bullfinch

Sure is good having these lovely birds visiting my garden, first time in four years. Yet more rain here today, think it's the same over much of the country.......we live in hope that the summer soon arrive's!!

Wouldn't you know it ... Hours of bullfinch shots and the sharpest one I got was of ones bum. Thus ends the bullfinches-in-Hell saga.

In my encounters with house sparrows in the park, it was the females who were first to approach the food offered. Among the bullfinches at the cabin, the females were much shyer than the males. They approached much later. They moved perches more often while scoping out the scene in nearby trees...

Finally, the feeder was truly empty. But there was still a good layer of gleanings on the ground below it. And the bullies seemed more relaxed feeding down in the grass, less restless (though still watchful, of course). Still to come: Female finally joins in, Group shots, The end, Pied flycatchers.

Although the male bullfinches eventually came to the feeder in spite of my presence, they remained watchful, even with their heads tucked into the feeder openings. I'm sorry the gleam in this guy's eye sort of disappeared when I compressed the picture, but if you look closely you'll see he's...

As I said earlier today - some held their ground at the feeder, while others darted in, grabbed a seed or two, then flew off somewhere "safe" (but not necessarily out of camera range) to shell them. This image reminds me of peanut butter, which I disliked as a kid because it always...

I was actually surprised that the bullies kept finding seeds in the crannies of the feeder. When we'd arrived I'd checked it and thought it empty, and was embarrassed to find we were out of seeds to fill it. :eek!: We'll have to buy a sack so we can fill the feeders when we're in Hell on Friday...

See? Now that wasn't dangerous at all, was it? Still to come in the Bullies-in-Hell saga: Closer and closer. Mrs Bully dares to show herself. Multi-bully shots. And when I run out of good bully shots, a pair of pied flycatchers.

Eventually, the bullies came back. This was one of the first - still peering around cautiously, and still one stop away from the feeder ;)

No, he didn't peck holes in the bamboo pole to make a flute. He got spooked and flew away.

After a couple hours of me sitting still with my back to the cabin wall, the first bully finally flew over to the bamboo pole on the woodshed wall, just inches away from the feeders. And then ... well, you'll have to wait a couple hours too until my quota frees up space for the next shot.

The next step in approaching the feeder was a short flight to a branch further down in the pine tree, down amongst the leaves of a birch shrub at the pine's base. Then they'd chicken out and fly back up or to a tree further off. But eventually, the feeders were too tempting, and I was sitting...

Bully was stretching and peering every which way to see if was safe to approach the feeders, even with that strange big creature sitting in a lawn chair a few yards away. Oddly, they didn't seem to mind my husband going in and out the door of the woodshed right beside the feeders, or mowing the...

Not the best of today's 200 decent shots, but an interesting one. I was snapping this guy at the feeder when another male bully approached and there ensued an aerial battle. I kind of froze up, but managed to fire off this one shot that shows a bit of the action. With a little imagination, you...

I was going to post more greenfinch pics, but the remaining ones are so similar to the earlier posts ... boring. Meanwhile, today I spent a few sunny hours up at our cabin in Hell, watching many bullfinches (at least half a dozen flitting from tree to tree and up to 3 at a time within decent...

searching the HDD for some presentable shots of the last winter...

Bully...posing in the garden.