We had some steady wintry sunshine today. All day. It was cold, but certainly a very welcome change, and I headed over to Sheepcote Valley which is where I generally go in search of kestrels. There weren’t any around today, but the scrub clearers were back. Yes, the sheep at Sheepcote are ‘workers’. They get brought in every few months to eat back the undergrowth, and then are moved on to another site.
It was while I was sheep watching that I spotted several little stonechats. These are small meadow birds, with a distinctive call (which gives them their name). They like to perch on low shrubs, and a prone to offer little wing flicks.
The merest hint of a branch was sufficient for this male stonechat on lookout duty.
And what goes up a perch, must come down. I have to say I was quite pleased with this little sequence, not least because I had deliberately left room for the flight when I lined up the first shot. The stonechat helped things by staying in the same plane as it dove down.
Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.
derwandersmann
25 Jan 2015Nice sequence, Words … cute little birds.
Words
25 Jan 2015Hi dW, good to see you. The stonechat is quite a common little bird but this is probably the best set of images I’ve got of one. The 7D2’s 10fps definitely helped capture that little lot.
Darko
26 Jan 2015Nice little birds, look so tiny 🙂
Words
27 Jan 2015Darko, they are about the size of a European robin.