Bad pics of fab wildlife - part 2!

Old thread here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/chat/f/2542/t/22684.aspx

Because the original thread has, fittingly enough, 'gone bad', it's time for a new 'Bad pics' thread. Here, we celebrate the very worst of our wildlife photography. The subject matter is always brilliant, but the photos are very much not. If it's out of focus, chopped in half, frighteningly under- or over-exposed or terrible in some other way, it belongs here :)

Here's my first (first of many, no doubt) contribution to the new thread, a Goldcrest taken at Barnes yesterday. You need only minor incompetence to take a blurry photo, and the same to take a really under-exposed photo, but to do both in one go requires a special level of cackhandedness.

  • Linda257 said:
    Looked like a headless squirrel at one point Mike lol


    Then the magpie took it off the tree and spoilt the fun lol

    It did look a little headless, but then are squirrels generally headless, in every sense-sability....

    I guess I've become too used to squirrel antics....

    On an interesting note, the quest to contain the grey squirrel numbers here has taken a turn for the interesting.

    They are eating meal worms, the only food we've been leaving out. When I say eating, I don't mean a quick taster and yuk, I mean feasting!

  • They eat anything and everything Mike. am down to 3 squirels now lol...wonder if they will eat crab apples and pears if my trees ever arrive today!!!

    (Pardon the Scottish Accent)

  • Last year at least one of our Squirrels discovered the plums on our little plum tree (about 5 feet tall and in a pot) which had a good crop of plums on it then. We had already enjoyed half a dozen of the plums and luckily we saw the Squirrel going at it, carrying one off and returning to the tree with a look of determination. We rushed out, scaring off the Squirrel, and rescued the remaining plums, ripe or not, to prevent the Squirrel from stealing any more. We will have to keep a close watch on it this summer or we will lose out entirely. Wondering about Squirrel for dinner (and I don't mean as a guest--lol!)...or possibly transportation but we would need to buy a live trap.

    Kind regards, Ann

  • Oh dear Ann, that will keep you on your toes! My trees (when the finally arrive are strictly for the wildlife . Oh can you imagine sitting round the dinner table with a few squirrels lol

    (Pardon the Scottish Accent)

  • When I posted my Kingfisher pics here a little while ago I remembered I had similar ones of Kestrel displaying the same behaviour but couldn't find where I saved them. Finally found them while looking for something else.

    Trevor

  • That's a bit ?????? Trevor, but well timed. Thumbsup

  • Linda257 said:
    They eat anything and everything Mike. am down to 3 squirels now lol...wonder if they will eat crab apples and pears if my trees ever arrive today!!!

    They certainly seem to.

    And yes to the crab apples, they will eat them, and also orchard apples (even while still on the tree), so I wouldn't be surprised at them eating the pears as well.

    In other news, the grey squirrels seem to be down to three at any one time, not the many we had.

  • That's good Mike. Hopefully you can get feeding the birds again soon

    (Pardon the Scottish Accent)

  • Linda257 said:
    That's good Mike. Hopefully you can get feeding the birds again soon

    I'm hoping, but I get the impression we're currently enduring a grey squirrel population boom!

    I've just finished talking to my gardener who lives not far away, and he was saying the squirrels have wrecked his lawn and a lot of plants!