Thursday, October 01, 2009

Norfolk Feeding Station

When I go away on holiday in the UK, I usually try and rent a self-catering cottage. One of the advantages is that it enables me to set up a mini feeding station in the garden during my stay. The only draw back to this is that if the birds are not accustomed to being fed, they sometimes do not appear or only at the very end of the week. This was the case on my recent visit to Norfolk where the cottage I rented was adjacent to a small area of woodland. The feeders were put up on arrival on the edge of the wood but the birds did not find it until the day before leaving. So most of these photos were taken on the morning before leaving.

There was a constant stream of four different tit species arriving once they had found it.
Blue tit
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Great Tit
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However, the bird that was really catching my eye were the Marsh Tits. These are very scarce in my local area and in fact I think I only have one photograph of this species. In a similar way to Willow Tit they are very tricky to photograph as they come in to the feeders, almost bounce off a branch and on to the feeder and then away up into a bush or tree to eat. So there is usually literally a fraction of a second in which a photograph can be taken. After a bit of perseverance against a ticking departure clock I managed to get a few photos.
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Checking the undercarriage before take-off
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As they say have bird feeder will travel.

7 comments:

Quantum Tiger said...

Stunning shots as ever. Love the undercarriage shotr.

holdingmoments said...

That's a superb selection Richard.
The Marsh Tit, excellent; but my favourite has to be the Blue Tit in the first.
He really looks as though he's concentrating on the food on offer.

kingfishertype97 said...

I appreciate your delicate works every time. Your writing is easy and pleasant to read for me ( My first language is Japanese)by the way, I want EF 500mm too.

HightonRidley said...

Great sequence of shots. Nice :) 1, 3 & 5 are my favs - great compositions and good connection with their eyes.

JRandSue said...

Outstanding set of images,fantastic looking Blog.
John.

Unknown said...

Rich - These are stunning bird portraits.

I have sent a separate mail on another important observation.

Rich Steel said...

Thanks for your reolies which are appreciated as always.

Cheers

Rich

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