With poor weather and nothing of real interest to tempt me out, but suffering from withdrawal symptoms from no birding activity, I decided to spend a day trying to photograph some visitors to my garden feeding station. At least the snow in the garden improved the light, giving around 1/250th to 1/350th second at f4 and ISO 650.

My garden is not large and the feeders are quite close to the house so it was necessary to shoot though the conservatory double glazing, something I have never tried before. It was necessary to remove the lense hood to get the front of the lense as close to the window as possible and there was a limited range of view as if the lense was at too much of an angle to the glass, there was unacceptable distortion.

Anyway, after some terrible shots, some more acceptable images resulted.

Now let me introduce you to a bird I have named 'Butch' after watching the activity around the feeders.

A female Blackbird, at least 10% larger than any of the other Blackbirds in the garden and a real bully. Nothing feeds unless this bird allows it - small birds have little chance when she is around and even Wood Pigeons and Feral Pigeons disappear when rolex replica she shows up. Quite the fiestiest bird I have ever come across.

A visit from a species causing concern for it's future showed up - Quite pleased to see a couple taking advantage of the food.

Then some regular visitors

Finally, the bird I really wanted.

I think the images are acceptable in the circumstances although not the best I have taken - there seems to be something missing when shooting through double glazing but an interesting experiment never-the-less.

More images in the Recent Additions section of this website.