It was one of those cold autumn days today. Blues skies, but a sharp chill. Greenfinches were out in numbers, along with chaffinches and some goldfinches. 
Goldfinch
The starlings were flocking and hustling their way on to the peanut feeders. Their persistence was matched by the blue tits which would hop down as soon as the coast was clear.
Blue tit waiting
A flock of piebald pigeons flew overhead.
Amid all the noise, there was a persistent chirrup that caught my ear. I eventually located the source of the sound. It was flitting in among the dense branches, never stopping; doing its best to remain hidden. And it was tiny. Much smaller than the blue tit, but pretty as a goldfinch. It's the smallest of all the European birds. I managed three shots of it, two of which had it partly hidden behind branches. So that left one usable shot. It's the first time I've seen this little thing 😀
A tiny Goldcrest
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
16 Comments
Great 1st sighting :up:
Wonderful shots – thanks for the camera info too, that's very interesting as well.
top goldcrest photo!
Easy to see how it get its name. Well captured :up:
Beautiful photos, the Blue Tit and Goldcrest are superb. 😀 I was taking photos of planes at Heathrow yesterday. 😛
Has Opera got the bugs again Words? I cannot seem to upload my files to opera it keeps saying *cannot handle request* Bit annoying because when i finally get round to doing another post i have to wait 30 minutes before finally giving up. They better sort this new system out as its making life difficult!
Lois, thanks.
Neil, that was the first of the three shots I managed. It's going to be a challenge for me to get another to match it.
Andy, thanks!
Mark, thanks. You must have got some good shots at Heathrow. Nice bright day.
I think there are still a number of bugs with the system, but I never upload straight to the blog. I always put the pictures in an album first and link from there. That seems to work fine for me (especially with the extra storage space). I'm sure it will be fixed soon.
Thanks Mick. I was pleased to get such a clear shot of the crest.
I think I saw it again today through the window, hopping around in a rosebush. But it was pouring with rain at the time and I didn't get a close look apart from seeing a tiny bird flitting about.
Great shot of the Goldcrest! They are super little birds – I've only seen one twice before, in the back garden and not for some years now.
Thats a good idea i will do that Words as uploading straight to the blog takes ages even on a good day 😛
Yes, I gave up on that a long while back.
I think its because Opera tries to reduce the size of the photo, where as Flickr dosent so if its bigger than 800×600, part of the photo becomes chopped off. 😆
I must try again now they've done some work on it. I usually sat waiting for the interrface to appear. Uploading wasn;t too bad, but the process was slow. Don't remember seeing anything choped off though :yikes: