Birds in May

I need to sit in the hide a bit more often…but I can’t seem to concentrate on just one thing at a time, so my bird photography is more or less opportunistic. Some of the birds are starting to look a little scruffy now but I’ve come to love the robins that frequent our garden. There seem to be two distinct pairs. They follow each other around and they follow me around, looking for worms, as I dig in the garden. We also have at least three blue tits who arrive to feed around the same time…one pair for sure and a smaller fluffy one that comes on its own. I have seen only one pair of great tits this year, a single goldfinch and a pair of bullfinches, who are very camera shy so far and sit in the bushes but don’t come to the feeders. The pair of blackbirds and dunnocks continue to mostly feed off the ground beneath the feeders, keeping the patio clear of spilled seeds.

My quest for interesting perches has become a bit more successful (see garden bird photography in lock-down). The hedgerows on our nearby walks are not really hedgerows at all but dry stone walls or post and wire fences. In the edges are holly and hawthorn bushes and brambles. Along the old railway track below our house, which is now a linear walkway, I’ve found the odd mossy log and a few lichen covered twigs. As lock-down eases, we’ll hopefully venture further from home on our walks.

The reflection pool is becoming a bit more mature, but isn’t attracting the birds as often as I would like…except the robins who operate a light touch down and take off there, on their way to the feeders or to pick up meal worms. Putting food out on the edge of the pool mainly attracts the bigger birds and squirrels, who wreck the pool. The wasps, meanwhile are eating the moss off the wood and chewing the dead wood (it seems). It’s definitely a learning curve.