Singing Robin in Low Light

Back home from uni for the Easter holidays and just felt like getting a blog post up today. Just a couple of pictures of a singing robin in late afternoon in poor light. 

Used a high ISO to try and compensate for the dull conditions (have always preferred digital noise over blurry images), but the results are still not great. Going to try and get out early tomorrow morning to get some more photography done.

Also we have a blue tit pair building a nest in our camera nestbox again, so this box is being occupied for the second year running, and for the 3rd time in 4 years. I'll see if I can get some footage up, but the only way of recording videos is by using an old laptop, so I'll see if my patience holds up enough to get the videos recorded and transferred to my current laptop to be uploaded. Never got round to finishing last year's nest box diary but only one chick managed to fledge from the great tit nest- hopefully this year will be more successful. Thanks for reading, probably back tomorrow for more. Won't make any promises though, you know what I'm like! 

Back Home

The last couple of weeks of my university term have been very hectic to say the least, hence the lack of activity on this blog in this time. I've had 4 or 5 deadlines to meet, as well as a couple of other bits and pieces to do. I have to say that I'm more than relieved to finally be at home for the Easter break. I've been back for a couple of days now and I'm settled back into the ways of living at home where I'll be for the next month.

The weather since I've been back has been bitterly cold- particularly today. The garden has been covered with a layer of snow which hasn't disappeared in many places just because it hasn't been warm enough to thaw it all. Ever since I filled the feeders up yesterday, the garden bird activity has been pretty frantic. Since I've been back, a female Bullfinch and a Siskin have both been seen in the garden. The latter is a bird we've only seen once in the garden previously, and that was about 3 or 4 years ago, so seeing that was quite a surprise, especially as I was in the garden doing a few jobs when it visited. A Coal Tit pair have also been visiting the garden quite a bit over the last couple of days which has been good to see. 

Below are some of the dreadful photos I managed in the short time I spent outside with my camera before my hands were nearly frozen and I decided to head back inside again.

Obviously at uni, as I'm in halls, there's no garden to keep track of, so It's been good to catch up with the garden back home again. Hopefully should be getting back into the swing of things as far as blogging is concerned, and will get round to reading other blogs over the next day or two. Until next time though, wrap up warm and lets hope Spring arrives at all this year. 

A Cold Sunday Walk

I decided I would go and have a walk round campus yesterday just for something to do really- Sunday's can be pretty quiet days at university. 

After about 2 minutes of walking I realised I had somehow managed to forget to bring my pair of binoculars, which is never really a great thing to forget for birdwatching. And I really could have done with wearing another layer as the temperature really struggled to rise in the morning. So it wasn't the greatest start to the walk it has to be said. In the end I decided I would just walk round and use my camera to take a record shot of anything that was too far away to identify, which, as it turned out worked fine really. 

I was half expecting to see the Redwings near my halls as I had done for the couple of days previous to this walk, but they've literally all gone, which came as a bit of a surprise. With the cloudy conditions, I wasn't really going to be getting any better photos of them but it would have been nice to see them again. I wonder if the reason why they were feeding so frantically the day before was preparation for the migration back to the continent, although it is still a little early for this you might think.

So anyway I moved onwards to the other side of campus and started walking round the lake. The usual species were present, such as Canada Goose, Mallard, Mandarin, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhens, Coots and Black-headed Gulls, although no sign of the Egyptian Geese which usually patrol the edges of the lake. Didn't take many photos at all but a couple of the ones I managed are below. Firstly a couple of shots of a Canada Goose...

And a male Mallard... 

There was a reasonable amount of activity in the trees surrounding the lake, with flocks of tits and finches roaming around above my head. Towards the end of the walk around the lake I came across the flock of Siskins that have been hanging around campus for a while now. Their unique calls and busy nature are always good to watch. 

Fairly nearby to where I saw the flock of Siskins I managed to see the unmistakeable flash of blue and orange of a Kingfisher flying low over the water surface- the second sighting of one since Christmas. They're supposedly quite unusual visitors to the lake so it's been good to have two sightings in a relatively short period of time. 

I then wandered through the woodland area for a little while, keeping my eyes peeled for a sighting of the Firecrest but I didn't see it anywhere. I'm assuming it's still around but I could be wrong. I also didn't see the Treecreeper which I've seen on my last couple of visits to the woodland. There were however a few Goldcrests and lots of Wrens about. Also as per usual, 3 or 4 Nuthatch sightings throughout the woodland walk. Also came across a pair of Goldfinches and lots of Chaffinches. The Great Tits were very vocal as usual and lots were about. Not long after I started walking through the woodland, alarm calls sounded from all over the place and a male Sparrowhawk could be seen flying fast through the trees. Carrion crows and a couple of Red Kites could also be seen overhead. 

As I walked over to the Harris Garden area, I heard a very vocal Great Spotted Woodpecker, which I only actually saw after a couple of minutes of listening to it. The first two species I saw after walking through the gates to the Harris Garden were a few Magpies and Jays, birds which seem to like the open space of the gardens compared with the tree cover in the woodland. Lots of small birds were around too, including this badly photographed Robin: 

I decided to call it a day not long after taking the photo above as it was really quite chilly and I had pretty much looked around the whole area. I saw 29 species throughout the walk which isn't too bad as I wasn't out for too long. I do hope this weather improves a bit over the next week or so, this cold spell has been such an unwelcome change from the warm sunny weather we were having the week before. 

Anyway, thanks for reading my aimless ramblings and have a great week :D 

Friendly Robins

Yesterday was the final birdwatching session in my ecology module before we undertake the campus-wide survey of bird life. The session involves people wandering round in little groups or on their own noting down what they see in the hour. The habitat my group was focussed on yesterday was the "open grassland" areas of the campus. In truth, the bird life in these areas isn't as good as what could be seen around the lake or in the woodland. But the bright sunshine we had yesterday made it a pleasant walk, and a few interesting species could be seen around.  

There wasn't anything I hadn't already seen on campus, but I saw a Nuthatch and a Jay which was good to see. But the weather seemed to be affecting one bird in particular- the Robin. Almost everywhere I walked a singing Robin could be seen, and more times than not I was able to get really close to them too. Some of these photos aren't that great but it was nice to focus on photographing one species and getting to know the best ways to get good photos of them.

The sun wasn't out all day yesterday, but quite a few times the sun came out from behind the clouds for some nicely lit photos:

I then moved on and about 10 minutes later I came across another Robin, but this time I was really very close to the bird. This particular Robin was very tame and allowed me to get very close to it. By this point the sun had gone in behind the clouds, but I was so close to the bird that I was still able to get a few decent pictures. The little shrub that the bird was perched in was about 2 metres from where I was stood, and it started singing its beautiful little song. 




















After a little while, the Robin came even closer, coming to pick grubs off the floor by my feet. By this point, the bird was only just outside the 1.5 metres minimum focussing distance of my 300mm lens, and I was actually using focal lengths less than 300mm, which I almost never have to do. It seemed such an inquisitive little creature, getting really close to me and checking me out.

It's not until you get this close to small birds that you realise how delicate they are, and the detail in the wing feathers is really quite incredible.

After a while, another Robin appeared about 5 metres away, but must have been paired with the bird I was photographing because they didn't chase each other off and seemed perfectly happy to stay in close proximity to one another. This new bird didn't really get any closer to me, but the original Robin stuck around for a few more photos, often perching on some vegetation quite low to the ground. I tried to get more at eye level for these few photos by crouching down, to get a better perspective of the bird:

It then flew up to the shrub it was perched on before for one more photo.

It always amazes me how close you can get to these bold little birds, when you think of the obvious size difference between the two creatures, but it's great that you can gain the trust of some birds like this. Even though I saw many other interesting species yesterday, this Robin was probably the highlight of the day. I find the behaviour of Robins so fascinating, and they should never be overlooked as a species. No matter what birds you see, it's really difficult to beat the song and unique character of this common little bird. 

After I had taken the photo above, I just watched the Robin for another couple of minutes before it finally flew off. By this point it was nearly the end of the hour and I decided to head back. All in all it was a really satisfying hour of birdwatching. I'm not sure when the campus-wide survey of birds is scheduled to be, but it should be an interesting exercise. The last few weeks have proven what a diverse little patch this university campus is, and hopefully the survey should demonstrate that. The total number of species I've seen on campus is now 40, and I'm still yet to see a House Sparrow, a Greenfinch or a Mistle Thrush, all of which are birds you'd probably expect to see in an area like this, especially the first two. Not only this but there are apparently a couple of Little Owls somewhere on campus which I haven't seen yet which'll be good to see when I get around to it. 

Anyway, I know I'm starting to ramble on now with today's post so I'll leave it at that. Enjoy the rest of your week and lets hope this sunshine stays :D  

I'm on Flickr!

It's been a week or so since I last posted on here- largely because I haven't had anything to talk about. The weather has been pretty rainy recently, I've only just got my camera back from repairs, and I've also had a bit of work to get done too. To be honest, I'm only really posting today to get a post up, I wouldn't usually write a whole post about this but here we go anyway...

So a few days ago I decided to create a Flickr account to upload all the photos I'm taking to. Pretty much all the photos you see on this blog will go up on my Flickr account in the future, but lots of other different stuff will be on there too. During and since I did my A Level Photography, I've been taking lots more arty kinds of photos, so anything like that will also go up there. Since I created my account, I've been uploading a big batch of photos that I've taken over the last few years since I got my SLR camera. There's also a little group of photos I've taken in the last few days or so that I decided to upload. 

So at the moment, my photostream is a bit of a mess of old and new photos, but hopefully things should be a bit more organised as I go on. I've had ago at creating photo sets and joining groups and stuff and I'm getting more used to using the site all the time. A link to my photo stream is below: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92853275@N06/ 

One of the things I really like about Flickr is the fact that it shows next to each photo all the camera settings used, the camera used and when it was taken, etc. I also like the fact you can share your photos in groups that lots and lots of other people can see. It just seems a really good way of getting your photos out there and viewed by a few people. 

I've not worked out how to get my photos from Flickr onto my blog so that when you click the photos, it takes you to the Flickr page where the photo is located. But I'm sure I'll work that out soon. For now, here's a few pictures which I discovered whilst uploading a load of older photos onto Flickr. I don't think any of these saw the light of day on my blog so I thought now would be a good opportunity to put them up. 

The first photo below shows a Robin at dawn in very low light in January 2012. 

This was taken on a holiday somewhere a couple of years ago in the summer. Can't remember if this ever got uploaded or not, but here it is anyway: 

And finally, a photo of a Magpie on our bird bath at home taken in May 2011. Again, this may have been uploaded before, but I wanted some photo content to post on here for this post.

Hopefully I'll be able to use Flickr as a way of posting all sorts of photos like these in the future. It is also a way of getting photos out there even if I'm not posting on the blog. I know that a couple of bloggers I follow use Flickr, so I'll be sure to use it much more in the future. 

Anyway, that'll do for today I think. Tomorrow morning I think I'm going to head out with my camera and see what I can see. I now have my SLR back so should be able to take some better photos whilst I'm out and about. I've been told that there have been Waxwings on campus at the moment, so it would be great to see them here before they disappear. 

Cheers for reading :D 

College lake in the sun

-- NOTE - This post was done in March 2012, but I have posted it so that it appears as having been published on 19th June 2011 -- 

College lake is one of my favourite reserves around my area to visit. Its not only a huge wetland habitat but contains a lot of scrub and woodland too, meaning a very large diversity of wildlife is attracted. Highlights there for me in the past have been sightings of a hobby, as well as a huge range of wildfowl. The lake itself is man made, and I think I'm correct in saying the site was originally a chalk quarry before it was flooded to form the lake which now makes up the majority of the reserve. The photo below shows the view across only a small part of the lake, with the sun shining on the water...

Due to the diversity habitats there, there's generally something to see all the way through the year. Whenever I go, I usually try and visit the feeding station they have there which is always very busy and has some interesting species. The first bird to show up though was one of the more common ones, a Robin. This one looked a bit scruffy but came up close for a nice photo...

Chaffinches were pretty much a permanent feature on these feeders, and it was rare not to see any there at any one time...

One of the birds I wasn't expecting to see at the feeding station was a yellowhammer. I've seen them plenty of times in the wild before, but never feeding with other birds at a feeding station. This one was happy to feed on the floor, picking up all the seed that had been dropped by the birds on the feeders above. The photo below isn't great and is more of a record shot but I'm happy that I got at least one shot of it before I left.

Larger scale feeding stations like this one also attract other ground feeding visitors though. Rats were pretty common there, which I can imagine is unpopular with some visitors to the reserve. I don't really have a strong opinion either way on them, although it did appear that numbers needed controlling a little here. The photo below came out quite nicely in the end.


Given the time of year, it was unsurprising to see flocks of blue and great tits with a number of fledglings. The majority of them were feeding themselves but there were still a few younger fledglings being fed by their parents. The suet balls were the food of choice, held in a sort of basket feeder.

After a few minutes of watching, I spotted a different bird moving around with the flock of blue and great tits- a marsh tit! I hadn't seen one before so seeing one up so close was quite exciting. Telling them apart from willow tits is very difficult, but I think I made the right decision here. I could be wrong though so please correct me if I am :) The cap of this bird was slightly glossy, which is one of the only differences between them and willow tits, so I think I'm right on this one- please correct me if you think I'm wrong. Being much less common than any other bird at the feeding station, and also in significant decline, the smart looking marsh tit grabbed my attention for a while, and was probably the best part of the trip in general.

So onto photographing it then... well lets say I probably could have done a better job! The first photo below was so nearly a brilliant photograph. The marsh tit was sat on the wire that can be seen in the photograph. I had set up my camera perfectly, zoomed in and focussed on the wire, but just as I pressed the shutter button, the bird took off. So the photo shows the bird just about to fly out of the shot. At the time I was really disappointed to have missed such a good opportunity. But after looking at it a few times, I actually quite liked the effect I had created. Although the bird came out quite blurry, I like the way its positioned in the photo, and also the nice blurred out background. Overall, the picture actually looks quite arty- completely accidental but it definitely turned out a bit better than I thought it had...

I did manage to get a couple more shots, but both are record shots really

So moving on from the feeding station, I then wandered around the reserve for a while. There's a path which you can follow which pretty much takes you round the whole lake, and through all the other habitats they have there. When I was there, I didn't really think to take any photos of the overall scene of the reserve. So the only pictures like that that I do have show only a small part of the reserve. The photo below shows a blurred out teasel plant in the foreground, with part of the lake and one of the newer hides in the background.

On the way round the reserve, a flower I hadn't seen before caught my eye on the edge of the footpath. I had no idea what it was until I spoke to someone walking past about it. He told me it was a Bee Orchid. I'm useless on flower ID but this one will definitely be remembered for next time- it has a very distinctive appearance. They are apparently relatively widespread around the UK if you know where to look. This BBC page explains some of the basic information about where to look for the various orchid species in the UK. And this site explains in more detail about Bee Orchids in particular, such as its distribution and the factors which are threatening it as a species.

And then I came across these daisy-like flowers (identification please). I used to know what they were but I've forgotten now :)

I also need some identification help on the bird in the photo below. Looks to me like it could be a juvenile pied flycatcher? I thought it could have been a juvenile whitethroat originally but it looks to be the wrong shape and with the wrong type of bill. I could be wrong though. The photo is pretty poor- was taken from a distance and cropped quite a lot. The bird was also sort of hidden in a bramble bush so it only appeared occasionally. See what you can make of the photo..

That's all for now everyone, keep checking back to the updates list as I still have a lot to add.   

The Robin has landed

I have recently been putting out live foods for the birds, in the hope that they get used to their location before they get fed to chicks in the nesting season. Well, thats the plan anyway. The Robins have already found the feeding bowl hanging in a shrub near the feeders. They seem to be the only bird eating them though, so I hope the others find them too. There were plenty of other birds visiting yesterday, which I have also included in this posting.

As I post this, our garden is covered in snow. My school has been closed both yesterday and today. I actually took the photos for this post on Sunday. I would have posted this then but I lost my USB camera cable. Luckily I have found it now and can view my pictures properly. I think it is important that we put out bird food - especially fat products out at this time of year to make sure the birds get all the energy they need to survive the cold.

As well as seeing some of the more familiar birds in our garden I am also starting to see some birds return to our garden in this cold weather. The Blackbird, surprisingly hasn't been as frequent as usual over the last couple of months, although they are now visiting our garden all the time. They mostly like the fat products I put out for them, and the one in the picture below is right next to the fat block. I hope to see them more and more in the future.

Some of the people who have commented on my Big Garden Birdwatch have mentioned my sighting of the Song Thrush. I am happy to say that it has returned and I saw it again today. They don't seem to like the bird table as much as the Blackbirds, but seem to pick up fallen seeds from the feeders. They are definitely ground feeding birds and are also turning over leaves to look for insects at the end of our garden.

The Greenfinch returned just in time for the Big Garden Birdwatch too, and has been visiting more frequently recently. I saw 3 of them together on Sunday and the one in the picture below is just one of them. They like the sunflower hearts more than the seed mixes, so I am putting both seeds out at the moment. As soon as the sunflower hearts are gone, they disappear from the garden. The Goldfinches and Chaffinches are visiting frequently as usual. We seem to have a very brightly coloured male chaffinch in the garden at the moment, nearly in its breeding plumage.

I wonder if the Blue Tit in the photo below is the same one which has been visiting our camera nestbox. Looking back at the videos, I must say that they look very similar, especially the colouring. I have another Blue Tit nestbox visit to post about soon. The frequent visits are very promising for the nesting season ahead. I am not sure if both the male and female Blue Tits have visited yet, or if there is only one taking a look around. There certainly hasn't been 2 in the box at the same time yet. I will keep my eyes peeled

All photos taken in my garden on Sunday 1st February

Hand-feeding Robins

I wasn't quite hand-feeding Robins but for the first time yesterday I managed to get very close to a garden Robin. In the garden we have a ceramic bowl. I filled this with some Robin food mix (which includes dried mealworms and fruit) and stood outside with it in my hands, waiting for a Robin to perhaps take a little food from the bowl. I was waiting a while but as you will find out, it was well worth it!

Several times throughout yesterday afternoon, I was able to hand feed a Robin. It didn't stay for long on any of its visits, and it took a long time for it to build up its confidence to do it as well. It would stay in a bush watching me with the bowl and picking the right moment to fly quickly onto the food bowl and take some food. It would also tend to take some food when other birds were around in the garden. The Dunnocks are quite likely to visit at the same time as Robins. It amused me that it also fed when I was looking away. Clever little bird!

I did manage to video the Robin but I was holding the food bowl with the Robin on it with one hand and my camera with the other hand so the video is a bit shaky. Also, it was very windy here yesterday, which also meant the video wasn't quite as good. While I am on the subject of weather, today has been awful. It has been blustery all day with some very heavy rain in the afternoon. I can imagine the Robin would have been sheltering from the rain today!

I think its amazing that we are able to do things like this. I have always known Robins to be tame birds but this is the closest I have got to any of our garden birds. If you just think of the size of a Robin compared with us, it really is amazing that it will get up so close to us. I know for sure that none of our other garden birds would do the same except perhaps the House Sparrow. Hand-feeding also allows us to get some great close-up views which I am sure would appeal to people new to birds. I took some photos of it nearby, and you can almost see each individual feather.

It is sometimes not easy to get these birds to feed so close. They are sometimes so close to hopping onto your hand and then they will decide against it and retreat back into a dense bush. It amazes me just how light these creatures are too. I would also say that it is a lot easier when there is only one person feeding at once. The Robin wouldn't feed when my Mum came out to watch with me. Maybe it is because of my size. I am small for my age and I guess Robins are less intimidated by children my size or smaller. Sometimes I would say that it just comes down to pot luck though!

I looked back at the video and photos I took of this Robin and noticed some definate similarities between it and one I saw quite soon after it had fledged earlier on this year. The one I saw earlier on this year had a yellow gape on its beak indicating that it was a juvenile (as seen on the photo). The pictures I took yesterday still show some traces of this. Not only this but they both seem to act similarly, and are both very friendly!

Below: Same Robin (I think). Top image was taken yesterday and bottom one was taken earlier on this year.

My next aim is to actually get this Robin to feed off my hand. I guess the trick is to take time and be patient. I would reccomend it to many of you. Its great fun! I would also say that for anyone who doesn't have feeders in their garden, this is a great opportunity to watch them, and you could even do it for Feed The Birds Day. You don't even need any of the specialist Robin food which I use. Robins love sultanas and kitchen scraps so anybody can have a go.

Finally I also know that many people will have tips for hand-feeding birds. I have already had one helpful comment on a different post giving tips on how to do it, but does anybody know what to do to hand-feed a particular species of bird, like for example the Blue Tit? I'd love ton know, and I'd also be interested to know if any of you have managed to do this. I certainly was thrilled.

All photos taken in my garden

A crisp autumn morning

And a walk around my garden to get photos of visiting birds. I say that its autumn but the weather isn't agreeing. It has been warm and sunny for about a week here now. Even if you go outside with the garden birds, some of the tamer visitors will say a good morning to you. Especially the Robin in the photos below. Its nice to see these visitors in the morning and to hear their song. The Robin especially has a very distinctive song that is recognised by gardeners all over the UK. There is no match for the sight of a Robin sat on a favourite perch singing his/her heart out. These one was very friendly and sat on a fence post at the end of our garden while I took pictures.


This Robin took a bite to eat after I filled the bird feeders up. As always they are the first birds to return after I have filled up. I should get up early one day and watch the birds. I am sure that there are some rarer species visit at this time. I did do this once and I saw a Bullfinch feeding briefly. People have recommended the dawn chorus too but this I haven't done. I am sure that the Robin would be one of the features of this.

In this country the Robin is a very friendly bird that will happily feed near man. But on Wikipedia earlier I found that actually they are quite timid on the continent. You learn a new thing every day! Soon, I should get some more mealworms for the Robins to feed on. They love them and they are great for the juveniles. The only problem is that I am struggling to find a place to put them so that A) they don't get rained on and B) the larger birds don't take them all.

The Blue Tit is another bird I saw this morning. They are a bit more elusive than the Robin above, but will still quite happily take seed from the feeders while I am out. They are very active and although they are very common they can be difficult to photograph. I find that when the Blue Tits feed, other members of the tit family follow suit, as did the Great Tits this morning. They make a harsher noise than the Robins but its nice nonetheless. Around our area the Blue Tits fly around in flocks, flying from feeding station to feeding station.

Autumn "officially" starts in late September and finishes in November . I think this seems about right so far this year. The first leaf has fallen from our apricot tree and the apples in the apple tree are dropping to the ground too. The falling leaves are the stereotypical signs that autumn has begun. In previous years this has been quite inconsistent with poor summers and sunny autumns. But certainly in our garden autumn has begun!

The Blue Tit was very neat. They must have just finished moulting. It won't be too long before we start seeing some frantic pairing up and nest site investigation from these little birds. They won't look like this for too long!

I realise that I haven't really posted much about plants recently. I do have something lined up though. The birds have been spending a lot of time at our feeders recently so I thought I would focus on them a bit more. What is it like in your garden this autumn? I reckon that this part of the UK is a bit further ahead of Northern England and Scotland. Finally I will leave you with couple of the autumn pictures I took today. Enjoy!

Blue Tit and Robin photographs were taken in my garden on 27/09/08. Yellow leaf and rotting apple pics were taken on 28/09/08.