Oct 14
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.
Nice picture! Willow tits are my favorits
Please continue shooting them, it is very nice to have something to do in these dark days we have ahead of us.
I have learned the other version Parus montanus and I think it is more common than this one.
I will definitely keep my eye and camera on the birds, so I hope I will get some keepers this winter.
I got the latin name Poecile montana from my English bird guide, I confirmed it with English Wikipedia. And it turns out that they indeed classify this bird differently.. so I’ve changed the blog entry to show the latin name as it’s known here. I should’ve doublechecked with my Finnish bird guide instead to see there was a conflict. Gotta remember to cross check in different languages in the future…
I first saw Mr. Olsen’s squirrel and now this one. Only makes me wonder whether I should go for a longer telelens to capture local ones
How close was this one approximately? You used 300mm, right? Again, impressive stuff!
P.S. Posting comments with Safari seems to work for me finally.
I think wildlife photography is very hard in the wild…
The animals just don’t appreciate my artistic ambitions! So I think that the 300mm I’m using is absolutely the minimum for wildlife photography here. The feeder setup is about 5 metres from my window, and this is the closest I’ve gotten to a wild squirrel so far. Except in Canada, where the wildlife is much more tolerant of humans. Or in Järvzoo, ironically, where the squirrels are used to the humans around the “skogskoja”, LOL!
Then again, I’m not a wildlife photographer… *sigh*