Just as an experiment, I pointed the camera at one our feed areas in the garden and set it to take a photo every 5 seconds. I left the camera for about an hour. Then I selected 60 shots and merged them to create this single shot. The sun was a bit too strong and still high in the sky, so the photo is a bit washed out, but not bad for an experiment.
It just goes to show how busy the feeders are!
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Just had a great few minutes watching a Common Toad wedged between 2 rocks in the garden ambushing any Beetles in his range.
I grabbed the camera but as I was only working with light from my garden flood light it was difficult to get a pin sharp photo due to his throat movement and no chance of a tongue out ambush shot.
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Over the last week I’ve spotted a pair of Linnets in the garden. Our back garden is mainly surrounded by Hawthorn seperating us from farmland so the perfect habitat for many birds including Linnets.
Today I spotted just the male frequenting the electric cable that feeds our house. As the sun was setting I decided to stick the camera out of an upstairs window to get a shot of him. As a complete fluke, he hopped on top of the Hawthorn right in my line of sight and a perfect angle to the setting sun.
I had a 1.4x teleconverter attached to my 500mm f/4 so expected a small amount of sharpness drop-off but still a shot I’m happy with.
There is no sign of the female, but it’s only the female that sits on the nest, so hopefully he’s just keeping lookout and bringing her food.
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It was an amazing clear sky early evening so I thought I’d try my luck at capturing the House Martins, my luck was out!
I did see this group of six Buzzards circling on the thermals though. We have a lot of Buzzards where I live, but I have never seen such a large group together.
This shot was taken into the low sun, so converting to Black and White was the plan from the start to get a nice silhouette effect.
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There are a few Male Blackbirds busying themselves in the garden collecting what I can imagine to be food for the Female who will be sitting on Eggs.
This Blackbird has been visiting the garden collecting Worms all day, so I grabbed the camera and took this shot from the bathroom window.
He saw me with the camera and jumped onto this rock almost as if he was posing!
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This weekend has seen the start of the return of the House Martins. There are only a handful at the moment, but expect them to return in large numbers as they do every Spring.
We have artificial nests on the house for them and they also build their own.
I’ve not seen any Swallows yet, but I’m sure they won’t be far behind.
Here’s a quick shot I got this morning, I look forward to getting some better shots soon.
