Scozmo's Photery

The A-Z all goes a bit awry here, not many garden visitors under these letters so, I’ll aggregate, improvise, cluster?

Jackdaw

I think I mentioned before that we have a lot of Corvids around us and the Jackdaws are probably the most vocal and possibly the cheekiest?

Jackdaws drop in several times a day, opportunists, they also perch in trees all around here so keep an eye out for any possible food chances.

They’re also quite noisy when they’re excited, if they drop by early morning, they wake us up….. no bad thing really?

I do love photographing them though, very clever, very aware, almost expressive.

This bird is standing below a suet feeder, they’ll do that if any other bird is up there peking at it and they wait for bits to fall.

They have no problem grabbing this feeder and raiding it themselves, one at a time. That look says “Yes?”

Some folks can’t tell the Corvids apart, Jackdaws are the smaller of them all and have that black head cap and almost silvery neck feathering.

Look at those expressions!

Jackdaws also perform at sunset and sunrise, like Starlings and the collective noun for Jackdaw is a ‘clattering’ or ‘train’.

Another Corvid that brings its young to our garden so they’ll be appearing in my youngsters pages but, I think that’s why we have a couple that drop in a lot, they’re young birds from last year?

Long-tailed Tit

Possibly our cutest visitor? I’ll have to think about that but, usually only through the Winter months. They pass through in small flocks sometimes ten or eleven of them diving onto the suet feeders and munching away. Long-tailed Tits are highly sociable and will share with many other birds, for me the only issue is trying to grab photos, they don’t hang around for too long and rarely keep still, I also try to get shots off the feeders themselves so these can be a challenge.

They look so light, they weight 7-10 grams!

These shots are all from last year in September.

I was lucky to get this set of shots that time, you never know when you’ll get the right opportunity.

I was very lucky when we lived in S. Wales to find a nest site and get some shots of them coming and going with bugs.

Mistle Thrush

We have been very lucky over the last couple of years to have a Mistle Thrush come to the garden. I have no idea whether it is the same bird or male or female but I do think it is the same bird that has now learned we feed well and there’s no great danger. We do get Sparrowhawks coming through but, touch wood ……

They do like apples and they are beautiful singers, this one now sits high in the tree outside my window, singing its heart out!

It did have a hard time when the Fieldfare was here, despite looking bigger.

The Fieldfare chased it and the Blackbirds away every time they landed but it has now moved on so peace is restored.

That shot was taken when the Fieldfare was still in control. It’s another bird that gives me some serious glaring looks!

It does give me same fabulous opportunities for such great shots from a usually very shy bird.

It is still visiting at the moment and I have no idea where he or she might eventually nest but last year I could tell it had young as it filled its beak as often as possible before disappearing again and, I never saw any youngsters ………… I think.