Feeding in February

It’s February 2nd and the weather isn’t that great but at least there’s decent light for my wanders and photography.

I’m constantly saying it but it’s very true; we are so lucky with the bird and wildlife around us, I don’t even need to leave this seat sometimes and I can get great shots of the garden visitors.

To have a Mistle Thrush drop by almost every day is quite a special event, for me anyway, I only ever heard them or grabbed distant shots in the past.

We’ve started seeing Siskin arriving, beautiful but feisty wee birds that aren’t scared of many other birds at all!

I’m pretty sure there were quite a few males arriving, I don’t remember seeing any or many females …. yet.

I’ve also spotted a female House Sparrow with an injured foot or leg, I hope she manages ok?

We can’t see it in that shot but one leg is always held up and not used at all.

I have what I call an interesting branch that I’ve stuck in the ground or lay against the wall surrounding my window, bearing in mind I have a couple of feeding dishes on the window sill, I started to see birds land on it, right outside here.

I ought to be able to get some really close shots if they keep doing it.

I’ve had to move the camera back and back off the zoom to focus on these birds, my shorter lens is off being serviced and I really miss it. It’s an older 18-300mm Nikon AF fit; Nikon aren’t doing a Z version as yet so I have a converter that allows me to carry on using older lenses on my Z, mirrorless cameras. Also saves a fortune instead of having to buy all new lenses.

We have a decent sized flock of Starlings in the area now, probably 50 or more and some drop by a few times a day to grab anything and everything they can; persistent so’n’so’s!

They end up yanking the perches off that feeder and, being green, I struggle to find them again on the grass 🙂

So the most frequent and common visitors at the moment are the Goldfinches and Siskins, starting to appear first thing and visiting intermittently throughout the day.

The Tree Sparrows have also suddenly taken a huge interest in the mixed suet, maybe it’s too cold and windy for their regular food at the moment? Whatever the reason, we’re getting up to c18 visiting at any one time.

My window branch is also growing in popularity…

See how close I get them, the shots above are usually not cropped at all, if anything, just cropped to centre the bird in the frame.

And finally …

A gorgeous female Siskin. I was trying to define young Siskin shots last year, they all look like females until they start to colour up!

I’m also trying to keep an eye out for the ringed Robin, I’d like to be able to read the ID but it doesn’t feel obliged to let me zoom in on the ring!

At least I can now tell that there are at least two of them visiting, the other(s) aren’t ringed.

Now, the set above, I have labelled as female Siskin but I am aware that bird has what may be the darker cap forming, making it a young male? See! Not easy sometimes 🙂

There’s no shortage of Chaffinches around the garden and they started dropping onto the window branch as well.

A Mistle Thrush also visited last year and obviously had a nest of young somewhere as it would fill its beak and head off but I never knowingly got to see any young birds, maybe this year?

It was now Feb 11th and the weather was very changeable, bringing more birds in all the time, costs me a fortune!

Still keeping an eye on the injured female House Sparrow.

There are roughly a dozen Goldfinches at any one time; if you’ve never heard them, they have a beautiful song! Our trees have been full of Goldfinches and Siskins for a few days now and you can hear them all from quite a distance.

The Mistle Thrush seems to really like the old root on the ground.