Garden Birds

I haven't really done much more on the owl so I thought I'd post a couple of visitors to my bird feeders.
For the past two days a pair of Bullfinches have been taking seeds from the feeder. The male is much shyer than the female and tends to hide in a bush, dash out and get a seed and fly back in the bush. The female is much less timid and sits on the feeder eating seeds for quite long periods of time. I did manage to get a couple of them together but didn't dare open the patio door so the photograph is taken through glass.

We also have a small flock of Redpolls and Siskins that visit usually two or three times a day, these have become quite tame allowing me to get some nice reference photographs. This is a male siskin with some seeds in his beak making him look a bit odd but showing his lovely bright breeding plumage.

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.

Rio and the Pheasants

Rio has decided to take up a new hobby, birdwatching.
He was sitting on the grooming table having just been brushed and tidied up when the white pheasant appeared with a normal brown one following along behind.

Rio was fascinated and the pheasants didn't seem to mind, they wandered about picking up seed from under the feeders.
Cody spoilt things though. She spotted them and decided they were far to big to be wandering about her garden unchallenged so she bounced along the fence barking. The pheasants retreated for about two minutes and then came back and I removed Cody to watch from behind glass.

More Garden Birds

I'm trying out various custom settings with my camera in the hope that I get more successful shots than disasters.
This male house sparrow has been very obliging in posing for me more or less constantly. He and his mate have a nest in the beech hedge just outside my window and he acts as guard for minutes at a time.
I have everything crossed that the local cats don't destroy the nest.

Regular readers will also notice I've given my blog a make over. The current trend seems to be for white backgrounds with no borders so I decided to give it a go.

Local Birds 17/04/2011

A selection of birds I saw yesterday either in the garden or on my walk.

I'm not sure what the first bird is, I think it's a Willow Warbler but if anyone thinks differently please let me know.

The second is a Pied Wagtail which is one of my favourite birds.

The third is a Goldfinch, one of several that visit the garden each day.

The last bird is a Little Owl, which is one of a pair that I see when I walk the dogs down a lane near home. I got up especially early yesterday hoping to photograph the owls before most other people were about. It isn't the best photograph but I was pleased with it, I managed to snap it just as the sun was rising.

I can now paint a Little Owl from my own photograph which is great because I want to paint an Owl series.

More Garden Birds

I had two slightly less frequent visitors to my garden drop in today. Both photographs are poor quality because I was shooting through glass without having time to adjust my camera settings.

I see the Sparrowhawk every few days but usually just flying past low and fast, today it perched on the greenhouse for a few seconds.

The melanistic pheasant visits every so often but I hadn't seen it for about six months and had assumed it was dead so it was a nice surprise when it appeared this morning.

I understand the melanistic pheasant is a mutated version of the birds with the normal plumage and they are quite common in some parts of the country. I've never seen another one locally, there are plenty of pheasants but all the usual colour. This one looks very greeny/purple in the sun, not that I really remember as it has been a long time since the sun appeared in Yorkshire.

Garden Birds 07/01/2011

I achieved probably my record number of different species of bird visiting the garden in 12 hours yesterday.

Some of the photographs are not good quality as it was snowing and I was shooting through glass.

The species visiting at various times yesterday were:-

Sparrow

Dunnock

Starling

Redwing

Wren

Robin

Blackbird

Pheasant

Redpoll

Siskin

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Chaffinch

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Coal Tit

Long Tailed Tit

Collared Dove

Wood Pigeon

I could see the following in the trees across the road.
Rook

Jackdaw

Magpie

More birds in the snow

The bitterly cold weather continues here in Yorkshire, it was - 11 degrees when the dogs went out first thing this morning. My dogs have big thick coats and like playing in the snow and sliding across their icy run diving on one another. The birds however are having a much less enjoyable time. I make sure they have a supply of food and fresh water which I replace every couple of hours. The reward is that I'm getting some fantastic photo opportunities.

The Nuthatch wasn't in my garden it was in a nearby wood which has several feeding stations available for the birds to visit.

I don't very often get Pied Wagtails in the garden but this one has visited each day for the last couple of weeks.

The squirrel and robin just made me laugh, the robin seemed amazed that the squirrel was taking the food and moved closer and closer to the squirrel, the squirrel however took absolutely no notice and carried on with its meal. I took that photograph in the wood.

Cold Feet

This morning I swept the top of the fence surrounding the decking so that the birds could reach the food without getting cold feet. However most of them decided that the patches of snow were better to stand in than the cleared areas.

The garden birds are eating seeds, nuts and fat in huge amounts but in return they are providing me with endless photo opportunities.

I will definitely be painting birds in the near future.

Tabby Cat Eye Study Number 3

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The third ACEO tabby cat eye study.

The birds are back in town, at least they're back in the garden. After a quiet summer the feeders are starting to get busy.
While sitting at my drawing board this morning I twice looked up and saw a Heron looking back. It was on the edge of the small pond looking for breakfast I imagine. We have a couple of large golden orf in that pond but fortunately there are still plenty of water lilly leaves to hide under. After the heron left there was a pheasant wandering about which sparked a barking frenzy in the dogs, (they had decided the heron looked to big to mess with). Then a flock of long tailed tits passed through.

Burmese Cat part 2

More work on the Burmese, hopefully I'll post the eye demo tomorrow.

We have two ponds in the garden, the smaller one is about 5 x 3 feet. Imagine my surprise when I looked out of the window to see a pair of mallard enjoying themselves splashing about. I'm not sure the fish appreciated them quite as much as I did. Fortunately by the time my husband came home the water had cleared, he would have had the same impression as the fish. If they come back I'll take a photograph of their antics.

Redpolls, Siskins and Wildlife Artist of the Year

The Treecreeper and Long Tail Tits have been replaced by a small flock of Redpolls and Siskins feeding in the garden. Usually moving about high in the Birch trees they have been feeding on the niger seed I put out. We've planted a small tree under the feeder in the hope of getting some more natural looking photographs.

Today the female Siskins were the most obliging, the males of both species kept hiding behind branches.

My other news is that the shortlist for Wildlife Artist of the Year 2009 is available to view on line.

There are some really excellent pieces and I am honoured that 'Hot Spot' is included in the short list.

All the paintings will be on display at the Mall Galleries from the 2nd to the 6th of June. I am hoping to be there at the private reception on the 1st.

Links - Wildlife Artist of the Year 2009

Peanut Butter and Woodpeckers

I've put peanut butter on the menu for my garden birds, the rough not smooth kind. I've started spreading it onto the bark of my trees and it's certainly creating interest.
The Treecreeper appears a little perplexed, in fact I'm sure he'd scratch his head if he could. I think he visits every day just to see what's on the menu, being an insect eater he's not been too impressed with my offerings up to now.




I've been working on my Woodpecker and I have to say I'm enjoying painting the bark.