I’m now back home in Lichfield and one of the first thing I did this morning was to fill the feeders up and make sure everything was stocked up again for my avian visitors. I feed all year round and, although the demand for food does lessen with increased natural availability, I still get a good selection of species. You can watch these feeders, live, on my website.
I have a set of feeders hanging outside my hub. This is a wooden building, with a living roof, where I keep all my wildlife paraphernalia and food etc. It has a long window, made from a 4mm high quality glass. If kept clean, I find I can photograph through it, meaning the birds don’t see me and I can photograph from the comfort of, what is effectively, a hide. Today, I nipped out for half an hour as I have 2 pairs of bullfinches visiting daily. They have now started bringing two youngsters and I was keen to grab some pictures of them. A few years ago, bullfinches were rare visitors to the garden and never came on the feeders. Over the last year, they have started visiting more regularly and have been feeding from the sunflower hearts and black sunflower seeds from early in the year. Gradually, they have become more accustomed to my presence and are now as tolerant as the greenfinches and goldfinches.
I stood in the hub today, with the aim of getting some shots of male, female and juvenile… and they did not disappoint! All of these are shot through glass, with a Canon 7D MrkII and a 100-400mm lens.
It wasn’t just the bullfinches around… the greenfinch also made an appearance and they look particularly vibrant within the rich green colours of the foliage at the moment…
The stunning goldfinch are looking resplendent and still visiting regularly. I have not seen any juveniles yet though..
Of course, the robin also made an appearance!
Feeding, watching and photographing the birds is probably what I most enjoy about my garden. Attracting avian visitors is one of the easiest ways to begin to connect with the wildlife right on your doorstep and from a simple window feeder on a balcony, to a more varied set-up like I have, it is something we can all do. Watch out for these stunners on my live cameras, along with lots of other visitors!