With the (old) zoom lens - a nuthatch

With the (old) zoom lens - a nuthatch, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Very happy to get this one on my first expedition oput with the Minolta 75-300 lens which I had had for years and which I used for the first time in almost ten years when fixing it to teh new Sony Alpha 550. You do not see nuthatches too often and this one appeared right in front of me as a I wandered around the wooded part of Frankendael, on my way abck from the station after work yesterday evening. April is a very good time to see birds as the light is better than it has been for many months and the leaves are not yet out.

I was so lucky with this chappie! Not only to find him but also that the camera managed to focus on him before he flew away.

I was out at lunchtime today and saw nothing until I was phoned by a colleague on my blackberry. Then very quickly I had perfect views of two (different) singing wrens, not so far away.... but operating the camera one-handed while carrying on the conversation with my colleague proved too much and the shots failed... maybe I will stick to more inanimate objects like plants and people...