Hopping mad

Trying to photograph birds drove me hopping mad this morning. So lots of respect to Mollyblobs and the other bird blippers who post such great images.

First thing today I spotted a greater spotted woodpecker in the garden, a fairly regular visitor at the moment. I quickly set up the camera and tripod in the window and fired off a few shots. But it kept hopping around the apple tree and the only shot I got in focus has a branch from a nearer tree covering its head.

Then a magpie chased off the woodpecker so I spent a while trying to capture other birds. Now I have blurry images of blue tits, great tits, black caps, gold finch, chaffinch, sparrows and robin.

What I though would take a few minutes took over half and hour, so late for work but no matter as the internet was crashed (again) so had a rather unproductive morning.

This blue tit is the best I managed and it's been much cropped and sharpened. Will try again with more of a plan, a better vantage point and more patience.