I’m a fan of fantails

Fantails are perhaps the most accomplished birds.  The most accomplished at evading photographers.  Fantails would be able to dodge the paparazzi far better than any celebrity ever has.  I was trying to photograph this fantail in the forest and it literally landed right in front of me on the ground, and I still couldn’t get a shot.  I eventually managed to get some clear shots by turning the ISO right up and zooming to 300mm (I’ve also since cropped the photo).  But by the time this happened my arms were sore, my patience thin, and the fantail was almost certainly laughing so hard it couldn’t fly out of frame fast enough to evade me!

But I’m still a fan of fantails and will never really tire of trying to get that great shot…

Have a Molly jolly Christmas

Feeling festive I grabbed some tinsel, a Christmas cracker, and a small Santa hat and went in search of Molly (the neighbour’s cat).  Molly is normally quite playful so I figured all I would have to do is wave the tinsel at her and she would come and play with it and then I could snap some lovely festive shots…

This is Molly’s opinion of my idea;

However after some patience and lots of petting I just about had her ready for a good shot… Then shake shake shake, we got a wee earthquake and she got all spooked.

Eventually she got into the Christmas spirit though… As much as a cat can!

Michelin starred bird feeder

I got this bird feeder a couple months ago and have had limited success enticing the birds onto it. I knew that the spot was a good one as all kinds of birds including waxeyes frequent the tree next to it. The best result I had was when half a loaf of bread got past its best by date and was put all in the one spot, then even the waxeyes stopped in to have a look at it. However yesterday I purchased a suet and birdseed ball from Fresh Meats at Barrington and now this bird restaurant is a hotspot with rave reviews. I captured this shot of a waxeye dining there but there were many others that came and dined too.