SPRINGTIME BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY

PhotographyEditor:Charlotte Davies

Charlotte Davies

St Andrews really delivers when it comes to wildlife, and this afternoon in early April didn’t disappoint. Goldcrests are teeny tiny birds that are resident in the UK yearround. They are iconically cute, and have been a personal favourite of mine for many years As we approach spring and the days become longer, and the light starts to be much more forgiving for photography, we start to be able to go into the cover of trees and still have enough ambient light for a decent photo. So it was inevitably time to try to photograph some Goldcrests (and procrastinate writing my dissertation).Weighing in at only 5g, and preferring to sit towards the top of tall Pine trees, these little birds can be incredibly difficult to capture on camera - they rarely sit still for more than a couple of seconds before flitting to another branch Quite often by the time you have wrenched your lens up to try to find it, they are already out of the viewfinder. But if you get your ear tuned in to their zipping call, and you stand still enough, you might just strike lucky. And that is exactly what happened the other week - voila, a very gorgeous Goldcrest who came to sit only a couple of metres off the forest floor at the St Andrews Botanic Gardens Usually that would be it - one strike of good luck per day - but an hour or so later, I was passing the last of the spring blossoms at the entrance to the garden and this Bullfinch appeared and started pecking through the blossom. So get out there and make the most of Spring and early Summer; this season brings so much wildlife to explore!

WildlifeinSt

AndrewsBotanic Gardens