Northern Wheatear

[Rich Steel]

Hi

Before I left the office last night, I checked the local bird reports which showed 5 northern wheatear had been sighted on the coast close to home. So I decided to make a quick detour on the commute home to see if I could get a photo or two. The wheatear often stop briefly along the local coast as they make their way north on their migration up from Africa and look particularly good at this time of year in their fresh spring feathers. They have a frustrating habitat of when you get within about 30 yards they will then fly off and land another about 60 yards away in front of you. Anyway a couple of them landed on the rocks that make up the sea wall which gave me a bit of cover to managed to sneak up on one.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k217/squidfish_2006/wheatear200906.jpg

Taken with 50D and 500mm lens with 1.4TC at ISO 400 at F7.1 at 1/400s

Cheers

Rich

[Tony Whitehead]

Good job, Rich. Lovely light, pose, BG and perch. DOF covers the subject well while still blurring the BG beautifully

[Lance Peters]

Ill second Tony's comments - gorgeous BG and light. No nits from me .

[Stu Bowie]

This guy just pops from the BG so well, and lovely detail captured on him too. Great image Rich.

[Rosl Roessner]

Hi Rich,
this is a lovely image; the bird stands out well and I like the yellow lichen on the stone! Very pleasing image and no nits for me!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Gorgeous bird!
Love those feathers and eye contact, I only miss the right foot but I know some times they don't help much!
Sweet back ground also.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic image from subject's pose, to BG, to perch (the lichen adds tremendously to it). All the techs like great too. The white lines along the wings seem week and broken...but I suspect this is what they looked like naturally?

[Mark Fuge]

Nice shot. I like the ballance. While the left border area is considerably wider than the right, I feel it does not make the image unbalanced. I would not change it as it appear to open up the space for the bird to move. That is the reason for using the power of space.

Can't think of any major issues I would change. Nice shot.

Mark

[Simon Bennett]

All round fine image.

[Rich Steel]

Many thanks for the replies and comments. The migrants are arrving in numbers now and had a good warbler session this morning at first light.

cheers

Rich