Starting 2019 with Wildlife… of course!

I cannot believe another year has started and, although it was rather gloomy weather here on the Black Isle this morning, we decided to head up to the Black Isle Nature Photography Hides. You can find out more at James Roddie’s Facebook page .

We took some food and a CJWildlife feeder up to the Crested tit site and it was not long before the coal tits were taking full advantage! My birds love the CJ fat bar feeder and you will see it on my live cameras at home. These ones are 1 litre and mine last less than a week in the winter! Coal tits are dominant in these woodlands, with a few blue tits and great tits, but before long the distinctive trill announced the arrival of the Crested tits.

The dull morning and poor light meant I was struggling to get a decent shutter speed and these guys are seriously fast!! They alight on the fir trees for a fraction of a second before they are off again….

They were soon on the fat bar and I managed to grab a few shots, only achieving about 1/100th of a second on ISO 800…. you really need to be double that speed to freeze their movement…

We left the feeder there…. I’m sure it will act like a magnet to keep them coming in for other photographers!

We headed to the squirrels and the light picked up a fraction. We had missed the best time to photograph as the light had simply not been good enough first thing, but despite it being late morning, one squirrel made a brief appearance and allowed me to grab a couple of shots.

Nothing amazing, photography wise, but a lovely start to 2019 as these iconic Scottish species always make me smile… I just return in the summer to try for the daylight pine marten….. 🙂



from www.wildlifekate.co.uk https://wildlifekate.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/starting-2019-with-wildlife-of-course/

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