Kingfisher is one of the birds I miss up here tbh and love your image further back in the thread. I’ll send you some of our siskins, they are obviously tougher than yours as they see off the sparrows.
I don't work from home anymoremissing my bird photography fun. Glad to see it's still working for you
cheers for keeping this going!! I'm not sure she approves as of yet.
That said we did have two families early on ,but the second lot have lost out to that lone female. No male seen for month until this last few weeks. So I could have a new male or maybe the old one has come back. Fella is still coming so maybe mum will accept him eventually,but not just yet. Hard life being a bloke mate
Hey mate,thought I'd drop by and see how the hell you are...........
Strange Dale,our numbers drop back and probably will go nuts shortly,but they don't leave us for the summer. We've had a steady stream of kids for months now. they must be having more than one clutch here. Maybe that's why we see this mass in the Autumn all the kids from the summer come back?? I dunno kiddo musing out loud. It does fascinate me though how your goldie numbers change relevent to what we see here. We also have a good dose of house sparras they don't seem to interfere with the goldies comming.
Done well on the GWS this year,lost the male just before chicks fledged mum seems to have made the grade brought one up ,both have visited all summer still coming. New male has appeared but mum gave him a right trashing the other day.
It's been pretty much standard here all summer black cap about and probably wood warbler, also a marsh or willow tit recently. then the usual suspects in profusion. Somewhere way back the spar killed right in front of me,ok killed above me but mantled on the floor yards away,me sat in the front doorway: I underexposed the split second grab shot but what a moment mate. Last couple of weeks the swallows built up numbers to leave and we had a hobby here. first for 28years hunting them briefly .
I've barely made an image in the garden for months Dale don't really know why, it's all there,so littlle time probably..We have one bird that hasn't visited all summer and that's the longtails,they are here but not using the feeders at all,which might be because we stopped using fat balls maggies crows and jacks were just trashing them in minutes. We will resume that shortly
Cheers again for the thread buddy as I say I've always found it fascinating to have the comparison of another fairly rural location as well as the images and that side of it all to be inspired by, Hope ya don't mind me littering up your thread
take care bro
stu
Indeed there is life in it mate ,wish I could do similar. It's a record Dale beyond the images and your learning curve others get something from threads like yours they will learn from your success and the other bits LMAO. So damn right you should continue it's a huge asset to the forum your thread mate.not blowing smoke kiddo,it really is
I largely come here to chill after a day hard enough to let me do little else. No need for apologies Dale the joy of webland for me is I can bung a mate a message and he/ she get's there when possible
Buddy,can you plant some form of hedge to screen problem neighbour. a visual barrier and security for small birds. We have both seen exactly the same thing at a similar time of year with the corvids and fat balls that's something to note mate!.
The hobby was a 100% a hobby ,I think on it's way south and lucked into a possible meal: each year the swallows come her to warm on our south facing rooves and feed before the off. Always late august, it's a wonderful thing I'd just hand counted 50 sat on next door when all hell broke loose ,a complete one off. I seem to have deleted a lot of images I never got time to stop and look at mate. I'll never actually know whether I got to that hobby before the tree. The swallows are a constant Dale done well locally this year,i worried for them not so long ago,but numbers are good this year for here .
Dale my neighbour gave me a load of niger,his feeders must be 30 yards from mine he has not one single goldfinch that will touch his feeders.............why??? I think it's all about cover . They nailed his seed in weeks when in our feeders just yards away??? . I'm seriously over grown for human ettiquette Dale but it's jaw dropping that they can be so picky over where there food is given the exact same food !!!
I can't remember when but we nabbed a bit of dead elm from a hedge,drilled 8mm holes in it and have been stuffing the thing with peanuts ever since . It was meant to be temporary Dale but we sort of got stuck The nuts are the draw , they have choice with a normal peanut feeder but GWS love that elm ............... might be worth a try ....find an attractive dead trunk growing upright ,drill a load of 8mm holes carefully placed, stuff with peanuts. Oh push peanut in from the non pointy end of nut .............one learns these things with time
Wild things take time Dale the images aren't easily won sometimes the memories are amazing when the images aren't ha sometimes the other way round.the journey is a cool thing though mate that's what those kingies are about
take care kiddo
.........hazel maybe if you don't want thorns for little lass what do you have in your hedge up there bro?? Ya want not only cover but to enhance the mini ecosystem ie your garden,you have the potential to add in a "wild" type food souce ie fruit nuts,but also using a native or cultivar thereof will help native mini things do well also ...........you have red squirrels Dale,I'm sure you told me about them???
should have planted sommit else for the hedge me olde mate
In a few years birds may well nest in the hedge but maybe this one is worth a rethink??? I think there are bigger bangs for your buck than leyland hybrids, that actually extends beyond having a resourse for your birds but also photo ops. Nut or berry crop might bring some really cool chances for pics of differing species to what you have already seen
cheers
I'm hoping they will provide nest cover too in years to come. Other trees just now are cherry x2, apple, pear and 2 x rowan. There are some brambles, currently with fruit on at the top of the slope, I regularly prune and train them and they are out of reach of little 'un. No nut trees just now but they will hopefully go in next spring, been meaning to get a few for a while now but just not got round to it. That reminds me, the hide is due a lick of paint, been meaning to do that since June.
and kentish cob. Not sure what they will turn into as all will be unique,but likely to have massive nuts on like both parents
buddy I might have some young cobs spare. give me a shout a bit later on in the year if you think you might want a couple. The ruddy woodmice buried a load of our nuts in a pot they grew,they are most likely a cross of, ha, wait for it................................ gunzlehurst
sorry brief bro rushing
bit cluttered and not a
Redpoll, 09/01/2020. by Dale, on Flickr
Thanks again Kevin,
Shouty Goldfinch. by Dale, on Flickr
Mate I'm coming to realize I love that separation that the shallow dof gives. But if my BKG is really clean really uniform ,I sort of feel I have lost something. I can sort of compensate with foreground with a ground dweller ,but with a bird its harder. ............ say Alder cones for the siskins ha the oh so obvious teasels for goldies but maybe work depth into that so the impression for me your viewer is i'm seeing a flock of goldies feeding in a field of teasels not a bird on a stem or a siskin feeding in nature. only I'm at eye level with it top of an alder tree Neither of us is ever going to bumble into that situation.
Dale you read my last post on another thread to Phil about owls and time in the field never wasted. What you are doing with the hide is no different to the owls or your kingies or my hares. That might sound weird......................... on the surface tis a total opposite.
Tis the same mate because of the repetition and the learning curve that goes with that .
Bro clean bkgs and birdz an beasti portraits .......................... You asked too clean and for me yup.
Mate this is very personal it's not really critique of your images at all............... just where all this is taking me I guess. So thoughts mate no more:
If my BKG is as clean as yours above, I often feel I've sort of missed a chance to of tell a story to my viewer.............. the bkg................ even if utterly OOF can hold shapes tones colour that give clues.... hints that might, ha MIGHT, make an image more involving. You control these BKG's in this senario Dale so yeah............ too clean .
Too clean on the goldie bro the siskin has more for me not enough but more
.
You have done all the graft explore the bkgs how can you enhance what you've earnt I think you need some props mate
Mate it's a hide you are sort of creating a still's............ movie set,. for wild things which is cool . you have a degree of control and I think that could be better explored
I ain't ever going to see a goldie shouting at another on a bit of oak. am I mate you know this
But we might see them squabbling over some thistles or dandelions or. ok teasels
Huge potential here buddy I don't know personally where you can improve bar telling a better story within the image
fair play mate !!
stu
This light though, uggghh, only good enough for perched at the moment but that is my challenge this year, to get a few airborne squabbles.
Goldfinch.
Goldfinch, January 2020.
Male Siskin.
