I watch the birds in my garden just about every day and, with the cameras I have, I am in the privileged position of being able to watch all my feeders even when I am working at my desk, where they are connected to screens in my office. I can even access them via my phone app, through the icatcher software that I use to monitor and record all the footage. So, when Big Garden Birdwatch comes around, I already could pretty much predict the exact species and numbers I am likely to see!
Yesterday, I spent an hour in my hub, photographing the visitors there. This is set up for photography and the background from these feeders is on the other side of the lane, so is always nicely out of focus, making the birds stand out. I get more of a variety of visitors on the patio feeders, but it is difficult to get good images here as there are too many distracting items, trees, fences and patio kit around.
The commonest visitors, by far are Blue tits! I think I have more this year than I have ever have! I love photographing these attractive little characters as they are such posers!
The Great tits and Coal tits also made an appearance, but the Long-tailed tits didn’t sadly. They prefer visiting the patio feeders! The Goldfinches provided a great opportunity for photography; they are such beautiful colours and the most colourful of our garden visitors…
Last year, I did not have any Greenfinches on my Big Garden Birdwatch, but they have made a recovery this year and I have a number visiting regularly at the moment.
I managed a few more shots of other species that popped in on the hour…
The other photos I took can be seen in my Flickr album by clicking on the link below…
I really don’t spend enough time with my camera at the moment. I love photographing everything from the common visitors in my garden, to wildlife in Shetland and it was lovely to spend a hour doing it yesterday.
I am about to submit my result to the RSPB now:
Blue tit:15 Great tit:6 Coal tit:6 Long-tailed tit:6 Goldfinch:8 Greenfinch:5 Bullfinch:2 Chaffinch:2 House sparrow:5 Robin:4 Blackbird:3 Jackdaw:3 Wood pigeon:2 Dunnock:3 Great-spotted woodpecker:2 Nuthatch:1 Collared dove:2 Magpie:1
We are taking part in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch tomorrow, with BBC Midlands Today filming at school, so watch out for us in the evening programme on BBC 1 if you live in the Midlands. It should be available on the Internet if you don’t!
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