It's going a bit quiet now...

It's been a quite week for me, with night shift curtailing any real birding opportunities. Thankfully (?) the drift migrants are starting to dry up, with only a single male red-backed shrike being of note in Northumberland... so nothing too good missed. The quail did not linger at West Hartford.

This afternoon the garden has been a hive of activity, with the female blackbird clearly having to tend to a second brood, while the family of dunnock are fledged and being fed in the shade of the garden border...

Hopefully I'll get out over the weekend.

green.orange.yellow.black

Stunning birds, blackbirds...

ISO 800, Fill Flash. Late afternoon in the garden.

Gardenbird

It's hard to believe that a year has now passed since the two-barred crossbill was a Stokesly, North Yorkshire. Mark & I spent four hours in the damp and cold waiting for the male bird to drop into it's chosen garden to feed on a peanut feeder. Roll on one year, and another morning has been spent photographing garden birds - this time in Northumberland and of a more common variety - blackbirds. Their numbers have increased over the past few weeks, no doubt boosted in number by continental birds set to winter.

Had to use fill flash as the chosen "feeding station" was in deep shade. Lens was the 100-400mm handheld.

Going Nowhere

It's been a quiet week for me - just finished nightshift and feeling a bit spaced out! Looks nice and sunny outside so may venture out soon!

I've added a couple of new blogs to the "other voices" section: Cream tea birding by Jaffa - I first met Jaffa on Scilly- top bloke with some great tales in his blog (and cake!), secondly have added Lost in birding from Sam Woods - many will have seen his amazing pics on surfbirds via his work with tropical birding.

Recieved some interesting e-mails about the kite over Hartford Hall (see http://birdneast.blogspot.com/2009/05/must-do-better.html for the picture). Anyone else know anything about this bird?

The female blackbird was photographed in my garden earlier this afternoon - I'm trying a few Artie Morris tricks, with strategically placed perches next to the feeders... hopefully will get some reasonable stock images over the next few days.