Birds of a Feather - Thematic Photography

Carmi couldn't have made a better choice of a topic for me this week.

Feathers abound on the grass by the side of the road along which I take my morning walk.

A feather down

And if that is not enough - 

Four feathers

But not from a thrush.

Tail feathers

However there is a sad tale to this as these feathers are all that remained of a wood pigeon demolished by a hawk.

Man, the worse predator of all, can also have a devastating effect.

Owl - a road kill victim

Other birds play hide and seek behind - 

The chimney pots

Jackdaw viewing spot

Discussing last night's soap

While sparrows watch the children cross

Some just watch the world go by.

Young blackbird on kitchen window sill

A much better place to be than behind glass at - 

Detroit Zoo - King Penguins

Some birds just have to pretend while - 

Waiting for the mail.

Meanwhile there is a work in progress for me - I'm trying to get a decent shot of this bird.

Nuthatch (image scanned from a bird book)

This is the best I have done so far from 50ft away and through a double glazed window.

Nuthatch clearing ivy from a nesting box

We saw this bird for the first time in our garden only last month; now it is a regular visitor.

Fortunately it's a little smaller than the bird we saw at nearby Preston Park.

However my favourite so far this year is one some of you have seen before.

Male Bullfinch

It was making itself comfortable in a hand towel while it recovered from the argument it lost with our lounge window.

Now is the time for you to recover to and fly over to see other 'Birds of a feather' at Carmi's Thematic-photographic-307.

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.