New Plot Visitors

In one of those rare moments of sunshine in one of the worst winters of weather I can remember for photography, I decided to make a visit to the new feeding station known as 'the Plot'. It has kept me busy keeping the variety of feeders constantly filled, as high numbers of birds have been visiting and eating their way through large quantities of seed, fat-balls and peanuts. On this particular morning it seemed fairly quiet in terms of numbers of birds arriving, the cause of which would be revealed later in the session.

The first birds returning to the feeders, after the minor disturbance of setting up the pop-up hide, were the Blue Tits as usual. Despite being a very common bird, which could be easily overlooked, when their plumage is in good condition they do look superb.

The tits were very quickly joined by a small flock of Goldfinch. This is one species that appears to have really benefited from the feed that people put out in their gardens, and what once was a fairly unusual sight is now common. The birds glowed in their beautiful colours in the early morning sun.

I decided to introduce a new perch taken from my garden which was already showing the first shoots of spring under the mild winter weather.

Another photograph taken later in the session, when one side of the photography area is plunged in to shade by a bush, giving dark backgrounds to the photos. I quite like these dark background photographs as they really show off the colours of the birds.

Next species to muscle in on the feeders were the larger Greenfinch. When these boisterous birds arrive all the other tends to be pushed out the way until they have had their fill.

A new species arrived in the shape of a small flock of Chaffinch. These birds don not tend to land so much on the perches but appear more content with picking up the fallen seed on the ground below the feeders. This is a male bird looking is great condition. It appears the birds are benefiting from their new food supply.

Joining in with the mopping up of seed from the ground was the arrival of six pheasants. A female bird peaking over from behind one of the logs.

Now you may be thinking that there was a lot of bird activity but compared to the numbers coming in to the feeders when I make my visits to refill, it was fairly quiet. The reason soon became apparent with a sudden burst of alarm calls from the scattering small song birds and rushing of air sound from above the hide resulted in a stunning male Sparrowhawk landing on the perch in front of me. As I was so close to perch to photograph the small birds, all I could fit into the frame was a head portrait. I managed to take about six photos before this predator with its highly tuned senses realised I was there and disappeared low and fast over the hedge. It was inevitable that so much bird activity would eventually attract a predator.

I am already looking forward to my next session at the Plot and to see what will turn up next.

Birds on Ice

Snow has been a rare occurrence in recent years where I live. The cold snap that descended upon the UK over the last few weeks has made a welcome change and provide a chance to photograph some birds amongst the snow. A ground covering of snow can create some beautiful lighting conditions with the undersides of birds becoming illuminated by the reflected light. It can also create some exposure headaches and the white can easily fool the camera's exposure meter resulting in dark photographs and grey snow. This can be overcome by dialing in some positive exposure compensation.

My recent efforts of birds in the snow are a compilation of two sessions and so there will be quite a few photographs on this post. The first was in some local woods around Christmas, although snow is a generous description as it was more of a layer of frozen hail that crunched under foot. Starting of with a real exposure challenge, a fine looking magpie.

A Stock Dove foraging through the ice bound leaf litter.

A pristine male chaffinch. It seems quite hard these days to find chaffinch that have not been affected by foot disease.

With next year's Christmas e-card in mind I couldn't resist a few robin photographs.

The next session was last weekend when there was a reasonable layer of proper snow to try some for some Fieldfare and Redwing photographs. The prolonged cold weather and shortage of food has resulted in large numbers of these birds arriving in back gardens, although not mine, so I headed out to find some.

The Redwing were playing hard to get and tending to be skulking in areas below bushes where the snow had melted.

The Fieldfare were more accommodating and must have been very hungry as they were feeding on Sea Buckthorn berries which in milder winters I have seen them completely ignore.

The birds were striking some interesting poses in the low late afternoon light.

Last photograph of a bird lurking on the edge of the shadows

The snow has all melted now and I think just in time as the birds were beginning to really look as if they were struggling for food. If you have been putting food and water out for them in the cold weather please continue to do so as they will need to build up their reserves.

Temporary Feeding Station

I decided I would take a feeder, some sun flower hearts and fatballs on my trip to Cornwall just in case there was some possibilities to set-up a mini feeding station in the garden. On arrival I noticed an existing nut feeder located outside the kitchen window by the front door. So I added a couple of fallen branches out of the garden to attach my offerings next to it, as the birds were already coming into this area. This allowed me to then take photos through the front door while sitting in the house which was probably just as well as we experienced all four seasons of weather during the week's stay. In hindsight my only regret was that I did not spend more time wandering around the garden or setting up another feeder elsewhere and on the last day realised I had missed out on a chance of getting some Marsh tit and Siskin photos. I did not spend a great deal of time photographing the birds, as that was not really the purpose of the holiday, and it was usually either a short session in the morning or after a day out exploring North Cornwall. I have posted a small selection of shots from the temporary feeding station.

Blue tits

and in some April snowFemale and Male Greenfinch

Female House sparrowMale Chaffinch

Goldfinchand Nuthatch

Wandering around the garden I also just about managed a photo of this willow warbler which refused to allow me a completely clear shot as it moved through some low branches.

and one of the resident wrens

They always amaze me that such a small bird can produce such a loud song.

300mm Lens Test

I recently purchased the 300mm F4 lens as I was finding occasions when a shorter focal length lens would be useful. The main use of the lens will be for flight shots of larger birds at relatively close range and also for smaller birds at close quarters.

I went to a private site in Cheshire where I knew I would be getting some close range shots for a variety of species to give it a test run. The weather was not great on the day but I was pleased with how the lens performed. It was a busy day!!!

Bullfinches

Blue tit Chaffinch

GreenfinchNuthatch Pheasant Robin and Tree sparrow

New Feeding Station

A friend and I have recently set-up a new bird feeding station on a private site we have access to. The feeding station will be run right through the winter months and into the spring. It is always interesting to watch a new feeding station develop to see which species will turn up. Early results look promising for a busy winter there.

One of the first birds to arrive were, as might be expected, some tit species.

Great tit

and Blue tit
Chaffinch also soon arrived. We are hoping to build a good flock of these birds in the hope that we may get a brambling amongst them.

A flock of around a dozen greenfinch also quickly found the new food source.

More from the Kitchen Door

As I now have a flock of 20 or so goldfich coming in to the back garden, I thought it a good time to replace a perch with some'natural habitat' of teasel heads. They were a bit reluctant to use them at first but a sprinkle of niger seed and they soon got the idea.

In fact they now use them regularly as a perch before hopping across to the feeders.

We had an unusual visitor to the garden recently in the shape of a female chaffinch which is a first in nearly 8 years of living here. I assume this was a migrant that just decided to stop off to refuel for a couple of days.It appears that the robin has firmly established the garden as his territory for the winter.

Checking his favourite perch which has the vague appearance of a statue from Easter Island.
To finish off the female black bird from the spring has returned. She was losing head feathers at that time but now the poor bird has taken on an almost vulutre like appearance.