Time to fly the nest

Everywhere I've been lately, the hedgerows, trees and bushes have been full of baby birds. It's that time of year.

I'm pleased to say that my garden is no exception. This is one of four House Sparrow fledglings which have been feeding in the garden for the past few days. Though it looks lonely, this chick is still being fed by its mother. She is kept very busy shuttling between the feeder and the row of chicks sitting on the fence.

A family of Whitethroats were around this morning, too. I guess they must have left the nest only today, judging by their stubby wings, too-short tails and rather unpolished flying technique.

This photo was taken by digiscoping - that's using a digital camera together with a telescope (a Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece, in my case). The results might have been a bit better had I not been shooting through double-glazing too.