Treetops - Thematic Photography

I'm spoilt for choice this week for Carmi's 'Treetops' theme as we are surrounded by trees in the village where I live. 

Here are two of my favourites from the small wood down the road which I photographed at regular intervals over a year.

Silver birch which has 'lost' its top

while the trees around have retained theirs. That hole is the result of woodpecker activity.

Spring hawthorns dwarfed by other trees

Treetops provide good cover for small birds like this.

A Blue Tit blends in

And for larger ones as well.

Wood Pigeon in a Sycamore  

The tree overhangs our garden.

Ash trees shrouded with Ivy

I wonder how long it will be before the Ivy wins and they lose their tops like the one on the left. Meanwhile I just have to lean back in my office chair to enjoy their presence.

On my morning walks there is a tree I always check to see whether it's still there - it's dead and keeps losing bits of its top to high winds.

Dead Ash tree - December 2013

On the same walk early in the year I can hear noises coming from the top of large Beech trees.

Rookery nook.

One of my favourites is a tree that overhangs the lane.

Walnut tree

It's the nearest one to us that I know and must be the one the local squirrels raid for the nuts that they bury in our lawn.

Across the road from us are treetops that photograph well after a white frost.

That concludes my treetop tour. For other takes on the theme swing over to Thematic-photographic-273-treetops.

A-Z Challenge 2013 - 'B'

My A-Z posts this year are based on  my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat – wishing they were here.

B - Bluebell, Begonia, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Bumble Bee

One day, one day, I’ll climb that distant hill

And pick the bluebells there!

Bluebells

 We inherited lots of bluebells when we moved into our house over twenty years ago so we do not have to climb those distant hills. The flowers have spread so much that we have had to thin them out when they begin to swamp the borders. 

There are some plants that thrive in pots or  tubs..

Begonia

However they all welcome the humble:

Bumble Bee

The pedigree of honey

Does not concern the bee

A clover, any time, to him

Is aristocracy

It’s always a pleasure to hear them buzzing around as it is to listen to the birds.

O blackbird! sing me something well:

Blackbird (tuning in!)

Of  course you just have to stop and watch:

Blue Tit

 Lithest, gaudiest harlequin!

Prettiest tumbler ever seen,

Light of heart and light of limb

What has now become of him.

But by far the most colourful bird that visits us occasionally is:

Bullfinch

We may have to wait till May before we can say

See the bright bullfinch now,

High on the apple bough.

Poems

• Bluebells – George Barlow
• The Bee – Emily Dickinson
• Blackbird – Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Blue Tit – Wordsworth
• Bullfinch – Anthony Rye

Photo Attribution

• Blue Tit – Jan 2011 By Tony Hissett – CC BY-SA 2.0
• Bullfinch – Mark S Jobling – Public domain

Birds on Sunday Stamps

I'm pleased to be able to rejoin Viridian's Sunday Stamps now I am back in the UK. This week's theme of  'Birds' has given me a problem as I have over 50 bird stamps.

In 1966 Great Britain issued a set of four stamps of which I can present just two, I'm missing the blackbird and the robin.

Black-headed Gull & Blue Tit (1966)

Later issues included waterbirds - again I have two of these.

Dipper & Puffin

 The puffin stamp was issued to commemorate the centenary of the Royal Society for Protection of Birds. The puffin colonies in the UK are threatened by the reduction in availability of sandeels, their staple food.

Another bird whose numbers are decreasing as a result of modern farming methods is shown on my next stamp.

Lapwing (also known as the peewit)

Becaause I've been on holiday in the USA I ought to show some of their stamps. The first one below is a favourite of mine.

Pelican

I have still to research the details about the Pelican Island refuge.

Blue Jay & Ring-necked Pheasant

Finally for this week I must include the stamp commemorating a famous man who painted birds, John James Audubon (1785-1851).

 

You may read all about him and the Audubon Society at John James Audubon You can also follow the Audubon Society on Facebook if you wish.

For more bird stamps visit Viridian's sunday-stamps-27

Bad Birdwatching

I have been a ‘fan’ of The Times columnist Simon Barnes for quite a while. Simon is a well known sportswriter, but his columns that interest me most are those on wildlife, especially birds. His book ‘How to be a bad birdwatcher’ was serialised on Radio 4; I have been fortunate enough to obtain a copy courtesy of a Mind charity shop.

Last January I posted a piece Watch The Birdie on my Writelink blog about the birds I saw in my garden in 2009. I have just collated my records for 2010. This year they cover 339 days (330 in 2009).

 

As in the previous year I have seen 35 different types, averaging 22 (23) and month and 8 (9) per day.

There has only been one change in the top ten most frequent visitors with the robin entering the list in place of the greenfinch. Top of the pile again is the wood pigeon on 95% of the days (93 in 2009), followed by rook 93% (78), blackbird 85% (89), starling 67% (69), collared dove 64% (72), sparrow 60% (41), robin 53% (29), gull 44% (48), hedge sparrow 42% (40) and the blue tit 40% (34).

A tree creeper put in an appearance in December; newcomers during the year were owls, fieldfares and the most spectacular arrival, a woodcock which crashed into the front window on December 27^th.

 

My favourite photo was of the goldfinches in the conifer in our front garden on Boxing Day (See Boxing Day Birds). Did you know that the collective noun for them is a charm of goldfinches?

However my favourite birds of the year were not in my garden but the sand cranes on Oxford Hills golf course in Michigan. They were quite content to share the course with us.