After that ended up at Sefton church looking for kestrels. The weather was really warm and the churchyard was so peaceful that I was in no hurry to go anywhere else. Sadly the pair of kestrels that were previously seen were absent but it was so pleasant we decided to stay in the churchyard and look for other things to focus our attentions on.

Apart form a few greenfinches and a singing blackcap there werent many birds around so I got out my new macro lens and decided to practise with it. The lens I have is the sigma 105mm f2.8 ex dg but I am really struggling with it and cant get the sharpness that I would like. Macro lenses have such a shallow depth of field and such a fine focus that I think I really need to use a tripod. Being someone who prefers to handhold I will persevere a little longer but I fear I might have to give in to one in the end.

In the churchyard there were alot of native plants such as bluebells and primulas coming into flower. The blossom looked really beautiful too. The sun had also brought out the butterflies and I saw my first veined whites of the season. Two were feeding on the dandelions but they were very flighty and I never really got close enough to them. The photo above was a hurridly taken snap shot as they both flew away.

My only burst of energy for the day was taken up with chasing whitethroats down a country path. There seems to be alot of whitehtroats around and in this area I saw three together. Getting close to them is another matter though. They are very wary birds and certainly know how to outfox me easily enough.