The time seems to have flown since my last post on this wonderful project documenting a family of Redstarts I started some weeks again now in the stunningly beautiful Peak District National Park. In my previous blog post you can read by clicking here the Redstart chicks had not long hatched.
Since then they have all fledged successfully and the place around this nestbox has gone incredibly quite. I’ve seen the adult birds very briefly in the trees above but they haven’t returned to the nestbox. Redstarts often have two broods so I’m really hoping they have a second clutch of eggs, and I get luckier enough to be able to photograph this once more.
I’ve been working from the same hide, using a long lens on a cropped camera for the close up images and a wide-angled lens on a second camera body to capture more of the environment these birds have raised their young in. That second camera has been placed on silent mode while being wrapped in cloth to dull down any noise.
It’s also been covered in local vegetation as seen in the image below to make it almost invisible to the adult birds in order to minimise any disturbance. I’ve used a remote control release, manually focused and operated from my hide hoping to get some different angles and viewpoints.
The following images that I hope you enjoy are the final ones from this absolutely fantastic time I’ve had over the last three weeks in the company of these gorgeous and truly handsome visitors that fly all the way from Northern Africa to raise a family here during our spring, summer months.
Finding your own subjects and photographing them over time is one of the best things as a wildlife photographer you can do. You learn so much more and you never truly know what you will encounter or see using your own skills and fieldcraft. I would really recommend working like this to anyone who wants to improve their own wildlife photography and knowledge of the natural world, many thanks.