You Can't Beat A Bit Of Bully

I have had one of most successful garden bird photography sessions to date, and this blip comes complete with the one that got away story!

Our new kitchen table was delivered today. Now those of you who will be crushingly disappointed by a lack of "new table blip" today console yourself with another look at last Saturday's blip again. The delivery time was somewhere between 9-2pm, so I was tied to the house.

To kill some time I decided to head out into the garden shed/hide. The light was perfect for photography. Very quickly the feeders began to refill with the birds after I had disturbed them.

You can always bank on a good Blue Tit shot or a Dunnock. You always hope for an exotic like a Nuthatch or this Bullfinch.

One of my all time favourite garden shots I have taken was back in January and this Bullfinch sunning on a branch. (Oddly though I used this Blue Tit photo on that day.)

As I said, the sunlight was perfect for bird photography.

I also managed to get these as well:

Female Chaffinch

Robin Coch #1

Robin Coch #2

There are whole load more in my new flickr set: Autumn/ Winter 2011/12 Back Garden Birds

I gave myself an hour out there. At just gone ten to eleven I heard a van drive up the road outside the house. I assumed it was our table being delivered, so I wandered back into the house. Nope, it was a rag and bone man. So I stood in the patio doors, leaning on my camera on it's monopod., just as a Sparrowhawk glided in and landed on the feeder not six feet from me! It of course, clocked me, and flew off again within in seconds. Not a snowballs chance of a shot of it! The annoying thing is, if I had stayed in the hide, it probably would have hung around long enough for me to get a shot! This is the second time this has happened to me with said Sparrowhawk! Hopefully I will get a good photo of it soon!

Hope you enjoy the Robin photos in that flickr set. This robin seems to be a lot less timid than the last one that took up residence in the garden. I am kinda hoping to tame him enough to hand feed him. We shall see.

Oh and if anyone is wondering, the Honey Fungus cluster is coming on nicely!