Visitors
Willow tit (Parus montanus). Image is cropped - these birds are so small that 300mm is not enough even at close proximity. And anyway, I compose dead in the middle, otherwise I don’t stand a chance of keeping up with the birds - they are too fast for me!
One visitor that I was hoping for though was the red squirrel. Last year I built a perch specifically for the squirrels, but the winter was so lousy that I never made an effort to set up food and wait for the furry critters. I decided to give it a try today, so I put some sunflower seeds in the crevices on top of the stub, hoping that the squirrel would stay on the perch instead of running up a tree with the loot. And it did! At first when I noticed that the squirrel had taken my bait, I took a few pictures through the window just to see how the composition worked out. I was amazed to find out that my perch setup is so close to my window that if the squirrel keeps its tail down, I can only fit the whole animal in the frame if I use a vertical composition!
But, shooting through the window produces fuzzy pictures, so I carefully opened the window and the squirrel stayed put, even if it seemed to figure out that something was going on. Then I was really clumsy when I changed from horizontal to vertical composition, and the squirrel disappeared when it heard the thud. But the good news is that if I just would manage to keep things quiet, I could get some really nice squirrel pictures. Just add snow!
Image is cropped a little bit from bottom and right, but the tail didn’t fit the horizontal frame anyway.
