Great bird, great light ..... classic pose.

Unusual to get clear sightings of Nuthatches at this time of year yet Grafton Underwood woods always seems to come up trumps.

When they breed the offspring rarely travel very far from where they fledged so in these woodlands we have a strong, stable population of the species.

Its nice for a change to report a success in this world where birds are under such pressure.

Alert to competition

In recent weeks I have spent a lot of time photographing and observing Nuthatches at my feeding station near Grafton Underwood, Northamptonshire.

On occasions I have had five Nuthatches in view at the same time.

This image is typical of a pose that I have seen often, when coming down to feed the Nuthatches view the surrounding trees to check out for the presence of competitive Nuthatches.

When two Nuthatches visit at the same time they do try to chase each other off and frequently have quite energetic battles.

Just love these guys ......

I am seeing so many Nuthatches at the moment I feel that in avian terms I am binge imaging !.

Make the most of it is my motto so here is another .... 

Better light today .............

At the feeding station Nuthatches continue to visit with great frequency, its really good to hear them calling from the surrounding trees where they position themselves before dropping in.

Judging by their comings and goings they are caching peanuts for future consumption.

Its a joy to help them out.

Almost getting tame .....

Regular visitors will know that I have a feeding station, consisting of mixed seed and peanuts, at Grafton Park, Grafton Underwood, Northamptonshire.

All of the birds have become accustomed to my visits and pay absolutely no attention to my presence, even the Nuthatches which were very skittish at first.

In fact, and this may sound incredible, on two occasions Tits have actually flown into the side of my estate car !.  

The Coal Tits in particular fight a lot, an objective of mine is to try and get an image of one of these fights with a bird pinning the other down on the ground ........ 

                                                   Nuthatch

Focus ...... or as one of my past Italian colleagues made it sound like ..... fu***** ..... apologies for the language !

One of the benefits of a broadside image of a bird when taken with a 420mm lens combination is that the focus is constant from side to side and top to bottom.

Too often with a head on shot the head is perfectly in focus but the tail and legs may be soft.

The downside with head on shots, in my opinion, is lack  of perspective, I always seem to prefer oblique shots where both eyes are on view but not head on.

Just some thoughts from an amateur who constantly tries to improve his technique.   

I am a passionate Nutter .......

I have been spoiled in recent weeks with the quality opportunities that I have had to photograph these birds.

And what a powerful far reaching call they have which rings around the woodland, I have been lucky enough to hear five calling at the same time.

Below is link to Xeno-Canto and their library of Nuthatch calls.

http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Sitta-europaea

Yesterday I just went Nuts .......

What characters Nuthatches are.

Grafton Park, part of the Boughton Estate,  is close to my home and a little hot spot for Nuthatches, Marsh Tits and Coal Tits in particular, I have never seen so many of these species in the same place at the same time. 

As regular viewers of my web page know I have been feeding up a corner of the wood in exchange for photo opportunities and these guys and a host of the usual woodland birds are joining in with enthusiasm, as I have said in the past they almost start to queue when I pull up and start feeding around my feet whilst I am still putting the seed and peanut mix down for them.

Images like these make the effort worthwhile for me and supplements their diet for them, a win / win situation for all concerned.

Stocking the larder .........

The birds visiting my feeding Station at Grafton Underwood are responding very well to the seed and peanuts that I am providing for them in exchange for good photo opportunities.

Just before Christmas I was unable to access the area with my car / hide so I walked up with my tripod and used a remote shutter release from a distance of about four to five meters as the birds arrive and depart very quickly and their movements are difficult to track through the viewfinder.

Despite the still relatively mild weather all of the birds species have become very confiding and ignore my presence, even the Nuthatches which are normally very retiring birds.

At one point today I had three Nuthatches in my line of sight, they were coming and going with great frequency so I guess that they are cacheing peanuts for the harder times to come.

A videographer friend of mine, Graham Barker, saw some Common Redpolls here recently so there is another challenge, what would I give for some Bramblings as well !.

Below is a link to the video that Graham took of his visit published on U-tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoS57c5wOxY

Let there be light ..........

.... and what a difference good light makes to our efforts.

Earlier this week  I mentioned my feeding and seeding of some local woodland at Grafton Underwood.

I knew that Nuthatches are in the woodland as I have photographed them in the past, but today was a magic moment as circumstances combined to give me a cracking photo opportunity.

Nuthatches are shy birds with no appetite for being under the spotlight, but they have now accepted the presence of both my car, me and a ready supply of peanuts .....  I know that it is a '' staged '' situation but when I look at this image I think that it is worthy of publication.

The right place at the right time .... and an investment of more hours than I care to admit to !

A few rays of light ........

..... are all that it takes to turn a bad image opportunity into a good one and this was certainly the case with this Nuthatch at Grafton Underwood.

Surrounded by shadows and badly lit branches it perched above the gloom and was just catching the only light available, illuminating its plumage and eye.

To my mind a very pleasing result.

Nuthatches at Grafton Underwood

Quite close to me is this woodland which I feed up during the winter months, it is a good place for Nuthatches when the canopy has thinned out.

Unlike Treecreepers,  the Nuthatch can climb headfirst down trees and branches as well as up them, in either direction the passage is very jerky on its short strong legs. 

Sometimes elusive and always very agile they can often be seen hanging to the underside of branches as they search for insects in the bark of the wood with their probing beaks.

At times very vocal it is often the '' tuit-tuit ''call that alerts you to their presence in the vicinity, they rarely venture outside their territory which they occupy from year to year, young birds do not move far away when establishing their own territories.

It is in Autumn and winter that the birds stout black beak really comes into its own, Nuthatch are named after their habit of wedging seasonal nuts into crevices in the bark and hammering them open to extract the kernel.

Lastly but certainly not least, the Nuthatches plumage is unmistakable with its blue-grey upper parts, buff apricot underparts gradually merging into chestnut near its rump all set off with a distinctive thick black eye stripe which goes some way down its thick-set neck.

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