly loudly to each other the whole time, I am reminded of divers coming up now and again for air.

I could have got even closer but I wouldn't have been able to focus. :-)

Goldcrests are a passion of mine. Its not hard to get close to them but theyre always on the move and they tend to keep to the darker parts of the woods. It was frustration at not getting decent Goldcrest shots that finally made me decide to upgrade from a super-zoom. I think it was Psilo...

These birds live their own lives, short and very intense, and largely ignore people. Occasionally they display a little curiosity for a second or two.

Part of my ongoing, mostly hopeless, grand plan to photograph Goldcrest behaviour. I hope you like these but there will be more interesting shots soon.

Here's my latest attempt at getting a decent shot of a Goldcrest or at least it was in October when this picture was taken. It was taken in an island in the archipelago during a boat trip. The trip itself was at bit disappointing as it was too windy to reach the island we were really headed for...

The title is slightly tongue in cheek and by that I mean that it promises more than the picture delivers. For some time I have been interested in photographing Goldcrests and that was one of the reason I bought a DSLR as I could see my trusty FZ-20 just wasn't up to the job. So far the results...

Shot at ISO 800 to get a decent shutter speed. I reckon this bird was completely unaware of my presence as the very low sun was shining right into its eyes

Taken with flash but still not sharp.

A big improvement over previous efforts but still a long way to go. At least they're recognizably Goldcrests!

Goldcrest on rain dappled flowers

Two birds were feeding quite unconcernedly as I approached to within the minimum focus distance of my lens (1.6m). Most of the frame-filling close shots had intervening branches or not enough depth of field but this shot just a couple of metres farther back gave me a decent photo

Feeding amongst Ivy, Honesuckle, etc., whilst singing intermittently