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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Birds in my garden (1 Viewer)

When I first put a suet ball out for my garden birds, they seemed wary of it and it took them a few days to go near it. I put a second one out today and as I was about to go back in the house I turned round to see that one of the Nuthatches had already landed on it to stake his claim! Look at these first two shots of the Nuthatch guarding his treasure:

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I think if people realised how much entertainment value there is just sitting quietly and watching birds going about their business there'd be a lot more people feeding wild birds. I wasn't the only one enjoying watching the Nuthatches today, look at the audience here looking on watching them burying seeds in the tree for later:

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This greattit decided to have a closer look at what was buried but flew off when the owner approached:

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Mark.
 
Fed the garden birds today but no chance to take any photos as I had a drive to the riverside at Chester le St to photograph the birds there. On this page if anyone wants to see: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=33013&page=589

I did spot the GSWs at my bird table when I came back, both of them sitting eating the now much smaller suet ball I put out the other day. Hoping for a fine day tomorrow to get some pics of them if both they and the weather will oblige!

Mark |=)|
 
Another very windy day here but still loads of birds. I'm seeing the Willow tit virtually every day now so I hope he/ she has taken up nearby residence:

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Highlight of the day was spotting the GS Woodpeckers. I've only seen the male so far today and the shots I got of him aren't the best but I thought I'd include them as one has him just starting to fly:

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Mark |=)|
 
Took a few more half decent shots this afternoon. Also spotted another new bird! I'll put the pics in the ID section first to see if anyone knows what it is. Before I see the pics I can tell you it was mottled brown coloured, bit bigger than a Nuthatch,well disguised on the tree bark I spotted it on. It was climbing vertically up and down, stopping to tap like a Woodpecker, and it had quite a long thin beak. Anyone got any ideas yet?

Mark |=)|

ETA: before I put this up for ID, I've looked at online photos based on description, it looks like a Treecreeper. I'll see what the ID section reckons.
 
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2slo said:
Took a few more half decent shots this afternoon. Also spotted another new bird! I'll put the pics in the ID section first to see if anyone knows what it is. Before I see the pics I can tell you it was mottled brown coloured, bit bigger than a Nuthatch,well disguised on the tree bark I spotted it on. It was climbing vertically up and down, stopping to tap like a Woodpecker, and it had quite a long thin beak. Anyone got any ideas yet?

Mark |=)|
Click to expand...

Treecreeper. Good description:t:
 
bongofury said:
Treecreeper. Good description:t:
Click to expand...

Thanks, the ID section agree. Sorry about the poor pictures but if I'd changed camera settings I'd have missed the shots. Here it is:

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Another first this afternoon (well for me anyway) was seeing one of the Woodpeckers on the ground. Look at how well he uses the camouflage in the 1st shot. Next shot is the same but 100% cropped:

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Mark |=)|
 
Not much time to watch the birds this morning as I went to get some new equipt, a 1.4x extender (increases the range of a telephoto lens by 40%) and a new tripod suitable for bird photography. So, after I got home and got that set up, it was nearly dark! Anyway I managed to get a couple of pics with my new set up, here's one below of one of our Coaltits:

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Mark |=)|
 
Another new bird today. Pigeon sized with a speckled front with light coloured inside wing feathers and reddish feet. Not a bird of prey I don't think since where it was perched there were chaffinches and tits flying round it and it didn't move. Repetitive call which I haven't heard before (that's what drew my attention to it) I might have guessed some sort of thrush but the call rules that out. I'll post in the ID section when I get some battery power back in my camera but before then, any ideas?

Mark.
 
So as per my last post I've put up two pictures of the new bird I spotted in my garden in the ID section. Here they are:

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So now just waiting to get this bird ID'd. Unusual call, like a repetitive barking chirp, similar sound to a pheasant but in a series of 5 or 6 short chirps. Not a bird I've heard or seen before (it'll probably turn out to be something common but, as usual, new to me)

Mark |=)|

ETA: response from ID suggests a Mistle Thrush which on looks I'd considered but discounted because of the call from the bird I saw. So I'm still not quite sure.
 
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So, thanks to Villager who replied on the ID section, this is a Mistle Thrush and the call I heard is it's alarm call (link posted with the reply is exactly like what I heard). First time I've ever heard this so pleased to have learned something today!
Nothing else new today, took some pics of a couple of our residents with my new kit, I'll post them a bit later.

Mark |=)|
 
bongofury said:
Well done with the Mistle Thrush, Mark.
Click to expand...

Thanks! So to today. Spent about an hour outside in the fine weather and apart from the Mistle Thrush and the regulars, the long tailed tits were back, well three of them anyway. I made an attempt to get some close up shots of the regulars at the table today, see what you think:

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Mark |=)|
 
bongofury said:
Superb detail on those shots, Mark. Great photos:t:
Click to expand...

Thanks! Very quiet during Saturday, no new birds and all the regulars seemed to be behaving themselves.
I'm keen to get some close detailed shots of the G S Woodpeckers presently but for the hour or so I was watching the garden this morning they were a no show. Of course, as soon as I came back with a cup of tea, there they are on the feeder and even more predictably, as soon as I reached for my camera, they flew off. Typical. Only one decent photo from today, one of our Great tits caught in the little bit of good light we had in the afternoon:

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Mark |=)|
 
Very quiet in my garden today. As the light failed I was just about to give up when the male GSW landed on the small table in the middle of some nuts and cereal flakes mixture my wife put out as an experiment. He seemed to like the mixture even if he did sit in the middle of his dinner and make a mess all over himself!
Note the two pics below are far from my best work as they were taken in very marginal light but I thought they were entertaining enough to post:

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Mark |=)|
 
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