Blue Tit Feather - Highly Commended in Close to Nature category of British Wildlife Photography Awards 2016

Diamond-like fine Cumbrian rain-water droplets on feather of Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), magnifying the extraordinary pattern of striations

A sparrowhawk caught and ate a blue tit in the garden, plucking it on a moss-covered wooden bench. This image is of one of the feathers left behind. I was considering photographing it when a fine drizzle - so typical of Cumbria - started to fall, and I discovered that each droplet of water created a diamond-like lens that magnified the feather’s extraordinary pattern of transverse striations.

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