Creating A Still Life - For the Birds

The above photograph shows my arrangement for taking more natural reference photographs
of the birds that visit my garden.
I don't like working from photographs of birds on feeders unless I'm just looking at colour or a particular detail so I decided to prepare a more natural resting place.

While out walking the dogs I kept a look out for a nice fallen branch, preferably one that had some moss on it. The one pictured above was ideal so my OH carried it back to the car. We had to put it on the back seat because Cody would have chewed on it during the drive home if we'd put it in the back with her. Although we carefully checked that we weren't taking any small creatures with us we spent the short drive home hoping that nothing was leaving the log to take up residence in the car.

To make the log more attractive to the birds my OH drilled several holes in the top of it which I filled with a mixture of fat and seeds.
I then pushed one end in the hedge and fastened the other end to the rail of the decking just under the feeders.
Although the birds were wary at first they now walk up and down my set up quite happily which gives me great photo opportunities.