2 May 26

*Day 14: Fourteen days after the first egg hatched, and the male blackbird brings food*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 195mm @ f/4.5, 1/200s, ISO 9000*

Let me just say this straight up: Extreme caution is required when photographing bird nests. Indeed, in many countries there are laws governing bird nesting. In the UK you can get into serious trouble disturbing nests of schedule 1 birds, and in general all wildlife has protection under the law. But even without laws and regulations, it goes without saying that nests should never be disturbed and nesting birds should never be distressed. Concern for wildlife trumps any photography pursuits.

*Day 1: A couple of hours old … 3 more to come*
*Shot remotely with Nikon SnapBridge: 70mm @ f/5.6, 1/40s, ISO 4500*

So how come I was able to capture the pictures in this blog? Well, for three reasons: 1) nest location, 2) the species of bird, and 3) the approach I took to capture these images. The only priority was not to stress or disturb the nesting site or the pair of birds rearing the chicks.

*Day 2: Two more chicks …*
*Shot remotely with Nikon SnapBridge: 70mm @ f/5.6, 1/40s, ISO 4500*

Let me start with the nesting location. The nest in these images was built in a linhay (open shed) just opposite the entrance to our house in the narrow passageway to the door. This is an area with a lot of human traffic as we must pass the nest a mere yard away to gain access to our property. Indeed, I discovered the nest when I used the outdoor tap literally next to it. The birds, particularly the female, did not seem to mind at all while sitting on eggs. This bird species is the Blackbird (Turdus merula) which is a common bird in the UK. We have several Blackbirds on our property. Some research suggests that Blackbirds can recognise individual humans, and that they can supposedly assess threat based on this recognition. The pair seemed quite at ease with our coming and goings. The situation of the nest and the bird species in this instance made it much easier to make the decision to capture nesting images.

*Day 3: And they’ve all hatched!*
*Shot with remote radio trigger: 105mm @ f/6.3, 1/100s, ISO 6400*

However, that doesn’t mean I could place myself in front of the nest with a camera and shoot images. I would clearly distress the birds if I did so, and I would block their way in and out of this part of the linhay. Even with this somewhat strange placement of a nest, the birds’ welfare was clearly of upmost importance. So, the only sensible way to photograph this nest was to capture images remotely without me anywhere near the camera and the nest. By doing so, I would cause no more disturbance to the nest than what the birds were already experiencing and clearly tolerating by our usual behaviour gaining access to our home.

*Day 6: The female feeding the chicks*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 105mm @ f/4.5, 1/320s, ISO 8000*

Before I get into remote shooting techniques, let me outline some other challenges photographing this nest. Most nests are usually not out in the open. It is typically in shade, in a sheltered area and somewhat hidden and camouflaged.. In this case light was at a premium, and tripod positioning and shooting angles were limited. It was an endless compromise between marginal shutter speed, high ISO levels and (barely) adequate depth of field to capture these images. The technical data for each photo illustrates this.

*Day 8: Mummy keeping them all warm*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 160mm @ f/4, 1/200s, ISO 8000*

*Day 8: The male feeding the chicks*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 160mm @ f/4, 1/200s, ISO 9000*

The linhay at our entrance is divided by walls with gaps at the top. This allowed me to put a tripod on the opposite side of the wall to the nest looking down onto it. By doing this, I could access the camera without being in view of the nest. The other shooting angle was from the entrance path to our house a couple yards away from the nest. An area with regular human activity. By shooting remotely, I would spend minimal time close to the nesting area, just fixing the camera to the tripod and then leaving it there.

*Day 8: Endless appetite!*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 105mm @ f/6.3, 1/160s, ISO 25600*

Shooting remotely has its challenges and limitations. You are not there with a camera in your hands and cannot fully or easily control all the buttons and shooting configurations. Establishing focus, selecting shutter speed and aperture and other settings is trickier with remote shooting. One of the obstacles I faced was the lack of a direct line-of-sight to the nest without standing literally two yards away from it by the wall of our house. So, shooting remotely meant finding a way to observe the scene without a direct view. I tried three different approaches. Each had its own advantages and disadvantages.

*Day 9: They can sense food is coming …*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 180mm @ f/4.5, 1/250s, ISO 3600*

*Day 9: Worms are delicious!*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 140mm @ f/5.6, 1/200s, ISO 9000*

The first approach was to pair my Nikon Z8 with the Nikon SnapBridge app on my iPad. SnapBridge creates a Wi-Fi connection to the camera, and the iPad provides a live view of the scene, in effect becoming the viewfinder. The advantage of this approach is the ability to use the iPad’s touch screen to set the focus point and change camera settings such as aperture, shutter speed and ISO. The disadvantages were twofold: Firstly, it only allows you to shoot one image at a time by pressing the button on the iPad. This results in a lag of 0.2-0.3 seconds from you pressing the iPad shutter release button to the image being captured, which is far from ideal – you miss the key moment. You really want to be able to shoot instantly and continuously to capture action at the nest. You can shoot continuously using SnapBridge in remote trigger mode. However, this disables live view, which rendered that option useless in my situation. The second disadvantage with SnapBridge is that I had to stand in a small room close to the camera to ensure the Wi-Fi connection was stable due to the thick walls of our house. A few hours of standing and staring at the iPad screen is a tad tiring.

*Day 9: Motion blur in female’s face illustrating the challenging shooting conditions*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 140mm @ f/5.6, 1/200s, ISO 7200*

The second approach was to put a remote radio trigger on the camera. One of the problems with this was that I could not then view the scene. I solved this by pointing a trail camera at the nest from a sensible distance. I connected the trail camera (Ceyomur CY95) to my iPhone via Wi-Fi and viewed the scene that way. This allowed me to observe the nesting activity through the trail cam lens and then hit the remote trigger for my Nikon Z8 to capture images. The disadvantage with this approach is that I could not remotely change camera settings and had to pre-configure the camera on the tripod. I had to assess the focus distance and pre-focus, and preset shutter speed and aperture. This required a few attempts to optimise. The second disadvantage is that I again had to stand inside the house close to the nest to ensure that the Wi-Fi connection to the trail cam didn’t drop

*Day 14: Incoming food delivery is spotted …*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 195mm @ f/4.5, 1/200s, ISO 8000*

The third approach used Nikon’s Auto Capture feature. See my separate blog post on Auto Capture here. This feature allows you to pre-configure the camera using certain capture parameters such as motion (direction, speed, size of subject), subject detection and distance. You set these parameters, put the camera on the tripod, and activate Auto Capture to shoot automatically for a set period. This takes a bit of trial and error to get the capture parameters optimised for the situation. If the capture parameters are inaccurate, the camera may not trigger and you either end up with no images, or it may trigger too often capturing ‘false positives’ and you end up with 1000s of images on your memory card.

*Day 15: That afternoon they fledged … leaving a beautifully made empty nest behind*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 180mm @ f/4.5, 1/250s, ISO 3600*

In the end Auto Capture was the mechanism I used the most. It is a brilliant feature of the Nikon Z8 and Z9 cameras. However, practice and familiarisation are key to its successful use. An added benefit of using Auto Capture is that there is no need to monitor the scene yourself. You can simply configure the camera, put it on the tripod and leave it for a set time. As this set up was by our entrance, it was something I could safely do in this scenario. The disadvantage is that you need to select focus mode, shutter speed and aperture before activating Auto Capture. Once it is on the tripod these settings are fixed for the duration.

*Day 15: Getting a little too big for the nest …*
*Shot remotely with Nikon Auto Capture: 180mm @ f/4.5, 1/250s, ISO 8000*

It is simply stunning what modern camera technology can help you achieve. In this case it allowed me to capture images in a highly delicate situation without disturbing the birds during their busy and stressful nesting season. But most enjoyable of all was to follow the birth of this next generation of Blackbirds. Intimately observing and studying the daily development from eggs to chicks and fledglings was highly rewarding and quite emotional. It was great to welcome these new neighbours. It seemed all four managed to fledge. Good luck little Blackbirds.

Say hello to a new generation of Blackbirds

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