Hi Folks,

Just to give a clearer picture of what I meant about the bird's behavior, I've added this image. It's not an especially clear one of the bird itself, but it nicely shows its preference for the high ground, in quite typical habit. The bird will soon move on, leaving you to get nearer to any near by high points, to be ready for the bird's next round of inspection.

You'll need to get a good idea of what distance you need to be at to get a reasonable picture from your lens, while ensuring you don't get so close that the birds will be affected by your presence and go. If you can manage it, the birds won't care about you too much if you can move about on your knees. An unusually sized human is often a source of interest to them, and after a short while, they will often come to check you out for several minutes- so long as you keep your movements slow.

If you go looking for the wrens in colder weather, you'll get what I find is a more appealing picture than otherwise, because in the cold they look almost round, like in this image. And you'll get less problems from turbulence in the atmosphere.

Good luck,
les

I can't believe it has been 3 months since I posted this question. My apologies for not replying sooner. Firstly thank you all for your suggestions. I have been out practising , setting my camera on Manual (around 1/500sec f/7.1 ) , and adjusting the ISO to achieve the correct exposure.
Things are getting better! I have also been reading Glen's instructions on DPP4 and have posted a photo (not of a black and white bird), for comment.
So much to learn!

Personally I think it is much easier to set your ISO & Aperture and adjust exposure with shutter speed by clicking the main dial back and forth. That saves a two step process of having to press the ISO button and then moving the wheel/dial. If you then find you can't get the desired shutter speed for the correct exposure and / or the situation then and only then do you need to think about changing aperture and/or ISO.

Hi Geoff,
It is not necessary to 'press the ISO button and then move the wheel/dial', a two step process as you rightly point out. All that needs to be done is to assign the ISO adjustment during metering to the quick control dial on the back of the camera. This is easy to do using Custom Controls on the 7DII, 5DIII, 5Ds, 1Dx and 1DxII. I am not sure about other Canon bodies. Using this method one can dial up and down the ISO using the thumb on the quick control dial while watching the exposure meter in the viewfinder.
Cheers, Ian

even so, ISO would be the last exposure component that i want to adjust as it has noise implications. Where as adjusting by shutter speed I already have my baseline ISO set and know what those implications will be in post. Not to mention that I think (for me anyway) it is easier to use the finger than thumb on the on the quick control dial especially whilst using Back button focus.

Cheers,
Geoff.

Hi Everyone, I do adjust shutter speed regularly but also like to adjust the ISO often to keep my speed up. Unfortunately my spindly little arms struggle to keep my camera still despite the wonderful VR tools, and as I use a harness system to carry the camera, I can't use a monopod. I don't think the 7D (I) has the ability to move ISO to the quick dial control so I am getting used to the 2 step process. I am happy to accept noise over a blurry bird, especially when it can be partially remedied by post processing (nothing will help a really blurry bird). I am now also not bothering to take photos when the light is too poor. I also can't use the back button focus when wearing glasses (can't see a thing without them!). Ohhhh dear......the trials and tribulations of photographers with big lenses