Reed Buntings

A few shots from a recent session with Reed Buntings. These males are looking really smart at this time of year in their breeding plumage. I noticed that they have unusual feet, almost like fingers, this must be for them to grip the reed stems more easily.

Up Close and Personal

I thought I would do something a little different for this post. - A collection of close-up headshots of garden birds.
You can see how the face feathers differ between the species, the Nuthatch and particularly the Dunnock having quite course plumage, whereas the smaller Long-tailed Tit has very fine feathers.

Long-tailed Tit

Nuthatch

Robin

Blue Tit

Bullfinch

Coal Tit

Dunnock

Great Tit

Bullfinches

I am lucky to have at least three pairs of Bullfinches in my garden. They are always good to photograph, apart from their striking colours they are one of the few species that seem to pose for the camera, always pausing for a few seconds in a natural position, with their heads at a nice angle. I wish some of the other species would be as obliging.

Whooper Swans

As I said in my previous post I spent a fair bit of time photographing the Whooper Swans at Martin Mere Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust this week. I wanted to try and get something a little different. A few of them were bathing which always makes for some good action shots, the problem is getting them side on with their head at a decent angle. I also experimented with close-up and arty shots.  The ones of them drinking have some really crazy and amusing reflections.

Ducks

A bit of sunshine at last!
So off for my first visit of the year to Martin Mere Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Lancashire to get some needed images under my belt. It was pretty quiet there with only a few ducks in front of the hide, I had hoped for Pochard but none to be seen, neither were there any Ruff which are usually present about now.
I decided then to concentrate on the Whooper Swans which I usually tend to take just a handful of shots of, I thought it was about time I paid them a bit more attention and my next post will show some of the results, but for now here are a few of the ducks which are looking their best at this time of year..

Pintail

Pintail

Teal

Wigeon Drake

Wigeon Female

Woodland Birds

Well! In the last seven days here in the Lovely North West of England we have had about three hours of sunshine.  I was ready for it though with my hide set up in the garden and made the most of every minute.

Here are some of the results with a few from other recent sessions thrown in. I'm actually starting to make inroads into my huge backlog of images, although I'd rather be out with the camera.

Blue Tit

 Blue Tit

Tree Sparrow

Bullfinch

Bullfinch

Long-tailed Tit

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Variety of Species

With the grim weather we have been experiencing over the last few months I have not been able to get stuck in to any of my planned projects.  Apart from the odd reasonable day it has just been a case of going out every time the sun briefly appears, consequently I have ended up with a few shots of a variety of different species.  This post is a collection of some of them.

Brambling

Collared Dove

Coot

Fieldfare

Greenfinch

House Sparrow

Redwing