Great Spotted Woodpecker!

Not pecking at wood, but at peanuts!

After yesterday's changed plans to make the most of the better than expected weather, today's miserable grey slab slate skies had me back on course (by bus) and down to Blashford Lakes, near Ringwood, Hampshire, with my "Big Sig" lens.

This lens has been sick for a while but instead of paying £200 to get it repaired, it's somehow started to work more reliably, all by itself and now it is largely dependable, unless when you are utterly depending on it, of course...

These lakes are old gravel workings, flooded and made into a nature and bird reserve. Migrating birds flying from the south, from say, Spain and Africa, navigate up the River Avon and often stop off at Motel Blashford for a night or two. Nest and fish included. 

The Tern Hide is next to the carpark and where everybody starts off. It was full of noisy chatting packed lunch eating pensioners. Yet, if you make the slightest sound unscrewing a lens-cap, looks of disdain and scorn abound. Or was I just imagining that?

This lake is huge and vast and the maximum zoom of 500mm on this 150-500mm lens is equivalent to 15 times magnification (750mm) on a DX DSLR. Yet, a tiny bird on the far side of this lake is still a tiny bird and to be honest, one bobbing bird-like shape looks like every other!

To be honest, I couldn't wait to get out of there - without leaving so early to make it look obvious. And without any shots, or any with anything other than teeny birdy blobs scattered over the frame. 

None of the other hides had anybody in them at all. Bliss! OK, I had to walk some distance to some of them and most of the hides were just stand up big wooden slots in which to poke your lens through. More tiddly birdy blobs in the distance. Apart from a couple of swans and you can find them anywhere!

I did get these Gadwall ducks   http://www.juzaphoto.com/galleria.php?t=1693064&l=en, which are apparently quite rare in England but can be found in this part of Hampshire. They were also quite close so this image didn't require much cropping. Still, it's shot at the full 500mm focal length.

One hide that I always seem to resort to, always guaranteeing results is the Woodland hide,  that looks out onto four or five big tall feeders, with lots of portals up and around. Obviously, in winter is best, as the birds all absolutely flock to gorge on the seeds and nuts and the bare branches means you can see them more clearly before and after they swoop in.

Unlike the other hides, the glazed windows do not open (they used to be Perspex, which seriously robbed detail) so you have to shoot through the glass, often at an angle, which can cause reflections and loss of contrast.

Absolutely bloody typical, get in the door and the excitable pensioner group are gasping and goo-ing at all the colourful variety of garden birds, tits and finches. Flashes from compact cameras flashed (which sent them all off flying in panic) or they hogged the windows nearest the feeders and tried to get masterful close up photos with mobile phones...

So, when this amazing great spotted woodpecker literally cleared the smaller birds when it swooped in, I had to try to shoot over this gentleman's shoulder, but from a distance. I hoped and prayed that he wouldn't move as the gap was only about six inches. I use this big lens on a monopod as it takes all the weight of this 2.5kg monster lens yet allows freedom of movement. When sat at the benches under the viewing windows, you wouldn't get a tripod in anyway and so a monpod is the only solution. 

The wooded area where these feeders are is dark, and faces northwards, so the limited light is even more limited, so I found that I was trying to shoot the tiny tits and finches with a 15 times magnification at 1/125 sec and 2500 iso!! However, when this superbly colourful fellow flew in, I actually had to zoom OUT to get him all in! This final result has been cropped either side of a horizontal original. The feeders are upright, using a monopod at an angle and focussing manually tends to not help for perfect uprightedness...

Next thing, the entire troupe leave and I'm on my own. But mostly, so have all the birds. So, I went silently walking around other parts accessible, taking a few more snaps of teeny tiny birdy blobs...

So, that's me for being a twitcher, for another year. I do sort of enjoy the experience at Blashford but also I don't. It is a free (donations advisable - all these peanuts cost more than 'peanuts'!) photo opportunity though but I'd hate to think that I 'd ever get as excited about a feathery bundle three miles away, behind a tuft of invisible grass, left of a stone...that yes, looks like a stone....