A few from this morning's Buff-bellied Pipit in the far west of what counts for London in terms of listing, right on the boundary of the LNHS recording area. The first for the London, and even though I knew it would be very busy, I had to go - glad I did though. Despite a close subject, very tough photography with the bird in complete shade, below a low wall that you couldn't go over, and with millions of people all trying to do the same as me! Managed a few decent ones, but the hit rate was very very low. Used the 1D4 and 800mm, what a fabulous combo - I am very lucky. The length of the lens really helped negate the shooting angle that shorter lenses were forced to use and still get a decent image size - at that point 300mm lenses were right on top of the bird. My minimum focus of 6m forces better composition. ISO mostly in the 1000-1250 range, and shutter speeds on the low side for handheld, at around 1/400s - I suppose the image stabiliser really comes into its own in these situations, but it can't do anything about a bird that rarely stays still. Here are the best of the bunch.