Sparrowhawk up Close

I have been keen to get out to my hide over the last week as there have been up to 11 Greenfinches visiting the feeders, along with the 40 plus Goldfinches. Greenfinches have been quite scarce here for some time now, with only the occasional one visiting from time to time.
A brief spell of sunshine and I set myself up to photograph them. I had only been in the hide for 5 minutes when the alarm calls of  the Blue Tits alerted me to the probability of a Sparrowhawk in the area. It then swooped down in front of the hide hoping to catch an unwary Goldfinch. Without success, it perched up next to the feeders. As I was set up to photograph small birds it was too close to fit in the frame so I made the most of a few close up head and shoulder shots.

Wheatears

With some southerly winds yesterday there was a large movement of migrants through locally. I made the most of the sunshine and spent the day trying to photograph the many Wheatear that were passing through. Pre-occupied with feeding and bickering amongst themselves, I was able to get some frame filling close ups.

 

Starling Close Ups

On my travels I recently saw a group of Starlings that hang around a car park, they wait for food scraps and I just happened to have a few slices of bread with me. As they were coming so near to the car I thought I would take some close-ups of the various plumages that they were showing. Being a common species I think they are quite overlooked and thought of as a drab black bird, these shots show how colourful they are with some lovely iridescent colours and the white spots of their winter plumage.

Insect Close Ups

A few more macro images from the last week.

Digger Wasp

Honey Bee

Greenbottle

Hoverfly

Hoverfly

Close Ups with a Warning

It's that time of year when my attention turns do doing some macro photography. As I have said before I only dabble but this year I think I'll put a bit more effort in. I spent a few hours in the garden yesterday hoping to get some wasp shots, I managed a few but the star of the show was a Flesh Fly, hence the WARNING of some very detailed close-up fly images at the end of this post.

Wasp

Hoverfly

Bumble Bee

Flesh Fly

Up Close and Personal

I thought I would do something a little different for this post. - A collection of close-up headshots of garden birds.
You can see how the face feathers differ between the species, the Nuthatch and particularly the Dunnock having quite course plumage, whereas the smaller Long-tailed Tit has very fine feathers.

Long-tailed Tit

Nuthatch

Robin

Blue Tit

Bullfinch

Coal Tit

Dunnock

Great Tit

Dragonflies

I'm sorting through images from earlier in the year and found some Dragonflies taken in the Summer. I usually spend quite a bit of time each year photographing Dragonflies and Damselflies but didn't seem to manage it this year, I think probably down to the poor weather in late Summer.

Southern Hawker

Black-tailed Skimmer

Broad-bodied Chaser

Broad-bodied Chaser

Common Darter

A bit of Macro Photography

At this time of year bird photography becomes a little quiet and so out comes the macro lens.  I don't usually go out with the intention of photographing anything specific, it's more of a case of whatever I come across, I only really dabble as macro photography is an art in itself. Here are a few of my recent attempts.

Hoverfly

Common Blue Butterfly

Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly

Red Admiral Butterfly

Six-spot Burnet Moth

Brown Argus Butterfly

Honey Bee