Blue tits having a munch

I started the day with a feeling that my inherent tiredness was passing as I started to get back up to speed with various council matters. I met John, our mayor, to plan how I would present the projected budget proposals for next year at the Full Council meeting on Monday night.

After agreeing on the main issues I wandered down into Stroud, as John lives close to the centre, and went to see the exhibition at the Subscription Rooms. It is called Stroud Photo Ages second Community Photographic Exhibition featuring photographs of Stroud District residents at work and play. I entered two pictures of John, one speaking at a demo against the local Health Service cuts, the other in his garden where he was picking apples from his trees. You can see more about the exhibition here, on the blog of Philip Booth, who is a local Green councillor on Stroud District Council. I was pleased to see he had photographed my pictures of John, as the first exhibit on the blog.

Earlier I'd returned to my tripod in the cabin, which I was going to use as my hide to take pictures of feeding birds. The light was poor and got worse, and using live view kept me from concentrating on what was actually being filmed. I wasn't pleased with the results, but I did learn what not to do in those circumstances. It wasn't helpful that Bomble decided to join me to climb the Rhus tree on which the bird feeders were hanging, flexing his claws to show he was in charge. Then he sat in the cabin window only a few yards away, where I was sitting beside the camera, to greet any flying visitors. The few who ventured near didn't seem concerned with him at all.

I saw blue tits, long-tailed tits, several blackcaps, a bullfinch, a nuthatch and many goldfinches, let alone the pigeons, magpies, crows and seagulls which were flying around the treetops and roofs. At one point a bird flew close by me screeching with what I presume was an alarm call, and looking up I briefly saw a bird flying across the back gardens, which might have been a hawk of some sort. I saw one flying a hundred feet above the house two days ago, and last summer one flew yards from me in our garden, as it chased a blackbird into the bushes. Today the garden was extremely quiet for the next ten minutes, so the early warning system seemed to work.

In the end, I went hand-held and looked over the fence at one of our neighbour Jacqueline's very elaborate feeding stations. Here two blue tits were tucking away vigorously and this was one of the better shots of the day.