One from yesterday. Difficult exposure as usual with these chaps, fantastic little bird though! Luckily this individual has avoided having any fashion accessories added to his legs.
Paul: No, this male is currently un-paired, or is on a second territory. I spent three afternoons watching him and noticed he regularly came down to grab insects from the path, so I set up a couple of obvious perches overhanging the path and waited, didn't take long
I see from the last RSPB birds magazine that PF are down by an estimated 30%, which seems about right, the last two trips to Elan valley have been hard work trying to locate any birds. Elan is named as one of the proposed study areas monitoring PF numbers now, presumably on the large RSPB owned woodland that has no footpath access.
Yes Mike, quite strange this year here in the Forest of Dean. Nagshead RSPB reserve only has 10 pairs of PFs in over 400 boxes at present, pretty dismal compared to previous years. And yet I have never seen so many around the wider FoD area as this year, all nesting in natural holes. Definitely something going on.
Discussion
10 repliesOne from yesterday. Difficult exposure as usual with these chaps, fantastic little bird though! Luckily this individual has avoided having any fashion accessories added to his legs.
Advice / critique welcome.
Thanks for looking,
Lewis.
Canon 50D
Canon 500mm + 1.4x
ISO 400
f8
1/160
DPP & CS3
80% of full frame.
Steve
Not many in the forest here this year.
Excellent picture.
JohnR
Paul Hobson
Thanks guys for the comments
Paul: No, this male is currently un-paired, or is on a second territory. I spent three afternoons watching him and noticed he regularly came down to grab insects from the path, so I set up a couple of obvious perches overhanging the path and waited, didn't take long
Cheers,
Lewis.
Dave
I see from the last RSPB birds magazine that PF are down by an estimated 30%, which seems about right, the last two trips to Elan valley have been hard work trying to locate any birds. Elan is named as one of the proposed study areas monitoring PF numbers now, presumably on the large RSPB owned woodland that has no footpath access.
Yes Mike, quite strange this year here in the Forest of Dean. Nagshead RSPB reserve only has 10 pairs of PFs in over 400 boxes at present, pretty dismal compared to previous years. And yet I have never seen so many around the wider FoD area as this year, all nesting in natural holes. Definitely something going on.
Lewis.