Hello there! 
My name is Polina. I'm based in Leuven, Belgium, and I adore watching and drawing backyard birds, that have been giving me the greatest solace through the pandemic!
For about 1,5 years now I've been actively watching birds that drop by me and my partner's terrace. It started with a silly idea of taming our local magpies that I tried to attract with some seeds - they kept ignoring me for months but a couple of great tits did appreciate the food and were shortly joined by a blue tit and a robin (the latter until March or April last year). In the summer adult tits introduced their young to our terrace and I spent a few months working outside surrounded by the chicks, some occasionally coming to sit on my computer screen and one blue tit baby even landing on my hand twice - first time without me having any food in it! Thinking of this still warms my heart 🥲
Anyhow, with great and blue tits around, it wasn't long till local house sparrows started handing out with their families on our terrace (attracting a sparrow hawk twice omg!). Finally jays and magpies became regular visitors as well! In October our robin returned and more species are showing up on our terrace and in the area. I drew some miniatures of them just recently, check it out if you're curious: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZY9mVSs5rJ/
Since May last year I've been keeping a logbook of bird activities, and also added a camera into one of the nest boxes, with which we already had some success!
Sorry for the long post, I'm just a bit excited hehe. Just happy I found this place and looking forward to getting to know you all and sharing stories about the feathery folk!
Polina
My name is Polina. I'm based in Leuven, Belgium, and I adore watching and drawing backyard birds, that have been giving me the greatest solace through the pandemic!
For about 1,5 years now I've been actively watching birds that drop by me and my partner's terrace. It started with a silly idea of taming our local magpies that I tried to attract with some seeds - they kept ignoring me for months but a couple of great tits did appreciate the food and were shortly joined by a blue tit and a robin (the latter until March or April last year). In the summer adult tits introduced their young to our terrace and I spent a few months working outside surrounded by the chicks, some occasionally coming to sit on my computer screen and one blue tit baby even landing on my hand twice - first time without me having any food in it! Thinking of this still warms my heart 🥲
Anyhow, with great and blue tits around, it wasn't long till local house sparrows started handing out with their families on our terrace (attracting a sparrow hawk twice omg!). Finally jays and magpies became regular visitors as well! In October our robin returned and more species are showing up on our terrace and in the area. I drew some miniatures of them just recently, check it out if you're curious: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZY9mVSs5rJ/
Since May last year I've been keeping a logbook of bird activities, and also added a camera into one of the nest boxes, with which we already had some success!
Sorry for the long post, I'm just a bit excited hehe. Just happy I found this place and looking forward to getting to know you all and sharing stories about the feathery folk!
Polina
