I just said April was a busy month, wow, was May a busy one for photos?
Looks like May was a big month for garden bird photos, there are a LOT of them, they won't all appear here of course :)
Drookit Greenfinch ...... again
I seem to have a lot of photos of soaking wet birds (drookit) I guess it rains a fair bit up here :)
The sun shines a lot too, I think we only tend to remember the rainy days, you often hear, "we didn't really have a summer this year" of course we did.
Colourful trio -Great Tit, Goldfinch & Greenfinch
Great Spotted Woodpecker on the grass
The Wagtails seem to return here each year but we didn't see any young this year :(
Pied Wagtail on the fence
As Spring moves in the activity around the feeders increases as does the type of bird visiting. I find Siskins beautiful wee birds and very feisty, often chasing bigger birds off a feeder but the 'hairdo' on this little guy was too much to resist :)
Male Siskin showing off its hair style
Great Tit pair on a dinner date
We get Great, Blue and Coal Tits at the feeders, coal Tits being less frequent and very fast, in, grab, out! Long-tailed Tits also pass through in the Winter months and they're just as bad.
Cock Sparrow on a branch
Female House Sparrow
We are so lucky to get two (three) Sparrows here, House, or the ones that everyone sees, Tree Sparrows which I don't remember ever seeing down South or in S Wales and of course, Hedge Sparrows, or Dunnock. The Dunnock skulk around on the outskirts of everything and are rarely seen on any feeders.
Tree Sparrow on the fence
If you look at the shots above, you'll see the difference between the Sparrows. House Sparrows have a distinct Male / Female, Tree Sparrows all look the same and show the whiter face markings. We have both living in the hedge alongside the house.
The two birds that I hoped to see when we moved North again were, Tree Sparrows and Yellowhammer, we have both and for the first six months we only saw the Yellowhammers on the outskirts of the garden, in the fields and hedges, we now get them visiting in Spring then they move back out to nest and rear young.
Yellowhammer female in the grass
We're also lucky to have several pairs of Greenfinches visiting the feeders so, I try to keep them as clean as possible at all times to prevent disease.
Young male Greenfinch
Male GSW on a suet feeder
Siskin female sharing with a Goldfinch
Of course, there are always Starlings and some detest them, they do arrive in droves and cause chaos, eating everything but they are beautiful birds.
Starling on a branch
Starling stretching for suet
All of these shots and many more were taken in the first week of May so, I'm going to spread the month out over a few pages.
Yellowhammer foraging in the garden
