The last few days have been wintery up here, snow, low temperatures, just very dull. But one of the advantages of such weather is that we get many more birds coming to the garden to get some food in them. Flocks of 30 to 40 Chaffinch are common, at least 10 Blackbirds, all the Tit family including 12 Long Tailed Tits every day. Over the last week or so these birds have been very nervous & at the slightest movement they were off into the bushes & trees.
We have seen a Sparrowhawk sweep through the garden & have managed to frighten it off on several occasions. But if we go out for any length of time, we come home to a pile of feathers somewhere in the garden. With the large numbers of birds around it is inevitable that birds of prey will take advantage of that. So these very clever birds are only being resourceful and I should admire them for that. But it is not much fun just finding a pile of feathers.
The one below has been about all morning & as I looked out of the window, there he sat beside the feeders, just waiting for a brave bird to come & feed. Fortunately my camera was beside me & I managed this shot, though as you can see he was (excuse the pun) watching me like a hawk. Scared him off straight after this, but 1/ it was a wonderful opportunity to photograph him. 2/ what a cracking looking bird. 3/ I didn’t take a different sort of shot at him.
Sorry about the branch in front of him & also for the fact it was through the double glazing, making the lower half of the bird a bit out of focus.
