Long-tailed tit
Last weekend was the RSPB Great Garden Birdwatch. Every year the public is asked to spend an hour monitoring bird types and numbers as a way of determining how the cold winter weather is affecting the bird population over the years. We happened to be at the pet shop (that's another story...) and in a fit of altruistic consumerism managed to spend more than £40 on various bird-feeding mechanisms, nuts, seeds, fatballs, and a splendid pole-hangar (complete with water dish) from which to suspend them all. Bubbling with enthusiasm we returned home, set it all up outside our patio door/window, and sat back, excitedly anticipating a flurry of starving tits and finches descending on our wee part of the garden. Armed with notebooks and ID sheets we waited. I put the kettle on. We waited some more. Absolutely nothing...
Blue tit
Bored, Freda headed of to Granny and Grandad's part of the house, where she sat watching THEIR bird feeders, and happily counted a reasonable population of blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long-tailed tits, siskins, dunnocks, chaffinches and the odd robin. Meanwhile we wondered if the birds would ever learn to dine over at our place. Had our spending spree been a complete waste of time? Two days later the birds finally plucked up the courage, and on Wednesday Lesley counted an incredible 15 long-tailed tits indulging in a fat-ball feeding frenzy. It was certainly worth the wait. Here are a couple of my first attempts at bird photography using a 300mm lens.
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