Plenty of these around at the moment .......

In the right light Greenfinches really shine out, happily we have good numbers at TLNR depite the national decline in their population.

Regular cleaning of feeders keeps the prevalent virus at bay ..... when did you last clean yours ?.

What a day ..... Solar eclipse, Spring Equinox, a fine spring day with strong light ......it doesn't get much better .......

So I thought I would go down to the reserve for some in flight images.

Of course its a set up, to the left of all of the images and cropped out is a seed feeder. 

It was a great afternoon to be down on the reserve, Chiff Chaffs calling, Water Rail squealing, Red Kites piercing the still air with their calls, Great Spotted Woodpeckers drumming and Green Woodpeckers Yaffling, Dunnocks sorting out their promiscuous pecking order  ....... spring is here but sadly not quite yet our summer migrants. 

I wound up the ISO to give a shutter speed of 1/2500, fast enough to nearly freeze the action without too much detriment to image quality.

Who says that we don't have beautiful birds in the UK, colour galore ...........

A brightly illuminated Cock Greenfinch ......

This image is as taken, full frame, not re-touched and looks exceptionally colourful due to the intensity of the spring sunshine.

The bird was only about fifteen feet away from the hide, it's close proximity, spring breeding plumage and very strong light have accentuated it's already stunning yellow / green hue.

Who says we don't have spectacular looking birds in the UK ?.