Garden Delights

A stunning sunny day off and I had to stay in to await a delivery! so to get my birding photographic fix a morning in the garden was in order, and it was a delight to sit and watch the Blue Tits back and forth to the nest box in the conifers, watching the Goldfinchs jostle for a position on the sunflower heart feeder, and a flock of long tailed tits raiding the fat ball, but the highlight was a visit by a pair of bullfinchs, not a regular to my garden but very much appreciated. A really enjoyable morning, and perhaps I should do it more often. One dramatic event was an almighty commotion across the garden, a Sparrowhawk was trying to get at my canaries in the garden avairy, I was willing it to settle in the garden to get some pics, but when he realised he couldnt get at a canary snack he was off!

male Bullfinch, not often in my garden but a lovely sight.







As you may have seen in previous posts I get a lot of Goldfinchs visiting the garden feeders for the Sunflower hearts, I never tire of photographing these beautiful little birds.











A small flock of Long tailed Tits came down briely but only seemed interested in the fat feeder, once they had there fill they were off.



In all the time I was in the garden this Robin never moved from the top of the Polar tree, singing his heart out for long periods.



Lots of Greenfinchs about also today



The blue tits were as busy as ever, taking seeds from the feeder to feed on in the trees.





And finally if proof were needed that the planes were back up in the skies, this was one of the many jets that I guess was up at 30,000+ feet

River Ribble Sand Martins Revisited

I had enjoyed my visit so much last week to the Banks of the Ribble to see the Sand Martins , that having more time on Saturday and a cracking sunny day I planned to set off again, this time hoping with a little more patience to get some 'in flight' photos, which is not easy at the speed they fly. I also took the video camera and left that running whilst I was firing off the photos. Lovely clear blue skies down by the River, the Sand Martin nest burrows high up in the sandy river bank.



Todays mission was to try and get some good flight shots, not easy due to the terrific speed in which they swoop down.







The easier shots are when they rest up at the burrow entrances







Its spring and that means doing what the birds and bees do!!













At times the 'airspace' outside the burrows got very congested.













Every now and then the whole flock disappeared as one, off feeding over the fields, and it went very quiet until they returned, the passing Mallards provided to good fill in time, they are a common duck that is very much overlooked, but in the sunlight their colours look truly spectacular.





The flocks are back and all is busy again







Almost caught this one full frame









The last picture for this post, a couple resting up in the lovely spring sunshine.

Sand Martins

It seems like ages since I was last out with the camera, so it was a nice sunny afternoon yesterday so I was off out to the banks of the River Ribble near walton-le -Dale, too hopefully get some pictures of Sand Martins that are nesting in the steep sandy banks of the river. I wasnt sure how close I could get without upsetting the birds so I scrambled down to the waters edge some distance away and slowly moved closer. The birds were not put off by my presence at all, and as long as I remained nice and still I got to within about 15yards. For about 100 yards along the bank the birds have excavated their nesting burrows and there were hundreds of martins coming in and out, so I thought the best plan was to concentrate on a small area of burrows and not get too distracted about movement further away. They are exceptionally quick moving birds and are in and out of the burrows in a blink of an eye, but quite a few settled at the opening of the burrow for some nice shots and I did get some action shots although due to their high speed I couldnt get sufficient shutter speed to really freeze them but was happy with what I got.

Todays objective, the Sand Martin



Todays location the banks of the River Ribble, near Walton le dale



Best plan of attack was to concentrate on a group of burrows that the birds were actively in and out of.



And with a little patience got some nice shots









A bit of tunnel excavating going on here!







They fire out of the burrows so quickly it was difficult to get shots of them leaving the burrows, but by repositioning I could see more into the burrows and their heads appear as they left









A great couple of hours by the river watching these lovely acrobatic birds.