Yellow Hammer

[Nathaniel]

Large crops.

(i)
Powys- Cwm Chefru holiday home 162 by Nathaniel Ramanaden, on Flickr

(ii)
Powys- Cwm Chefru holiday home 138 by Nathaniel Ramanaden, on Flickr

(iii)
Powys- Cwm Chefru holiday home 115 by Nathaniel Ramanaden, on Flickr

(iv)
Powys- Cwm Chefru holiday home 113 by Nathaniel Ramanaden, on Flickr

[NS3230]

Re: Yellow Hammer

Eve Nathaniel.
I had to look that one up, I've never seen nor heard of a yellow hammer before, tho my ref describes it as a 'common and widespread uk resident'!
Well done
Neal

[tesarver]

Re: Yellow Hammer

Well spotted Nat

Tom

[Dawesy]

Re: Yellow Hammer

Nice shots Nat , these are becoming much more difficult to spot round our way these days

[Stan]

Re: Yellow Hammer

Small birds need more generally need more reach than you have so even with the large crops, apart from the second shot, the birds are too small in the frame

BTW yellowhammer is all one word

Stan

[antoeknee]

Re: Yellow Hammer

Yellowhammer are a sound of summer for me but seem to be reducing in numbers. Their call which sounds like, 'a little bit of bread and no cheeeeese' seems to carry a long way on warm summer days.

Nat, well done capturing the images but as has been said little small in frame.

[the black fox]

Re: Yellow Hammer

Small in the frame ,and also a lot of noise in the birds bodies obscuring the detail

[Nathaniel]

Re: Yellow Hammer

Many thanks Neal, Tom,Steve,Stan ,Jeff & Ant for taking a look. Yes, I agree that the images are small but I did not have my "reach" beyond 560mm (100D + 55-250mm +1.4 kenko tc). I did not wish to crop the images much more as the IQ was degrading!!!! I was concentrating on the eyes and head of the birds.My bird book(RSPB) tells me that these birds are "common throughout UK" but this is the first time I have seen Yellowhammers in UK. The other difficulty I had was that at the slightest movement the birds took off like a rocket. They were seen feeding on the ground. Once again a good few days of photography before I got some decent pictures of the Yellowhammer!!!!!!!

[the black fox]

Re: Yellow Hammer

as on the times we have been out together nat i have tried to demonstrate ,noise will not spook birds ,sudden movement will .and despite my size i think you will realise how slow i can move when needed .its a game and you have to outwit them simples . your shots are also a good example of why when shooting birds under less than perfect conditions that RAW is needed rather than j.peg

[Nathaniel]

Re: Yellow Hammer

I am not much of an expert with my PP and have done my best. I did use auto ISO for some of these shots but the others I reduced it to 1600(from 3200) down to 800 to 400 on account of the "noise" as you say. As you have mentioned, the light wasn't always "good" when I spotted these birds. I agree with your "size"( Jeff) etc but I am not the best walker (due to reasons you are aware of) and find it very difficult to play hide and seek with these nervous,twitchy birds.

[Alan_H]

Re: Yellow Hammer

Well done Nat for getting two of them in one shot, although I agree with all that has been said you have done well for a common bird that is not easy to find and photograph in my experience

Alan

[Nathaniel]

Re: Yellow Hammer

Thanks Alan for your comments which is appreciated. I think RSPB will have to remove the word "common" when describing Yellowhammers as one rarely sees them around UK- judging from the number of photos posted on this forum by members. I think this bird is becoming extinct!