Mistle Thrush

John,

Surely a Mistle Thrush, been a long time since I saw one of these.
Great behavoural shot

Well spotted Ken !
Never could spell- especially on a keyboard !
John

Nice behavioral shot John, the head doesn't look quite as sharp as I'd wish for but it looks and sounds like you were very challenged in terms of lighting here.

Not as sharp as I'm used to from your work John, but it looks like tough light. Still a nice pose from the Thrush.

Love that head turn, John. Is your pool set up to let you get a little lower angle?

Just a hair soft, especially on the head, but a loverly behavioral shot. John.

Thanks all
Regarding the sharpness I agree but I had no choice and having one or two static shots, I wanted to show the bird actually doing something. Interestingly all birds when actually bathing keep the head quite still- some more than others. On top of that I am not getting the IQ with the D7000 that I am used to with the D7100(which is poorly but hopefully soon to be expensively un-poorlyed! )
Regarding the camera angle. This subject has come up many times and I will try and explain again.
After over 40 years at different pools I have made and used, I have found that no one set of setups suits everything. So the result is I have come to a final compromise which I am sticking at for the following reasons.
Firstly I don’t like the ultra low shots. They give me reflection problems (I don’t like reflections) and to be honest they somehow don’t look natural to me. As an upright human I would not normally see them like that unless prone on the ground.
Also at my age there is about only one comfortable height in the hide which I can bear for several hours.
Also if you go lower, then birds at the front edge of the pool can have awkward bits of vegetation popping up which means you have to clear it before every session.
It’s the angle of the bird when siiting at the edge of the water nearest the hide which is the most crucial to me. I only have the 50- 500 lens which covers all different sized birds – which is why I use it.A bird with its back to me therefore at the angle I use is quite good as it is nearly following the plane of the sensor. This makes more use of the DOF. The lower you are the longer the bird gets and so thus less in focus. So I have come to a compromise. Birds at the far side of the pool do look ok and folks have commented on liking the low angle so you can’t win em all. Remember that at 20 foot to the back of the pool @f8 I have less than two inches DOF at 500mm.Not much to play with on a thrush. OK if its side on of course but they don’t all play ball.
The hide is semi permanent so I can’t go digging the farmers field up too much. If I sink it water is a problem. That’s roughly the reasons I do my stuff the way I do. Hope that helps.
John