Garden Birds

Woke up this morning to see a sprinkling of snow. It didn't linger long as the snow turned to sleet and then rain. Its been another week of cold, dull, grey weather.

Its been a good week for garden birds so I've made a good start on the 2011 garden bird list. Species seen this week are (in order of appearance!):

Blue Tit
Robin
Wood Pigeon
House Sparrow
Magpie
Goldfinch
Great Tit
Dunnock
Feral Pigeon
Blackbird
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Carrion Crow
Wren
Grey Heron
Long-Tailed Tit
Coal Tit
Collared Dove
Sparrowhawk

The sparrowhawk shot over the fence one morning like a missile and a blackbird feeding had a very narrow escape. A wren is roosting in one of the hanging baskets - I wonder if it is the same one who nested in the same basket in the summer.

I've seen a few other species locally to add to the general 2011 bird list - black-headed gull, pied wagtail and starling.

2011 Garden Bird List = 18 species

2011 General Bird List = 34 species

And I still haven't yet managed to see a waxwing!!!! I am checking all the local berry and apple trees daily without success but I am getting sorely tempted to go on a "local twitch" to try and catch up with this species.

A start to the 2011 Bird List

I managed to drag my husband away from decorating daughter's bedroom to pay a brief visit to Ladywalk Nature Reserve (a West Midland Bird Club Reserve) at lunchtime today. It was cold - about 2.5 degrees centigrade - and dull with grey skies. No sign of the forecasted sunny weather. In fact, I've forgotten what the sun looks like!

The feeders in the car park were full of robins, blue and great tits, dunnnocks, chaffinches, four bullfinches and a willow tit with a fieldfare perched in a nearby tree.

Walking along the footpath that leads to the reserve we watched a goldcrest foraging among brambles for several minutes. Its always nice to see a small bird like this having survived the recent cold spell of weather. The river Tame runs alongside the path and we saw mallard and tufted duck on the river and a grey wagtail on the riverbank.

We spent about an hour in the hide which overlooks the various feeders and bird tables. Species seen included blue, great and long-tailed tits, chaffinches and greenfinches, great spotted woodpecker, dunnocks, blackbirds and robins, male and female pheasant, moorhen and reed buntings. The highlight was a visit from 2 redpolls.

The pools in the distance still looked frozen and unfortunately we didn't have time to walk over to the hide which overlooks the reedbeds where bitterns are often spotted in the winter. No sign of the lesser spotted woodpecker or brambling on this visit.

I did take some photos as it was the first time since Boxing Day I had had chance to try out the new lens. They are really only record shots as the light was very poor again.

Record shot of the redpoll



Long-tailed tits



A few photos of male and female pheasants





Apart from the occasional cropping especially on moth photos, I don't usually alter or edit my photos but I altered the contrast on this photo using olympus software and it certainly improved the photo slightly. One of these days I'll find the time to have a look at photoshop.



Halfway through the visit the light deteriorated even more and I bumped up the ISO from 800 to 1600 which turned out to be a massive mistake as the photos turned out really grainy. I think 800 is the maximum olympus can cope with. Even though its a poor shot I was pleased to get one of a blue tit in flight (with a couple of reed buntings on the feeder).



I'll post an update on birds seen in the garden later in the week.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It seems the right time of year to say a very big Thank You to everyone who has visited my blog since I started it in May with special thanks to those who have left comments, helped with identification and become followers.


Wishing everyone a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2011 with some special wildlife moments.



Here's a photo taken last March as a reminder that Spring is just around the corner!

Two Surprise Garden Visitors

I went into the kitchen last night and luckily for once the blind wasn't down because there on the outside window was a moth! Rushed outside to put it in a pot and popped it in the fridge. Probably not the wisest decision as moths that fly in winter tend to thrive on low temperatures and it was exceedingly lively this morning when I took it out to identify it and attempt to take a photo. So its a pretty poor, record shot only, heavily cropped, picture below.

I believe its a male winter moth (Operophtera brumata) but as usual if I've go the id wrong please feel free to correct me. Winter moths occur from late autumn until January or February and the females are unable to fly being virtually wingless.



This brings the total number of moth species seen in the garden this year (most caught through trapping) to 86 and the total number of species seen since I began trapping in Summer 2009 to 98.

I was just about to go into the garden this afternoon to collect bramble leaves to feed the stick insects and top up the bird feeders when I noticed a flock of birds eating silver birch seeds in the trees at the top of the garden. A quick look through the binoculars showed they were not goldfinches the species most frequently seen feeding on birch seeds recently. I managed to get quite close to the birds to confirm a flock of 14 lesser redpolls - another year tick for the garden. We get this species feeding on the birch seeds most winters and I have noticed before how confiding they can be and that you can approach them quite closely.

Yesterday I had a quick drive over to the Business Park to check for waxwings again(yawn!). There are still plenty of berries about and I counted at least half a dozen redwings joining the blackbirds in their feast but no sign of any fieldfares and, of course, no waxwings.

The weather has gone much milder over the last couple of days with temperatures reaching a balmy 6.6 degrees centigrade today. The snow finally disappeared today but its been a murky, foggy, drizzly couple of days so no further opportunities to try out my new lens!

A new toy for my camera

I've wanted a telephoto lens for a very very long time - ever since I replaced my old Kodak retinette A with a pentax me super slr about 30 years ago! A few months ago I deliberated for a long time as to whether it was worth buying a 70 - 300 mm telephoto lens for my olympus e420 digital slr when I wouldn't have image stabilisation. I did consider buying either a Panasonic Lumix FZ45 or Fujifilm Finepix HS10 which have good zoom and macro facilities but decided the whole point of having a digital slr was so I could add different lens so I've shelved that idea until the family digital camera needs replacing.

I had more or less decided on an olympus macro lens when my husband persuaded me to go for the telephoto lens as a combined Christmas and birthday present. Its been a long wait but I finally got that lens!

Here's a few photos I managed to take of garden birds yesterday. They are not very good - some are under-exposed and not very sharp and I had to bump up the ISO due to low light levels but as a first attempt I was quite pleased. The photos look slightly better if you click on them to enlarge. Hopefully, I will get better photos with more practice and better light conditions and more reading of camera books to improve my basic skills! If not, at least I will get better record shots than I would with the 14-42 mm lens. The lens is massive (I now need a new bigger camera bag) and I see I am going to have fun trying to take hand-held camera shots!! so I took these using a tripod. They have been slightly cropped.

Feral Pigeon



Two goldfinch photos





Great Tit



Flock of wood pigeons



Garden Update

I saw a lone redwing perched in the whitebeam in the garden on Christmas Eve - but again (like the flock of fieldfares the previous day) it didn't linger and ignored the apples on the lawn! Saw a wren today - my first garden sighting for months - good to see it had survived the cold weather so far and a pair of collared doves (another rare visitor these days) fed yesterday.

Still dreaming of a waxwing sighting though :D

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Garden Fieldfares

Just when I had almost given up hope of the cold weather resulting in a more unusual species visiting the garden, a flock of 8 - 10 fieldfares descended into the whitebeam and silver birches just after 9.00 this morning. Unfortunately, they only lingered for seconds - had they stayed a bit longer they might have spotted the apples on the lawn!

We had several centimetres more snow yesterday and once I had put out the food a flock of 10 wood pigeons came to feed - they outnumbered the feral pigeons for a change. A third robin has now appeared on the scene which has led to many more robin skirmishes as the resident pair who had been tolerating each other rush to chase it away. Up to 10 goldfinches are visiting the sunflower feeders and I have seen the odd greenfinch but the chaffinch and collared dove seen a few weeks ago have failed to return and we hardly ever see a starling.

Plenty of visits to the feeders from great, blue and coal tits and I saw a flock of 5 long-tailed tits yesterday but they are yet to visit the fat balls. Male and female great spotted woodpeckers are regular visitors and there is a resident flock of about 8 house sparrows. Dunnocks, blackbirds, magpie and carrion crow are the other species feeding daily.

I am about to brave the dreaded Christmas shop at Sainsbury's - so will be checking the berries for waxwings. The roads have been so icy that I haven't risked driving to the Business Park to check all the berries there but hopefully I will get chance next week.