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Showing posts with label blackbird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blackbird. Show all posts

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Sunday Selections #58: The lousy shots of birds edition

I’ve been trying to shoot birds lately. With my camera mind you, not with a shotgun. Anyway, difficult thing to do. I often hear them, but don’t see them. And just before I do see them, they see me and fly off. Occasionally I manage to get a decent photo and sometimes I post them in my ‘normal’ posts, but more often I get lousy shots that I find difficult to delete, because they are the only shots of that particular bird I have. Apart from the robin. I have loads of robin-photos. He follows me around the garden, trying to get into the picture.

The not so good shots are therefore pointlessly hanging around in my computer, until it’s Sunday. Yay! Sunday Selections time. Hosted by the lovely Kim from Frogpondsrock. If you, like I, have folders full of photos waiting to be seen, hop over to the rocking frog ponds, follow the almost non-existent rules and join in.

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I can see two birds in this shot. A male ‘merel’ (in Dutch) or blackbird and a ‘koperwiek’ or redwing.

 

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A ‘koolmees’ or great tit. Strange name.

 

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The robin managed to get his photo taken. Again.

 

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This is a ‘winterkoninkje’ or wren (I think. I’m sure it’s a winterkoninkje, but not sure of its English name). It is one of the smallest birds in Europe, about 10 centimetres long. His tail always points upwards. It’s a quick mover and builds its nests near the ground in hedges or shrubs. Somewhere dense enough to get some shelter and feel safe.

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This is more of a close up, but he just wouldn’t sit still *sigh*. Still, I’m very happy that I did get a shot of him/her. I will persist and do my best to get a terrific photo of a ‘winterkoninkje’ one day. We’ll have cake that day.

Oh, and look who I’ve spotted in the garden, checking out trees to build a home in perhaps? Or more likely, looking for food. I suspect he’ll rather have a dead birch, there are plenty of them around, to make his nest in.

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Yep, it is a ‘grote bonte specht’ or woodpecker. Perhaps it is the same one I photographed with his family last year? Who knows.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

I tawt I taw a biwdy

 

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When shooting this little birdy (probably the same one as in my previous post) I didn’t have to balance on one leg, while closing a gate at the same time as taking the photo. Life is much simpler when you just do one thing at a time. Really. I should try it more often.

 

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Every time I bring a wheelbarrow full of horse manure to our muck heap, I see this little guy (or girl) sitting on top of the heap.

Our muck heap functions as a cheep cheap delicatessen shop, providing lots of yummy little insects and worms and it has a very diverse clientele. Robins aren’t as shy as a lot of the other customers, giving me a perfect opportunity to practice photography without having to do my famous, but very unsuccessful tree imitation to try and blend into the background.
The robin doesn’t care that I really don’t look like a tree and that one of my branches makes strange whirring and whizzing noises.

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He, on the other hand, kept a sharp eye on me.