Tags
birds, blackbird, chaffinch, coal tit, Garden birds, Great Tit, greater spotted woodpecker, greenfinch, house sparrow, moorhen, Muscovy duck, pheasant, pied wagtail, Robin, rook, Suffolk, wren
During this summer and early autumn I managed to photograph a number of animals, birds, insects and other creatures in my garden. Some of these photos are of very poor quality but I will include them as a record of what I saw. This post will be of the birds I’ve seen in my garden.
This Great Tit has an insect in its beak and was fluttering its wings very quickly (hence the blurring). It was waiting for me to go away so that it could feed its chicks in a nest box we have in the garden.
I quickly took another photograph and then walked away
Here is one of the pair of Great Tits using that same nest box nearly two weeks later. I am fascinated to see how carefully they hold the insects in their beaks so as not to crush them.
This is a Greenfinch. There are always plenty of these in the garden. The feeder pole is always leaning and covered in mud because of the squirrels and rooks that use the feeder too.
I didn’t quite get all of this cock Pheasant’s tail.
Cock Pheasant
Cock Pheasant
A female Blackbird collecting insects for her chicks.
Another female Blackbird searching for food.
And again.
My daughter came running to me one day saying that there was a strange bird in our garden. She described it as being half duck, half chicken. I had to have a look and discovered that one of our neighbour’s Muscovy Ducks was visiting us. If you have ever seen a Muscovy Duck walking you will know that they move their head and neck back and forth while walking just like a chicken does.
Female Muscovy Duck
Walking like a chicken
I thought I would post this photo of a Wren again as I was quite pleased to get it. Wrens are quite shy birds and fairly small (3.75″) but have very loud voices.
Wren
I’ve posted this photo of a Robin before too
Female Greater Spotted Woodpecker
Male Chaffinch
Pied Wagtail
Rook
Rook.
Coal Tit. These birds are very slightly smaller than Blue Tits at about 4.5″. You can see the mud on the feeder that the Rooks put there with their dirty feet and beaks!
Male House Sparrow
The usual rear view of a Moorhen as it runs off down the garden
A male Blackbird at dusk
A Suffolk Lane 
It looks like nature is working just as it should in your yard. With all of those birds eating so many insects there shouldn’t be any need for pesticides!
I love the sky in that last shot.
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Thank-you Allen. We haven’t used pesticides for some years now. I think the last time was when I used a systemic spray on tubs of lilies to prevent damage by red lily-beetle. I brought the tubs into the garage as I didn’t want the spray going anywhere it shouldn’t and then read that the pollen from the lilies once sprayed may be affecting bees! I now pick lily-beetles off the plants now which is only partially successful as I can’t be there all the time. Being organic is fine when there are just native insects to deal with but when we get introduced ones it doesn’t work very well at all.
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You get a wider selection of birds than we do in the middle of our town. I wish we had woodpeckers as I like them a lot.
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They love peanuts! We don’t get them all the time, mainly nesting time and just afterwards and then if we have a particularly hard winter.
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You have a great collection of interesting and beautiful birds in your yard, and you’ve photographed them very well!
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Thank-you, Jerry! More luck than skill I must confess!
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You have a wonderful amount of bird life in your garden, it must be great to see your feathered friends when you look out of the window. Fabulous photos, love the last one especially 🙂 x
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Thank-you! I do love to see them out there especially when I see them eating the pests that eat my plants! I loved the sky colour on that last one and the blackbird posed so nicely!
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It’s very satisfying isn’t it! Birds are gardeners friends 😉 x
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They certainly are!
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What a delightful collection of birds you’ve photographed, Clare. Amazing to think that all of these birds visit your area. And the Muscovy duck is interesting. I understand they’re great for eating insects etc. in the yard. Love the photos of the colourful pheasant too.
Congrats. I have found birds challenging to photograph.
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Thank-you, Cynthia! You should see the amount of bird photos I have deleted!
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Great photos – particulalrly the wren, which I’ve always found hard to get – they are just too fast!
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Thank-you!
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