HAWFINCH

01-02-2018 St Helen's Church, Darley Dale

A flying, well, 2 hour flying visit at lunchtime to the Church in the sunshine. On arrival a few birders/photographers around and an old colleague who I had a nice chat with. There were a few birds in the Yew next to the church and after getting a few shots high up I relocated next to a friend and we soon had great views of 2 - 3 birds, although always in shade. Around 12+ birds amassed at one point but they were a bit flighty after that. Always the case, my set up of 500mm + 2 x TC, was limiting due to the light and high iso of up to 4000 and shutter speeds of 1/320th max resulted in soft and noisy shots. Still a pleasure to take these though.

HAWFINCH

29-01-2018 St Helen's Church, Darley Dale

Briefest of visit to the Church as we were returning from DFS after looking at dining room furniture. I spotted 3 birds initially in the top of a tree which then dropped into the Yews. They were in the shaded area of the tree so I tried some overexposure with very low shutter speed of 1/200th and with my 500mm plus 2 x TC on a monopod. Nice views of a male, would have liked to be a little closer and the ISO varied between 1,600 and 5,000 (mainly). Reasonable results though!

HAWFINCH

17-01-2018  Worsbrough Village

After a week of horrible weather with very poor light the sun came out and I popped into the village at lunchtime and staked out the Yew tree which was retaining the most berries. Three females were feeding from time to time however were difficult to pin down with the camera. Eventually I approached closer and wandered around the tree to get a few partially hidden shots but it was pleasing to have reasonable light and quite sharp images.

HAWFINCH

13-01-2018 Broomhill Flash

Another brief visit for the popular female which didn't disappoint