March 15th is a day I'll probably never forget as far as walks with my camera goes, it was the day I stumbled upon a beautiful Crossbill female feeding on pine cones, one that was more than happy for me to get close and photograph. A few people have commented on photographs of wildlife, birds where there is eye to eye contact and on this day there was a LOT of it with this beautiful wee bird. I'm putting a few links below for those who might want to know and see more about these birds, all of these links will open in a new tab or window.
My day started as normal, one of those mornings where I waken up, make the breakfast, coffee and toast mostly and then decide whether or not I'm going for a walk. This is usually dictated by the weather, I like to head up to Backwater Reservoir as early as possible, once I have a feel for what the weather may do. On this day I decided to go and the main gist of the morning can be seen in my March 2 entry.
Suffice to say at around 10:30 I came upon a female Crossbill chomping away at pine cones in trees quite near to the track so I stopped and started grabbing photographs, bearing in mind that most birds see us too close and clear off AND I hadn't been able to get close to a Crossbill at all, ever!
Please bear in mind that I took well over 300 images this day!
Also bear in mind that I try to present my photos as closely to the actual event and as I could see it as possible, in other words, no real adjustments in Photoshop, just centring and light / tone adjustments.
I think you can tell in the shot above that she is fully aware of my presence and as you will see, keeps an eye on me throughout the entire encounter.
I was still up by the track but now standing on the grassy bank, closer to the bird but still a good distance away. I was slowly working my way closer, trying to keep an eye on her, the sloping ground I was crossing meanwhile balancing the camera and lens.
You can maybe see in this shot how that crossed bill is perfect for teasing the seeds out of a pine cone. You may also be able to tell by the green foreground that I'm now behind something, probably another young tree as I creep closer. I couldn't believe that she was letting me get so close!
I think the shots above once again show that she was fully aware of me but happy to carry on munching on cone seeds.
So I have cropped in close in this shot to show that crossed bill and her colours, I don't know what caught her attention here. There had been people walking by, now above me on the path. I don't think anyone noticed me, just below their level, in a clump of young pine trees.
Is it just me or does she look like she's smiling in the shot above?
You can really see her using that crossed bill to get into the pine cone and lever out the seeds.
You still here?
Another cropped shot, I wasn't that close ........ yet!
I am trying to eat you know!
I've gathered three shots above taken at the same time to show how close I now am to this bird and that fact again that she was more than aware of my presence.
Siskin male in the same tree
A couple of Siskins were also feeding in the same tree but a little more shy than the Crossbill.
I do remember at point I think I was shaking a little, getting so close, knowing this was a special encounter, her allowing me there without disappearing.
Just under 20 minutes have passed by this time and I am now probably as close as I'm going to get, in fact I'm having to back off to maintain focus. There was a Sigma 150-600mm lens attached and, in the heat of the moment I forgot I had another camera over my shoulder with an 18-300mm lens on it!
This shot allows us to see her beautiful feathering and markings.
As I've been creating this page I've been trying to remember if there was actually more than one Crossbill in the tree at the time?
Looking at this image and the colouring, I think this is a different bird.
OK so there are a quite a few more shots of this and another bird so I'm going to start Pt 2 of this encounter.
