Well, it snowed yesterday, a decent fall, probably just over an inch of it lying all around and the temperature never getting high enough to melt it.
The birds turned up at the feeders in droves and some surprises appeared as the day went on. There were lots of birds I could not photograph, whether due to the light or their nervousness but, I think I got a reasonable list of those that did allow it. :)
The most numerous, as ever were the Chaffinches, there were a LOT of them today.
Male Chaffinch on the fence
Female Chaffinch on the fence
There were a couple of light flurries of snow throughout the day but nothing serious.
Round Robin on the fence
We only ever see one Robin in the garden but today, two showed up and there wasn't a bird fight. Hmmmmmm
What really caught my attention, among the myriad of Chaffinches was this brightly coloured Brambling.
Male Brambling in the snow
We get Brambling visiting now and again so it was really nice to see this male foraging with all the others, they can be difficult to see when mixed with Chaffinches. Needless to say, I grabbed a few!!!! shots :)
All the birds were very flighty yesterday, the slightest thing sent them off to cover so there were lots of gaps in the viewing but another pleasant surprise when I saw a female Brambling as well, a pair maybe?
Brambling female under the tree
You'll see that she has lighter markings generally and her face is paler
If you look closely in the shot on the right, the female has been rung but the chances of me seeing the labelling on that ring are pretty slim.
Female Brambling catching the light
I mentioned their similarity to Chaffinches but once you've seen it, you can see it :)
Brambling and Chaffinch males
There were nine Blackbirds out there at one point and tensions got pretty high but generally they've been feeding rather than fighting.
The Tree Sparrows were also out in force, they're usually only at the suet ball now and again but they were really feeding yesterday.
Tree Sparrow in the snow
Male Brambling
There may be a few Brambling shots in here, well, it's not enough they appear :)
Another pleasant but brief surprise visitor was a male Greenfinch, we see lots of them in the Spring / Summer months but haven't seen any for ages.
Greenfinch male in the snow
Greenfinch male and Goldfinch
It didn't hang around for long, maybe too busy for it?
Brambling female and Chaffinch male
I did say there may be a few brambling shots!
I had deliberately scattered more food on the ground so all birds could get to it, rather than in hanging feeders.
Great Tit
Tree Sparrow
Do you think that Tree Sparrow looks cold and grumpy?
Another bird we have around is the Dunnock or Hedge Sparrow but they're more often skulking among the plants or under hedges than out in the open. Beautiful wee, underestimated birds.
Dunnock or Hedge Sparrow
I was quite chuffed when this female brambling popped up onto the branch, made her stand out a bit more.
Another Brambling female shot
We seem to have inherited a garden 'bully', a Mistle Thrush showed up last year, grabbing mouthfuls of mealworms, presumably for young ones. Whether this is one of those young grown up or that parent has stayed around now, it has taken over the space and chases any other Thrushes / Starlings away!
Mistle Thrush
It's fabulous having a normally quite shy bird appearing regularly right outside my window.
Mistle Thrush on the fence
I still find the variation between an urban garden in S Wales and a rural garden in Central Scotland to be interesting. For example, Robins aren't that frequent here ...yet. House Sparrows are around but we see Tree Sparrows quite often, they live in the same hedge. Never saw Tree Sparrows in Wales.
Male House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
House Sparrow males and females look different whereas, Tree Sparrows all look the same.
Robin in the snow
So our Mistle Thrush is till quite wary of me when I appear at the window so I try to stay in the shadows or move slowly so I can get good closeup shots, often having to back off the 150-600mm lens. I'm going to add a series of shots now, remember these are only cropped to centre the bird, they're not cropped to make it look closer, it is that close. :)
Mistle Thrush portrait
The light in my eye
You talking to me?
Our house in its eye
Foraging under the tree
It got quite hectic out there at times, so many birds it was hard to keep track of them
A clump of Tree Sparrows
Young female Blackbird
House Sparrow males
Chaffinch males and a female
Blackbird male on the fence
Round Robin :)
Blue Tit dangling
See what I mean? Quite a variety and we ain't done yet, now and again some 'outsiders' drop by for an easy snack.
Jackdaw on the fence
There are SO many Corvids up here, never seen so many Rooks but Crows, Jackdaws and Ravens too, love it. One Rook brought a youngster to the garden last year, first time I'd seen them so close up. We rarely see a Magpie and there are Jays around but very shy, never seen them down here at the house. My favourites are Hooded Crows, none down here that I know of but I see a few up North. I've only ever seen Choughs on the coast in Wales but they are around in Scotland too.
Veryy intelligent birds and often fascinating to watch, if they stay around long enough.
Opportunist Jackdaw
You may think all these shots are a bit out of order but, I've been editing and sharing, mostly as they appeared, rather than by species.
Blackbird female catching good light
Dunnock or Hedge Sparrow below the window
I guess one of my highlights of the Spring / Winter months is the Long-tailed Tits, arriving in groups, eating like locusts then off again. Gorgeous little birds.
Long-tailed Tits on the nut feeder
They can be difficult to get a good shot of, never really staying still for very long. The surprise of the day, so far was the return of the Partridge family :) There are Red-legged and Grey Partridges on the land around here, today the Red-legged decided to drop by.
Red-legged Partridge
These guys can be totally hilarious to watch, constantly on the alert, there was a fifth one outside the fence, running to and fro trying to figure out how these got in here :)
Finally figured it out
Meanwhile, over on the other side is a Sunflower feeder where the Goldfinches lie to hang out and it's my morning sunrise photo spot, the Chaffinches are usually there first in the mornings.
Goldfinch and Chaffinch male
Sort of looks like that Goldie is saying something to the Chaffinch .....
Goldfinch in late sunlight
You might have noticed that over the duration of these photographs, the light has changed and we're now getting into early evening, the sun low on the horizon.
It's getting more difficult to get shots with the long lens as it gets darker but at 15:57 I glanced out and there's a Brambling male, almost on its own in the garden, pecking away at the nut feeder.
Apart from the lower light, almost perfect for photographing this bird.
Brambling and Tree Sparrow
These two had a good squabble before settling down to share.
So it was a busy day at the feeders, not just in numbers but in species as well, the final pleasant sight was a Long-tailed Tit taking to the ground to feed and taking much more time over it, presenting me with a few photo opportunities.
Long-tailed Tit just looking cute
And finally, that's it, thank you for staying with it if you've got this far, a grand day for me, mostly sitting here at the Mac with the camera on its tripod, bobbing up and down, grabbing photos all day long. There were more of course but so many just didn't make the cut.
