Yep, I really did take a photo of a crow using a macro(w) lens . You might as well all have a laugh at this tale...
We found this youngster crashed out in our front garden last week. I think it must have had a crash landing in the gale winds we where having and had done something to it's leg/foot as it couldn't stand up without falling over or taking a beak-dive into the ground. It could barely hop either, and didn't seem to be at all keen to even attempt to fly when we approached it!
As we have a fast road in front of our house (it's meant to be 30mph ) and no garden gates and, as we have an excellent neighbourhood bird/rabbit/rodent hunter in the form of 'Bertie' the feral cat, we decided the best thing was to give it some bird food, and stuff it in a green recycling box (fantastic for keeping injured wildlife in ) in the garage overnight to let it recover.
Next day it still didn't seem to be too bothered about going anywhere...put it in the field at the back of the house, and it didn't move more than 5ft in 4hrs. Gathered it up again and tried to see if it could fly at all....threw it up in the air and it did a high speed paper dart impression backwards and had to be recovered from next to a hay bale where it had crash landed . Tried putting it in a tree in the field to see if it could perch up out of the way of the cat...so it decided to glide straight back into our garden . Left it in the garden with some food and water to see if it would bring in any adult crows...it did, they ignored it begging and cleaned up the food and flew off.
At this point I thought that the bird must be in poorer condition than I'd originally thought, so eventually managed to contact a local animal rescue centre to come and pick it up the next day...so back in the box for another overnighter in the garage it went.
Well, you'd have laughed - the next day it seemed a bit perkier and hungry, so I ended up digging in the garden for worms to feed the blinking thing! Boy did those poor worms go down a treat! For various reasons the rescue centre where delayed getting out to collect it, so it ended up with me meeting them on a petrol station forecourt after 7pm and handing it over to them there
While out and about in the back garden "worming", I heard a fluttering/whiring of wings from the back of the garage, but couldn't see any bird. Thinking it must be a young bird, I ignored it. The noise repeated again, and as I tried to spot it's owner, I found it was coming from one of the drains at the edge of the garage. Sure enough - when I looked through the grile, there was a small bird fluttering around and flopping back into the water in the drain. So, pulled the drain cover off expecting it to be a young great-tit, and found it was one of our tree-sparrow youngsters! It seemd to be OK as it managed to flutter off straight away. It must have been exploring the guttering for bugs etc and managed to fall 10ft straight down the drainpipe - a very lucky tree spug !
So, the end of last week was spent dealing with waifs and strays...not much photography or work got done!
As a final note, our 2nd brood of tree spugs hatched over the weekend .
Discussion
4 replies1DII, 180/3.5 Macro, 180s @ f/3.5, handheld.
Yep, I really did take a photo of a crow using a macro(w) lens
We found this youngster crashed out in our front garden last week. I think it must have had a crash landing in the gale winds we where having and had done something to it's leg/foot as it couldn't stand up without falling over or taking a beak-dive into the ground. It could barely hop either, and didn't seem to be at all keen to even attempt to fly when we approached it!
As we have a fast road in front of our house (it's meant to be 30mph
Next day it still didn't seem to be too bothered about going anywhere...put it in the field at the back of the house, and it didn't move more than 5ft in 4hrs. Gathered it up again and tried to see if it could fly at all....threw it up in the air and it did a high speed paper dart impression backwards and had to be recovered from next to a hay bale where it had crash landed
At this point I thought that the bird must be in poorer condition than I'd originally thought, so eventually managed to contact a local animal rescue centre to come and pick it up the next day...so back in the box for another overnighter in the garage it went.
Well, you'd have laughed - the next day it seemed a bit perkier and hungry, so I ended up digging in the garden for worms to feed the blinking thing! Boy did those poor worms go down a treat! For various reasons the rescue centre where delayed getting out to collect it, so it ended up with me meeting them on a petrol station forecourt after 7pm and handing it over to them there
While out and about in the back garden "worming", I heard a fluttering/whiring of wings from the back of the garage, but couldn't see any bird. Thinking it must be a young bird, I ignored it. The noise repeated again, and as I tried to spot it's owner, I found it was coming from one of the drains at the edge of the garage. Sure enough - when I looked through the grile, there was a small bird fluttering around and flopping back into the water in the drain. So, pulled the drain cover off expecting it to be a young great-tit, and found it was one of our tree-sparrow youngsters! It seemd to be OK as it managed to flutter off straight away. It must have been exploring the guttering for bugs etc and managed to fall 10ft straight down the drainpipe - a very lucky tree spug
So, the end of last week was spent dealing with waifs and strays...not much photography or work got done!
As a final note, our 2nd brood of tree spugs hatched over the weekend
So green recycling bins make great bg's
Great feather detail, might have likes a touch more DoF for the beak, looks like this youngster fell flat on the top of its head a few times
Great story and lucky the bird found the right garden to be stranded in, glad the local feral didn't discover it...
Tim