Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 3rd April, 2021)

The force of nature.Well captured photo with the bird hidden among the ivy.

Oh, well caught! Brilliant photo. With the expression oh his face I wouldn't like to try to take his meal away from him!

That's a really good photo. It looks like innocence personified until you realise he's devouring a black bird. Superb colouring.

This picture looks like its been digitized and modified in the computer. For those of you who don't know once a photograph has been scanned into the computer, it can be changed in numerous ways using an image editor. The brightness and contrast can be adjusted, colors can be changed and images can be superimposed. There is no end to the amount of alterations that can be applied to an image.

Is it real ?

You're right, James.. David will have to take lessons off that Haydock photo-tampering expert, "Oy Thee"!

Well captured David, the sparrow hawks where always in my garden, when I kept budgies ,think the bright colours and the noise used to attract them.
One day ,one swooped down on the outside flight, and pushed its talons through the mesh, killing a budgie that was clinging on the mesh, and frighten all the others that much they all dashed inside, they never came out again for a few days.
That's nature for you.

I couldn't care less if it's been enhanced... as long as a photo isn't in a competition where digitizing is forbidden, I actually think it's clever that changes can be made if it delights the viewer. Today's view certainly delights me. My mate Gerry did one of me that makes me look in my twenties....It's my very own "Portrait of Dorian Gray"! (Unfortunately, I normally I look like the end of the film when the portrait has just come out of the attic and succumbs to the daylight!), But hey-ho....it makes me smile and that's what a photo should do. I wish I could put it on here so you could all have a laugh!

Very good photo David.Love the colours. I have been trying to get a photo in my garden.This last week while I've been mowing, the birds have come quite close, in fact when I had popped inside to get a drink, a Robin purched himself on the handle of the mower, so I tried to take it through the window.But no success.

Nit pickers abound as soon as a delightful photo appears. Irene is right it's not a competition. Carry on pointing your Nikon David - the 'bare bones' of the photo is there and you did well to capture it, although I'm not saying you tampered with it.

James, photographs have been manipulated ever since photography began. It was done during the developing process, ever heard of dodging and burning? The skill was in the delicate use of such methods and that remains the case with today’s more advanced methods. Where I do agree with you is that things should not be added or removed to a serious photo, but let’s not forget that many artists, when painting a landscape, thought nothing wrong in changing things around if they thought it made for a better composition.

I can assure you no digital alteration or computer enhancement has been done on that photograph, JemmyH.

I also had my mobile phone recording while I took the photograph.
Here's the hawk leaving, a few minutes later, taking the remains of his catch with him.

[url=https://streamable.com/c13deg[/url]

"Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, the eyes, the eyes, not around the eyes, don't look around the eyes, look into my eyes ...... You're under"!

Excellent photo David, vibrant and wonderfully detailed, ignore those rancorous commenters, so true is the saying that the devil finds work for idle fingers.

You tell them Irene, it's good that folks send in their photos for us to see and enjoy every day.

Keep your camera handy Edna, I'm sure the Robin will eventually pose for you in return from having a few tasty grubs from your borders.

In the NE where I live, these are common birds - two kills in my garden this year.
Of the predator birds, my favourite is the Peregrine Falcon - have watched them through RSPB viewing at Norwich Cathedral (they nested on the spire) and are capable of a look that would turn milk sour! Their flight patterns are dream-like.

Lovely photo David. Nature is both beautiful and cruel but what we have to accept is that these birds kill to survive.

David, I've had a view of your video at https://streamable.com/c13deg - not much left of the Blackbird, just seems to be a wing and feathers, and to be almost picked clean of flesh.

So true lock lass, just been reading that when feeding chicks in the nest they can kill up to ten birds a day.

No, Cyril, not much left at all. He must have spent ten minutes ripping the blackbird apart, which gave me time to get my camera out and get a few sneaky shots of him. I was lying on the floor about ten metres from him. He kept lifting his head up to make sure I hadn't got any closer.

I'm looking forward to getting back over to Spain with my dad, as there's a multitude of wild-life to photograph, from eagles, owls, flamingos and Vultures to wild boar and deer.

Let's hope you present us with some more of these good photos, David. It's a shame they can only be about Wigan though as I for one would like to see some of your Spain wildlife photos.