Birds, Bees and Blooms

The birds are still coming to my window sill but sometimes thay are hard to photograph without getting a hefty chunk of window frame in the shot. I had noticed that over by the bird tables the birds often perched in the branches above before coming down to feed,so thought I could construct a small perch above the window sill. I cut some thin sticks from the garden and constructed one. At first ,of course, the birds ignored it and flew staright to the food which is in flowerpots, but after a while they started to use it. The Bluetit above is sitting on it.

It also seemed to encourage Long Tailed Tits to the window sill,usually two at a time, and I was able to get some nice close ups.

Not all the birds venture across of course, but the Robins come regularly and so do the Starlings. There have been a couple of surprises at the bird table recently. The Redpolls are still here and on one occasion I saw eight on the bird table at one time, the most I've ever seen. Maybe the biggest surprise was the appearance of a Siskin. It stayed for about 15 minutes before moving on. I imagine it was starting its flight North as spring is almost here. We are right at the southern most edge of their winter range.

Siskin

Siskin

Lesser Redpoll

Elsewhere in the garden it is the flowers that are heralding Spring. The snow drops are almost finshed now but the mauve crocii that  grow wild here have been showing nicely. The daffodils are just starting to appear and there one or two Celandines around. the primroses havn't flowered yet, so that is something to look forward to.

Another sign that things are warming up is the honey bees coming out of the hive, where they have been clustered throughout the winter. There were about half a dozen drinking from the pond as I passed. One had gone a bit too far in and had got itself waterlogged. I managed to rescue it, and while it was drying out I got this closeup. I think she looks relieved!

Filters and Godwits

400mm lens with Haida 3.0 filter (10 stop) 30 seconds

Yesterday, 23rd February 2012 ,note the date, was the first taste of Spring this year. With the temperature reaching a dizzy 15 degrees centigrade and the sun shining, I headed off to Riverside Country Park near Rainham,Kent. I had a particular motive for going! I have recently purchased "10 stop" Neutral density filters for my camera. They enable me to take long exposures during daylight hours by filtering the light and getting nice cloud and water effects. Typically there wasn't much water or cloud movement on this sunny and still day. Also being the first "nice" day for some time the country park was buzzing with visitors. The tide was high and I found a spot by a stone jetty and tried out my filters. Here are some of the results.

ND10 filter (about 3 stop)

105mm lens with Haida 3.0 filter (10 stop) 30 seconds

No filter

I did have a secondary motive for my visit. A few days before a gentleman I had met at Cliffe Pools told me that 1 hour after high tide Riverside was very good for seeing waders. I hadn't checked the tide tables but as luck would have it I'd arrived at Riverside Country Park right on high tide. After I had taken my filter photos I was all set to get some snaps of waders. On two occasions I was approached by people enquiring what I was hoping to see. I explained about the wader tip-off but of course none were appearing. The tide was going down, the mud was starting to show, but all that had arrived were about a dozen noisy black-headed gulls. I decided to move at this point and as I headed back towards the car park I spotted them. First a Redshank landed right next to some ducks (Teal). I could see Oyster Catchers further away and then 4 Black Tailed Godwits were feeding in the shallow water. I set up my tripod again and managed to get a few shots, one is below. I noticed that one Godwit (the one on the left) had coloured rings on its legs. Right Leg Red/White/Red, Left Leg Red/Green/Yellow. When I  checked this out on the Internet today I discovered this was part of an international Godwit ringing scheme. They are being in ringed in Iceland and Russia,where they spend the summer, and Portugal, France,Netherlands, Ireland and the UK where they spend the Winter. There is a site that shows the ringing variations and my bird was probably one ringed by Pete Potts in the UK. In fact the Medway Estuary is one of the ringing sites, so chances are that it was ringed right here.

So  a good afternoon at Riverside Country Park , and two useful and interesting sessions. I had learnt a bit about using filters, and I had found out about Black Tailed Godwits.

Out in the Cold

When the weather is cold outside I am sometimes  reluctant to stir myself from my warm chair and head out into the garden. However today I did, and went to look at the sheep and llamas. The sheep are pretty active. They were nearly all grouped near the fence where I could see them, and there seemed to be a bit of head banging going on. As you can see in the picture above they were headbutting each other, but not in a violent way. At first I assumed it was the males becoming competitive, and some of them may have been, but insome cases a gentle tap of heads was followed by a pursuit and an attempted mating. Maybe, like the llamas this is just a dominance thing. The llamas do it quite often. However it may have been a precursor to the breeding season, so maybe in a couple of months we may have some Hebridean lambs. 

The llamas had wandered down to our corner of the field, away from the fodder where they seemed to have spent the last few days. They were gnawing at tree bark and twigs and anything else they could find. The one on the right in the picture (Erica) is expecting in the next few weeks. Something else to look forward to. 

Unlike me, the birds and animals don't have a choice about being in the cold. However they spend more and more time around the bird tables and feeders. This woodpecker has become a regular since the snow came down.

The previous time I had been round the garden I had seen large bird footprints in the snow, and I guessed it was a pheasant. I wasn't altogether surprised when this female appeared on top of the folly. It didn't find it's way right up to the bird tables, but kept popping its head in and out of the ballustrade.

Of course it is not only the birds and animals that don't have a choice. Many people have to go out in the cold and snow. One little group are the dog walkers. I see quite a few from my window almost on a daily basis. Sometimes their paths cross and the dogs are not always so keen on each other.

 We are next door to a riding stables (Smith's Farm) and as they keep some horses in a field at the end of the road opposite (Malthouse Lane) there are often people and horses going back and forth.

 ...and of course the paperboy had to deliver the Sunday papers on the morning after the snow fell.

Our feathered friends have a very hard time at this time of the year especially the smaller ones, who pretty much have to keep eating all day, because of the short daylight hours.

So don't forget to put out any food you can. Either on your bird table, or even on your window sill. When the weather is cold they will come very close to feed.

They give us a lot of pleasure, so let's help them out!

Inside Outside

I am obviously going soft in my old age as the inclination to go outside in this cold weather is getting less and less. However that doesn't mean I can't take photographs. I have had a very pleasant day today with my camera by the window from 9 this morning until 4 this afternoon, and have taken a lot of pictures. I did the same on several days this week. There have been so many birds outside that it was hard to know where to look, and they keep jumping about, having little fights, and generally being very active. Everything that I usually see turned up, plus the Great Spotted Woodpecker who doesn't come that often. He came twice today to make up for lost time. One thing that I had never seen before was him going onto a shaded ledge that never gets the sun which still had a little bit of snow on it. He crouched right down with his head to one side and was eating the snow. I suppose all the normal watering holes, like the pond, were frozen over. An intriguing sight. Here are the pictures I have taken from my cosy hideaway, looking out onto a cold,cold world.

Oh! You didn't think I would mention the snow eating Woodpecker and not give you a picture did you? Of course not! Here it is!

Winter Collection

I had an idea the other day. Instead of wandering round the garden in indifferent light, or even rain, trying to photograph things, why not collect things and bring them indoors and photograph them under more controlled conditions. This is a record of my first attempt. I found various things, including walnut shells, hazel nut shells, acorns, a variety of brown leaves, a couple of feathers, some dead ferns and hogweed heads, a sycamore seed, a twig with lichen on, and most usefully a nice mossy brick.

When I got them in I tried various combinations set on coloured paper, that I had bought from a craft shop, and also set on the mossy brick. I used my camera on a tripod with my 100mm macro lens, a spotlight, and for some pictures my macro ring light.

The first picture (above) shows a close up of one flower from the hogweed.

 The next is a close up of a twig with two types of lichen, one is grey green. The other, which really caught my eye, is dayglo yellow.

Next we have a feather probably from a Collared Dove that had fallen victim to a Sparrowhawk. The effect that I have created with this is with indirect lighting, hence the orangey look.

Finally we have a Sycamore seed with its wing that carries it  down gently to the ground while moving on the wind. It is pictured with a Hazel Nut which had been well gnawed by a squirrel. The background is the mossy brick.

There were other pictures that didn't work out so well including a dried out sunflower and acorns. I will try this again as the months progress. It should provide an interesting alternative view of life in the garden.

Good News/Bad News

The good news was, and I emphasize was, that up to a week ago we had six fish in the pond that we didn't know about. The bad news is, following the pond being frozen for about 3 days, they are now dead.

Today I went to the pond to rake out the dead leaves that had accumulated there. I had been up there a few days before, but because it was frozen I couldn't do it. Someone had broken some of the ice and taken it out, so I broke a bit more. Now that the pond has completely thawed, I started raking out the leaves with a grass rake turned over. The first scoop not only brought out some leaves and pond weed but two dead fish, one about 5 inches long pictured below, and another smaller one about half the length. I continued, and in the process of clearing the pond I came across 4 more small ones.

About 20 months ago, not long after the pond was built, one of my neighbours put some minnows in the pond. After a few weeks they disappeared and I assumed they had died. 6 months ago another fish appeared, I think I mentioned it here, and it was around for several months, but I hadn't seen it lately.
It appears that up until the recent cold spell they had all survived. I am told that the small ones pictured here are minnows, although they are bigger than they were. I have also been told that the larger one is probably a young Roach, although again this fish is quite a bit larger than the one I saw last summer.

Whether there is anything else lurking down at the bottom of the pond I don't know, but I doubt it. after googling "frozen fishponds" I understand that if there is rotting vegetation in the pond (which there was - the leaves) that when it freezes over the gases can't escape and the water quality deteriorates and the fish can die. I am sad that we have lost these fish, but glad that they had survived for as long as they did.
Because it is a wildlife pond, there is no filtration system, nor do I put any chemical treatments in, so I suppose this is just nature taking its course. Among the dead leaves that came out I did find a couple of  live Damselfly Larvae that I returned to the pond.

Before I get too maudling I will just mention the wild birds, which are doing well. The next picture shows a pair of Starlings, a male and female. I have just learnt how to tell the difference. If you look closely at the base of the beaks you will see that one is pale blue, and the other is pink, and it really is blue for a boy and pink for a girl.

The Jays are visiting regularly now, as there are plenty of peanuts on the bird table.

....and for the same reason the squirrels are visiting a lot. Sometimes they just sit and eat and other times they dash off and bury the nuts in the lawn.

Experiments

You are probably thinking that there doesn't seem anything very experimental about this picture of a Greenfinch, but you would be wrong. One of the Christmas presents I received was a radio controlled shutter release. There are places in our garden where birds or other wildlife come, to which I can't get near enough,without scaring them away. The pond is one of those places. Birds and animals come there to drink, but if they see me they don't stay. My idea was to set the camera on a tripod next to the pond, and to hide away in The Hide, and when they arrived press the button and the camera would fire. So I did it. After an hour nothing had come remotely near the pond.....typical. Then a few birds did venture down and I pressed the button. I couldn't really tell whether they were in the frame and so I have several nice photos of this piece of grass. However once, and only once, I got the bird in the frame, and this is it.

This is the camera set up, taken from the direction of the hide,though not from in it. The view from the hide is not so good as this, as the ornamental grasses get in the way.

This picture was taken with my 100mm macro lens and my new Speedlite flash unit (another christmas present). I was walking round the garden looking for subjects to photograph at a time of year that doesn't yield many opportunities. However this shrub was in flower and I took a shot that I then experimented with in the processing stage. This effect is called Holga-ish, with an extra effect "focal zoom". These are available on the latest version of Picasa 3, which is a free download from Google, and which I can whole heartily recommend.

This next one uses the same set up, 100mm macro plus flash. It shows all that remains of a rose set against the black and white of the leafless trees. I thought it summed up winter, while harking back to the colour of summer, almost forgotten.

......and finally a nice shot of one the Redpolls. They disappeared for a few days, but now they are back! I imagine they temporarily defected to someone else's bird table.

When I called this post "Experiments" what I really ment of course was "Trial and Error", but I suppose when all is said and done it comes down to the same thing!

It's not unusual

It's not unusual to see a Great Spotted Woodpecker, although they havn't been around for quite a while, but just lately they are back, and can often be seen on the peanuts.

It's not unusual to see Mistle Thrushes in the garden, but they are usually flying round in some sort of panic making that strange high speed clicking noise that they so often do. However seeing one on the bird table is quite unusual. 

It's not unusual to see Long Tailed Tits, but usually their visits are so fleeting that it is really hard to get a picture. Just for once three of them appeared on the bird table,although they seemed more intent on having a little "contre-temps" with each other than feeding.

It is definitely not unusual to see Magpies in the garden, in fact they are very common, and I usually pretty much disregard them. They are handsome birds, and I thought just for once I'd give them a mention, and include a picture.

   

 ....finally another bird that is definitely not unusual - The Goldfinch. I think I have had more entertainment from the Goldfinches this year than any other bird. Every morning when I open my curtains there is at least one out there, and often many more, up to a dozen at times. So for their consistent activity on the bird table this year, I am naming the Goldfinches as my Birds of the Year.