GREEN WOODPECKER

While out and about today testing my new, NEW camera I spotted this Green Woodpecker pulling the old Woodpecker trick!

He was in a field of grass and on the floor and then once spotting me it flies to the nearest trunk and then scrambles round the far side out of my line of site. Then every now and then it peeps round to check I am still there before disappearing out of view again.

This is a common habit with woodpeckers and I have seen Greater Spotted Woodpeckers do the same thing. Most people would think they have flow far away without realising they are just a few meters away and just waiting for you to wander off?!

Hang about or try and get close and provided there are enough trees around they will fly rapidly to the far side of the next tree and then the next. If you fail to keep track they will soon be far away leaving you wondering where the hole is they must have disappeared inside?!

Forgive the pictures as this was on FULL ZOOM at 40x and I am still familiarising myself with it after being used to Nikon cameras, lol.

The Woodpecker was quite some distance away too and this was a hand held picture.

LOL.

I WILL REPLACE MY NIKON L810 WITH P510

Well it is what I really should have done...

I should have held on and bought something better after a couple of weeks when my money next came in while holding onto to half of what I was paid but this is really difficult to do and comes with its own sacrifices, pains and anguish that lasts not two weeks but a whole FOUR!!

But what am I to do? I had already stated that there is something else I would much rather be doing and building right now and that would actually stop me feeling physically sick and dizzy too.

That is even more out of reach than this more expensive camera but this is what I am going to have to do and later this week, if something is NOT sorted out between Nikon and Argos...

...I will have to get a refund and go and buy one of these...

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/nikon-coolpix-p510-bridge-camera-12339442-pdt.html

Which is what I wanted in the first place?! The Olympus SP-810UZ 36x Zoom I saw for £98 that I lost based on a stupid rule and staff and company you cannot trust...

...THAT ONE!

Now I have ended up with something not quite what I was after but would have bit the bullet and lived with it if NOT for its several faults!

So a Nikon P510 Bridge Camera now does seem ideal for all that I require of it?!

Let us hope that IF & WHEN I do get one it does not turn out to be another returned and faulty item that some idiot has not spotted, re-boxed and sent out to the next MUG?!?!

LMAO!!

This all actually costs everyone you sell this stuff too and you are not the only ones that want money you know, just that your all underhanded in doing it.

Had it occurred to any of you but by performing this trickery it might come back to bite you in the arse and in more ways than you can hope to think of?!

Have you learned NOTHING from what has happened with the BANKS, POLICE, NHS, MEDIA & NEWSPAPERS?!

Well I would suggest that you DO learn and you do learn quickly as here is tip about human nature and that is with each time they realise they have been duped they get angrier each time. On a grand scale of hundreds thousands that will eventually become tens of millions this is not the most intelligent of ideas!!

LMAO!!

SIDE TO SIDE COMPARISON OF NIKONS

A simple side by side comparison I decided on the way back from Sainsburys that firstly I was going to do and secondly though the test results may be helpful to those of you out there with one camera and thinking about buying the other?!

For the test I have taken shots of my bird feeders and from the single spot in my living room were I take all my bird feeder photographs. The feeders are between 10 yeards to 15 yards away from the camera's position. Where I AM ABLE TO, I use a First Horizon 4256 tripod which is very expensive to buy and intended for astronomical work.

With the tripod its simply fantastic IF you are very tall. Highly recommended by the late Sir Patrick Moore and will not bloody move in all but the strongest gale force winds. You had better have use of a car though!

The exact same settings were used and all photographs reduced in size to 30% that of the originals which were on MAXIMUM resolution of both cameras. FLASH OFF!

EDIT: Right two things of note is that first off I updated the firmware previous to the problems from v1.0 to v1.1. Secondly the camera is now focusing and beeping and the repeating the process before it lets you take a picture which renders the camera utterly useless...

Also every time it is in AUTO MODE I have noticed the Macro symbol is up regardless of the distance away of the TARGET SUBJECT which would explain a great deal of the out of focus shots as they NEVER occur on MACRO, or close up photos!

SO I am now wondering if indeed Argos, possible in desperation, have caught the Shop Direct BUG?!?!

Can you buy anything that works in the UK at the moment?!

I cannot ruddy believe this is now happening with my beloved Nikon after being suspicious of the FIRST ONE I BOUGHT?!

Funny as I thought that this one might highlight oddities with the other being a problem I certainly did not expect to buy one NEW from Argos and walk out the door with it only to have a series of problems within 48 hours?!

Jesus Christ!! This happened as I pulled the box out of the cupboard after thinking about this Argos SEAL over the top lid front edge of the box?!

LMAO!!!

So first up the Nikon Coolpix L810

Siskin SHOTS

Now the Nikon S8200

Goldfinch Shots

Now isn't that strange?! On taking the Siskin shots, apart from them being of not great quality, I had genuinely assumed that, yes OK first impressions, the Zoom of each camera (first one 26x and second one 14x) that there was not a big difference in the two?! Despite the help of what I think is a bigger monitor screen on the L810!

I can see now. however, that even with a reduced size of the images I am currently looking at while I type this that there IS a difference in the zoom between the two...

...but still with going from 14x to 26x not as much as I was expecting in all honesty. I knew that 36x Olympus Camera I lost out on would have been more fitting, it was £98?!

The Nikon equivalent, the P510 or P520, is in the region of £399 but I thought I saw it cheaper somewhere on my travels, but not Argos as that is the £399 price.

Still there is the rather big issue of having a series of photographs, nearly HALF I took, that I KNEW were blurred despite the camera claiming it was focused and the reticules going green and beeping and not flashing red when NOT focused.

If this is an issue of the operating temperature I was using it at, though this is still a big problem in itself, then fair enough as it was sub zero but a few degrees with a colder wind chill. But it still should not be misinforming the user of being focused when it is not?!

Oddly the box was not shrink wrapped when it was handed to me and had an Argos Sticker across the seal so I am now suspicious now I have remembered that.

SISKINS - Carduelis spinus: IN MY GARDEN?!

WOOHOO!

When I spotted these I had to do a double take and first thought Goldcrests?! Nope too big and too light in colour for Greenfinches too!

Had I thought about it long enough before spotting the dark patch above the bill I would have realised what they were but would not have believed it.

Oddly and in my friends pet store in Enfield I lady came in who buys wild bird food I am sure mentioned Siskins to me visiting her garden and I thought her batty?! I take it all back, lmao!

This was a real shock for me and I thought how perfectly times it all was but how wrong this thought turned out to be...

...still I did get a video of them but even then it was only 720p instead of my usual 1080p ... what a shame.

Email off to Nikon about this but here is what I did get... video up next but 720p only

NIKON L810...WORRYING PHOTOS!!

I have had to email Nikon as all these shots were taken despite the camera telling me it was IN FOCUS but did not loo it on the 3 inch screen?!

Oh dear!

VIDEOS: NIKON COOLPIX L810

New camera ACQUIRED!

Content will now increase in both quality as well as quantity from now on...

COMMON SCOTERS

COMMON SCOTERS

Or at least that is what I identified them as a few weeks later! Bad photo and was with my phone and there is a video of them on YouTube I need to link in here. There were literally hundreds of birds but these hung way back and never came close. they were also jet black in colour too.

There was a Smew too and I forgot to capture it! Well I was in Birkenhead Park with my daughter an two grandchildren in October and was not expecting to come across a couple of gems like them?!

LOL

COLLARED DOVES

Photo of Collared Doves that have been resident here since I lived here!

VIDEO: RETURN OF THE BLACKCAP - Sylvia atricapilla

The Blackcap Returns!

Sylvia atricapilla

GOLDFINCHES IN MY GARDEN

At long last the Niger Seeds attract the Goldfinches!!