Doc, you're guess is as good as mine. I suspect the a-typical warm weather for this time of year resulting in buds and blossoms in bloom. I hope it's not the result of earth wide climate changes...

Thanks for the kind words!

Pretty good shot of a Blue Tit Mark, I see you have discovered how to make a bit of noise ha ha, if that one isn’t cropped how far away from the bird were you?
Greg

I really like that Blue Tit Mark - quite an unusual pose I think, with that head on look. I like the contrast of the thorny surroundings with the bird. Not sure if the grainey-ness is distracting or not.

I think Mark might have got miffed because I mentioned the noise, actually as one bird photographer too another I really don’t care about a bit of noise, you takes what you get, I’ve posted noisy bird photos myself, it’s the subject that’s the important bit and because I know how difficult it really is to even get a small bird photo.
I was going too say based on his reply about how far away he was that with flash it’s possible too have a much shallower light depth than the focus depth and sometimes it’s actually better to be a bit further away and zoom in, then you can sometimes get the flash depth to agree more closely with the focus depth…if your lucky.
Greg

Hi guys,

Yes, the image is cropped. I was standing about 8 meters away.

As Greg, I don't mind a little noise in my pictures. I don't mind cropping them either. I don't know why exactly, but I find most photographers too sensitive about cropping and PP. I don't care, as long as I get the results I want. I don't like too much PP myself, so I use PP only for getting the sensor dust off my image, crop if needed, add a little bit of sharpness and change the exposure as I like to ETTR for my birding.

The noise in this image is probably due to post processing I guess. Did a +0,5 exposure, 50 sharpness and +2 saturation as the flash made the yellow a bit flat. I also corrected the steel eye in the eyes of the bird. I shot on ISO 400 with my a580. I use Photoshop CS 5.5 btw.

Greg, don't know what "miffed" means, but if it's another word for "pissed", I am not! Don't mind critique, it only helps getting better. And the nice thing about an opinion is that I don't have to agree I'll take a look at PP'ing the noise a little. Maybe a Gaussians Blur will help

Mark

Here's a hawk that was in the yard last month. I couldn't figure out why he didn't fly off when I approached, until I saw what lay at his feet.


As you can see he was challenging me a bit.


He calmed down when he saw I only wanted pictures.

Dusty

Ha ha looks like he thought you wanted to knock off his squirrel, great shots Dusty.
Greg

Cracking shots Dusty . That's a big bird as well. I don't think the local raptors here would have been so brave.

Dusty, admit that you were after the squirrel...

Hi Mark, : )

The colours of the Blue Tit are goregeous. The bird looks almost alien in this particular composition.

Thanks for sharing.


Hi Dusty, : )

When a great opportunity walks in, it certainly walks in to make a spectacular entry. Gorgeous shots and the expression on the Hawk's face is priceless. Poor squirrel though.

Thanks for sharing.

Yildiz