Monday 23 August 2010

One of this years babies

Blackbirds are a very common sight in my garden, and I have watched the wonderful behaviours throughout the winter and early spring with up to 30 in the garden at any one time carrying out their manoeuvres while they feed.  When the breeding season arrives, and Blackbirds are among the earliest, they disperse out to their territories.

So peace, at least from the Blackbirds descends into the garden.

We have seen  some of a number of clutches of juveniles come in to find some easy food.  One pair in particular are very comfortable around us, and were with us all the time we were digging, bringing their young down for a fresh supply of worms.  I reckon that we have seen at least three clutches this year and so it was with that in mind that I thought I ought to at least record the events of this family at some point.

It was about the middle of last month, while working outside that I saw one youngster come down on to the bough of the plum tree.  I went in and grabbed the 7D, 300f4 and 1.4 converter.

Now one of the benefits of working with juveniles is that they don't know that they need to be scared of us and fly away.

However, I have generally tried to adopt a policy of not being to greedy when I approach a subject.  So I get to a point, and take a couple of shots, check the exposure and get another couple if I need to.  Then take another couple of paces, gently, and get another couple, mixing around the formats between landscape and portrait mode for a bit of variety.

Then another couple of paces, click, click, and so on.   It is surprising how close you can get, even with mature birds.

So this sequence below shows the first shot, then a bit closer in portrait, and then finally, probably too close - maybe American style being large in the frame.










Anyway, this is one of this years babies taken about four weeks ago.  All images fullframe and just neutrally converted from the RAW.

Martin

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