bullfinch

It's great to see these guys visiting our garden...havent managed a shot of Mrs yet!

Plenty of Bullfinches down at my local NR, this one posed well for me, although at a distant, so I have had to heavily crop the image. Catch up later.

I think that's a seed from the feeder this bully has at the tip of his beak.

Bully's turn again. This time he gets to lead off a series of pics of birds looking straight at me through the window.

While blue tits flitted here and there and turned in every direction like over-agitated fleas, and sparrows hid in the depths of the densest shrub until they dared take one last safety check from the sargent apple before darting to the feeder, this bullfinch sat calmly, barely turning his head...

exploring the feeding place

I know I promised this bully his own day - all three posts. But come to think of it, he may get more attention one day at a time. So here's his first few minutes of fame. Kind of an intriguing pose, I thought, in spite of the short, thick neck.

Feb 11 was mostly a greenfinch day, but I'll make them take turns with a few others. This bullfinch - here making a dash for his turn at the feeder - will get a day all to himself tomorrow. There's also a series about a great tit huffing and puffing and blowing himself up against the cold, and a...

Not a first, but the closest I've managed to get to this species, thanks to BF's Cougar. Sat in his shed for a couple of hours yesterday waiting for this fella to make a show. Bacon and mushroom butties, cups of hot choccy, thanks again Pete and Annette.

Last of the Feb 1 bully pics. But fair warning: I've taken more since, in snow and with sunlit snowy perches.

The bullies do manage some variation in poses, in spite of their short necks.

We may nickname them bullies, but bullfinches are not bullies in the children's playground or international politics sense of the word. They may be big, but I gather they're rather slow flyers, and I can see that they have short, blunt beaks. So they tend to stay a distance from the feeder...

Feb 1 we had the first bullfinches we've noticed at our feeders. I mentioned it to my husband, but he was concentrating on something else at the time. Then next day when I again was on home leave he asked me how my camera works. "This is the on/off button. Here's how you set the zoom...

Brightening up a dull day.

Taken on the Quantocks in the snow (not Shown).

Sorry they're a bit small. We had a walk along the path at Kinnordy and there were lots of birds feeding in the leaf litter at the side of the path - it was hard enough to pick them out by eye, let alone get the camera to focus on them, as they really blend in. This is about the only picture I...

taken this morning under rainy and stormy conditions

Its ages since I have spent any time in my garden with the birds so decided to have an hour a few days ago...it was fairly quiet but I did have a visit from a male & female bullfinch. For a change I used my full frame camera the 5D2 but must admit to preferring to the quicker shooting 50D