Arguably the light wasn’t very good - these are ISO8000-10000 photos as the patch of thistles was in the shade of the tree. But as you say, enough directional light light make the photos more interesting.

Oh yes, if I see thistles gone to seed, I always look closely for these.

I suspect I’ve pushed it as far as it will go - as is pretty obvious from the sky whiting out to get more than just black shadows in the sky!

Yes … interesting, just not technically good.

Thank you.

There’s only one hide at Dinton Pastures, which is based round a set of lakes in old gravel pits. The hide looks out to the one lake kept aside from boating and fishing and so has lots of birds. This bird (and I think a companion I never saw clearly) were in the reeds in front of the hide so really close. But I do have rather a lot of partial shots too :)

Carduelis Carduelis in the UK case :)

I believe their plumage remains pretty much the same through their adult life, and males and females are really quite similar (with hints as to sex but not enough to be sure).