WITH his eyes firmly on the prize, this grey squirrel took a flying leap of faith to get a free meal from a garden bird feeder near Abingdon.

It leaps for the prize

Former Oxford Mail photographer George Reszeter took the dramatic sequence of photos from the kitchen window of his home in Wootton yesterday.

The 60-year-old used the 70-200mm zoom lens on his Canon EOS-1D X to get the shots showing the squirrel leaping onto the bird feeder.

The squirrel prepares to grab on to the cage

Father-of-two Mr Reszeter, who lives with wife Patricia and specialises in photographing rare birds, said: “I spotted the squirrel getting ready to leap from this tree stump to the feeder, which is about 7ft off the ground — it was quite a leap and he must have jumped about five feet.

Diving in for a treat

“The lid is broken on the bird feeder so once he got onto it he was able to squeeze his body inside to eat the peanuts, birdseed and sunflower seed.

“Once he had gone I filled the bird feeder up with some more feed.

“You don’t see quite so many squirrels about these days and it made a really good sequence of pictures.”

The squirrel enjoys the fruits of its endeavours

Richard James, wildlife officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said: “It’s relatively common for people with gardens near woodland and parks to find squirrels on their bird feeders. You can use metal cages on bird feeders to keep squirrels out or let nature take its course.”