Familiarity breeds content

by on Feb.23, 2011, under Birdwatching, Choppington Woods, Northumberland, Photography, Southeast Northumberland

During the winter, when I’m busy with admin and business development, I do most of my birdwatching close to home.  Studying Jackdaw and Starling roosts involves a short walk, but with a constant level of activity around the feeding station (conveniently placed to be visible from the office window) I can enjoy the hobby that has been with me since early childhood throughout most of the day.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve had my camera and tripod set up in the kitchen.  Any newcomers to bird photography could do worse than concentrate on the birds in their own garden.  I blogged about our feeding station recently, but I make no apologies for adding a few more images to the blog now :-)

Brambling, bird photography, Northumberland

Brambling

 

Goldfinch, bird photography, Northumberland

Goldfinch

 One species I finally managed to get some good images of is a bird that captivated me when I first saw a flock of them, nearly 40 years ago, in my neighbour’s Pear tree.  With their almost non-stop movement, persistent vocalisations and, let’s face it, looks that are so cute it should be illegal Long-tailed Tits are enchanting.  In previous years they’ve been infrequent visitors to our garden but this winter they are here pretty much all day every day.  A lot of our clients have made similar observations and wondered why this change of behaviour has happened.  Long-tailed Tits are insectivorous and it seems that likely that the hard winter weather, coming so early in the winter has had a devastating impact on their natural food source and made them increasingly reliant on artificially provided food.

Long-tailed Tit, bird photography, Northumberland

Long-tailed Tit

Share
:, , , , , ,

Leave a Reply

CAPTCHA Image
*

Looking for something?

Use the form below to search the site:

Still not finding what you're looking for? Drop a comment on a post or contact us so we can take care of it!

Visit our friends!

A few highly recommended friends...

Archives

All entries, chronologically...