Wednesday 2 May 2012

"Nuthatch Fun " Cannock Chase Birding trip with Gillian PT2

Continuing the birding trip to Cannock chase -   The afternoon session ! Never to be forgotten:)
Early in the afternoon ,the weather was still changeable , with cloudy periods in between sun!  After all the mornings excitement Gill set up a barb wire perch for the birds to land on, not that easy! as the birds landed it was so springy they where bouncing! lol    but after half hour of adjusting it , worked quite well :)


a sunny spell brought the Poppits out :)

A Poppit on a fence! lol


 
Later in the afternoon ,when the sun came out properly, we decided to go and find some Nuthatches which had not visited our original area, we had been told about a dead fallen tree where they are easy to shoot!   but after the last trip we had since found out we where not in the right place last time, so off searching we soon found another much larger fallen tree!  and no sooner had we put a few peanuts down 3 Nuthatches came down immediately.  it really was special to see them so close, and watch them waiting in the branches before dropping down to grab a nut before shooting off with it!


And here is one of  Gillian's best shots, taken with a 300mm prime, which is so much sharper than my lens!!!!  at larger size there is a huge difference in image sharpness & detail!!!!



It was at this point, that an event happened that will never be forgotten, EVER!!!   which seems to happen a lot on trips with Gill :D
A Nuthatch was sitting on a branch over to our left about 15 ft  above us,i was next to Gill on her right.i pointed to the bird which appeared to be watching us, probably thinking  "what are they waiting for ! feed me! " it then gave out a loud metallic call , THEN quite unexpectedly Gillian mimicked its call!   and it ANSWERED back! 
  Gillian then proceeded to "talk" to this Nuthatch for about 5 minutes , SO FUNNY!   
I do wish i could have understood what they were discussing!  probably talking about me! Haha

 In the end she just collapsed on the floor in tears of laughter ,by which time i was already the same!  
So there we where, rolling on the ground laughing our heads off, tears in eyes!   good job no one came past and asked what was up! 
 We always seem to end up having one of these moments on our trips, which makes them so memorable :D   i just wish i had thought to video it!!!!!

After all this excitement we moved about 20 ft to a large moss covered tree , where we hid a few sunflower hearts in the moss, the Nuthatches came down immediately and we both managed to shoot some superb images , punching the air with excitement  :D



                                                                And a Robin also appeared :)


After all this we went back to the original area ,
A couple of Coal tits arrived , and they regularly perched on the wire perch:D   but was quite hard getting sharp shots as the wire "bounced" when they landed and moved on it! lol


         this one had obviously had bath in one of the water containers that are placed around this are !


A lovely Blue Tit , so cute :)


          And Finally , Gills infamous moss covered feeder with a Coal tit making itself at home!  Haha


                                                              a Dunnock in a tree!!!!!!!


And just before we left , 2 Deer came down into the car park :))))



The end of another amazing day , and i must say thanks to Gill for making it such a special day!  Again :D

All images taken with canon 5d2, 70-300is f5.6

1 comment:

  1. Some wonderful images of birds Phil and I love your account of Gill's conversation with the Nuthatch.
    One of those very memorable moments :)

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