Sometimes you're lucky

Yesterday it rained and blew all day so I was not so eager to go out and take pictures.
But I like to take pictures of wet birds and animals, because they can look so fun out with wet fur or plumage.
So yesterday I was fortunate because a jay landed on the only branch of the tree outside my window which is without leaves and right in front of the window 6m away.
So it was perfect, I can be indoors and shoot soaked birds, the only problem is that I have to shoot through a window with double glass and rain drops on it, but it went pretty well, I think.
Jay is really one of my favorite birds, I've always liked their colorful feathers that glow blue, and because they are not easy to get close too, it becomes a little more sport then to get good pictures of them :))
I also had the good fortune to shoot a wet Carrion Crow in the same place, it must be something magical about that branch :)
Now I'll  get out in the rain and trying to take pictures of ducklings which I saw yesterday down in the Rivelin Valley.

By the way if you are interested in Pilgrim Falcons, here is a link to the Pilgrim falcons in Sheffield. The chicks were hatched yesterday so it might be fun to follow them.
http://efm.dept.shef.ac.uk/peregrine/

Some bird pictures

I have continued my attempts to shoot Jay's, I have gone there early in the cover of darkness. Because I have noticed that if i go there while it's in the middle of the day so they want not to come. Like yesterday, I was there all afternoon without success and now this morning I was there again, they arrived and checked out but then disappeared pretty quickly, maybe they saw something that was strange, I had moved the camera to another place because it would otherwise have rained and blew straight into the lens so maybe it was that they saw.
So today it was just some small birds on the site.
I have put out a big branch and when i arrive I put sunflower seeds and nuts on top of it. And the meaning of it is that the birds will land on top of the branch, because I have the camera pointed at it. And also because i want clean pictures without any distracting things. In this way the eyes stuck on the bird only and make it pleasant to watch :) but I have not really gotten into it yet mostly because I have to have the camera a good distance away from the branch (5-6m) and then you can not really get the blur in the background I'm after.  And it's so far away, because the jay's otherwise not will arrive, they are very suspicious.

One other problem has been the sound of the cameras shutter, when i fire away pictures it sounds like machine gun but they are now getting used to it.

There is one picture of jay, it is not a good quality picture but i put in anyway :)

 

Camera equipment i used: nikon 3Ds nikon 70-200mm f2.8, nikon 200-400mm f4, tripod and wireless remote control.