Waiting for the badger, that is. It popped its head into the garden again last night. And again no photo. I've spent the past hour with a tripod set-up outside in the hope of a further visit. No doubt it will appear while I'm typing this :awww:
But some shots from today…
Several more shots are in the April Birds album. Hopefully I'll be able to post a badger soon, but I'll close with this elegant spider! 
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, except the spider which was taken with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro and extension tubes + ring flash
cakkleberrylane
21 Apr 2008Amazing shots – I wish I could capture great shots like that!! Especially like the green finches!
sprogger
21 Apr 2008Stunning shots :up:
Vulpes vulpes
21 Apr 2008Great shots – and the baby blackbird… :love:
CedarFox
21 Apr 2008Excellent shots! I like the colors of the goldfinch.
gdare
21 Apr 2008:up: @ greenfinches
Ukwildlife
21 Apr 2008Amazing greenfinchs. Your spider is one of the long jawed spiders – Tetragnatha sp.
SittingFox
21 Apr 2008Great picture of squabbling greenfinches! That is an excellent capture! :up:
As for the badger… :insane:
anonymous
21 Apr 2008Anonymous writes:
Badgers have a very good sence of smell and hearing, and they are far more hard to get close/see than a Fox.
Keep trying though 🙂
Flying Red Fox Blog
21 Apr 2008Lovelly shots, do you use a tripod aswell words to catch those or just clever patient waiting? Hope you do snap thebadger soon.:)
Words
21 Apr 2008Mark, the birds were taken hand-held with a fast shutter speed and a bright day. I haven't got the hang of following birds in flight with the tripod yet, but may practise a bit. Plus it's quite heavy. I'll use it more as the summer develops and I plant myself at the edge of ponds. It's great if you don't aim to walk too far.
Words
21 Apr 2008Thanks Sprogger!
Words
21 Apr 2008Neil, I find that first greenfinch shot so bizarre, almost as though the head doesn't belong. And thanks for the spider info. I'll search a bit further. It was tiny, hardly broader than its web.
Words
21 Apr 2008Cheers Darko!
Words
21 Apr 2008Anon, you so right. Very shy creatures indeed.
Words
21 Apr 2008Adele, thanks. The badger is going to take some work I think. That's two sightings so far so I'm somewhat hopeful but it will take some setting up (and a large amount of good fortune).
Words
21 Apr 2008Vulpes, thanks. The baby blackbird was a bit of a surprise. I really wasn't expecting to see one, but it looked in good shape.
Words
21 Apr 2008Lois thanks… I miss an awful lot of shots as well. The flight ones are either a lot of patience, or more usually luck (they take off as you have them nicely framed on a branch).
Words
21 Apr 2008Eric, the goldfinches have such wonderful colours. I'm really pleased they have started using the garden.
anonymous
21 Apr 2008Ivywall writes:
I really like the shot of the 2 greenfinches and the wat it's been cropped.
The baby bird is very cute !!
Ukwildlife
21 Apr 2008Near water as well? Im 99.99% sure its T. extensa now 😉 😀
Ukwildlife
21 Apr 2008The greenfisch head does look odd – must be the fluffed up lower neck feathers
I remembered the full name – I always thought it was Tetragnatha extensa -but T. montana and T. pinicola (ive dug my spider book out now) are similar. Where abouts in the country are you? T. pincola is mostly found in the south. I think I can see a white stripe on the sternum (the underside of the thorax to you and me!), which would rule out T. montana. And the colouration looks more like T. extensa – so I would go with T. extensa 🙂
Words
21 Apr 2008Neil, yes I think you're on the nail. I'm on the south coast, and it was at the edge of a garden pond. They like water. Another shot of the same spider:
