Blue tit

8th day of lockdown. It can be very time consuming finding attractive props to photograph birds. This piece of Silver birch with a perfect bracket fungi took many hours of searching. It has to be small and light enough to carry to a feeding station. The background is a reedbed, which gives a nice warm colour. The fungi was so perfect that when it fell off due to clumsy handling I superglued it back on.

Blue tit, Parus caeruleus, single bird on bracket fungi, Midlands, December 2010. Canon Eos 1D Mk4. 800mm lens. 400 iso. 1/800th at f9

Kingfisher

7th day of lockdown. I have spent a lot of time with Kingfishers over the years. When you start working on one it normally goes on for a few weeks and every idea you can think of has to be tried. They are not difficult birds to photograph. They are surprisingly tame and take no notice of hides and noisy photographers.

Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis, Warwickshire, October 2010. Canon EOS 1d Mk3. 300mm f4 lens. 1/400th at F10. 400 iso.

Little-ringed plovers

6th day of lockdown. These little-ringed plover started to display right in front of a permanent wooden hide we had on a shallow scrape. I really enjoy watching bird behaviour and as a photographer you get to see a lot of it close up. Seeing birds at a distance through binoculars has never really interested me.

Little-ringed plover, Charadrius dubius. pair displaying, Midlands, June 2011. Canon Eos 1d MK4. 800mm lens. 1/320th at f13. 800 iso.