Sometimes you just get lucky or at least fortune has been kind to you. This shot is one of those occasions when although I planned the shot and made every effort to obtain it, ultimately my success or otherwise was based on a great deal of chance of all the necessary ingredients coming together. The stage was set with the teazel placed in position close to a bird feeder against a clean background of snow. The birds were enticed to land on the teazel by placing a few seeds out of view on the top of the seed head. Soon a bird had landed and started to feed, drawing the attention of others keen to get in on the act. Knowing that goldfinches are very territorial over a food supply I knew from watching them behave on the bird feeder that a fight was likely to break out. This is actually a very brief squabble rather than a 'rumble in the jungle' and usually the birds pirouette up into the air - quickly. The only feasible way to capture this is to pre-focus on the teazel itself and frame the shot with sufficient space above. I then watch from a hide (rather than through the camera's viewfinder) and use a remote release to fire the shutter every time a squabble breaks out. The big issues are framing and most especially focus. Often birds 'leave' the frame before I've hit the shutter and on most shots they have moved out of the plane of focus, which when shooting with a telephoto lens as was the case here is very narrow indeed. This is the 'lucky' bit - managing to capture the birds within the frame, in a good pose and in focus. This combination doesn't occur very often if at all during any given session in the hide, but when it does you have a winner - well maybe!