Feathers
We did the Big Garden Birdwatch yesterday.
Some were quick off the mark, keen to get involved.
![Woodpecker 027 Wm[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Woodpecker-027-Wm1.jpg?resize=1100%2C733&ssl=1)
Or perhaps more with an eye on other things?
Topping up the feeders might have had something to do with it.
![Woodpecker 028 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Woodpecker-028-Wm1.jpg?resize=1100%2C733&ssl=1)
Great Spotted Woodpecker
![Blue Tit 003 Wm[2]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Blue-Tit-003-Wm2.jpg?resize=530%2C677&ssl=1)
Blue tit
The tits, as ever, were happy to join the party.
![Great Tit 003 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Great-Tit-003-Wm1.jpg?resize=1100%2C789&ssl=1)
Great Tit
![Coal Tit 002 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Coal-Tit-002-Wm1.jpg?resize=1100%2C750&ssl=1)
Coal Tit
![Marsh Tit 002 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Marsh-Tit-002-Wm1.jpg?resize=1100%2C773&ssl=1)
Marsh Tit
I’ve finally learned to spot the difference between these and the Willow Tits, which look virtually identical. The easiest way to tell them apart is by the call. Marsh Tits have a distinctive ‘pitchoo’, which sounds a bit like a sneeze. A cute, bird sized sneeze! Both of these species are on the RSPB red list, so we’re lucky to have them. Not only that, they scored equal first with blue and great tits as our most populous visitors this year.
![Nuthatch 004 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Nuthatch-004-Wm1.jpg?resize=531%2C725&ssl=1)
Nuthatch
I adore Nuthatches. Seen here in the classic upside down pose with head held back.
Ptolemy the pheasant secured his place in the count courtesy of a honorary fly past, with the customary excess of squawking. Too quick to capture with the camera though. A wren hopped briefly across the terrace and a dunnock nipped in to take advantage of the odd scraps of nut being dropped from the feeder. We also heard a Tawny Owl. Can they be included if not actually seen?
Clouds covered the sun before the end of the hour. The robin appeared but by then picture quality was getting quite bad. I couldn’t leave him out though could I. Here’s a ‘library’ shot:
![Robin 012 Wm[2]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Robin-012-Wm2.jpg?resize=1100%2C739&ssl=1)
Robin
.
It all finished up in exactly the same way as last year.
![Squirrel 011 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Squirrel-011-Wm1.jpg?resize=1100%2C733&ssl=1)
Grey Squirrel
“It wasn’t me mate.. hand on heart.”
The birds had, apparently, had far too much fun already.
It was time for the furry ones to play on their fairground ride.
![Twirlasquirrel 013 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Twirlasquirrel-013-Wm1.jpg?resize=1100%2C733&ssl=1)
![Twirlasquirrel 014 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Twirlasquirrel-014-Wm1.jpg?resize=1100%2C733&ssl=1)
Oh for heavens’ sake.
Great post, I was going to do the Big Birdwatch but I’m not good at identifying them, this post has helped, thanks. Wonderful, pin sharp photos.
I found the hardest thing was counting how many of each species turned up, especially when they were zipping in and out of trees and shrubs chasing one another!
Beautiful photos. Do you have a particular lens you like to use?
We almost invariably use an 18-200 zoom. These were taken on maximum zoom and most of them cropped. I’m already finding the limitations. I need a longer zoom lens. And a macro. Megabucks.
Megabucks indeed!
Christmas and Birthday combined for a few years ahead!
Hello Jessica:
First, what really superb images!
Secondly, how absolutely wonderful to have, and to observe, such bird life in your own garden. During our years in Herefordshire we would often hear, but only see from a distance, the Woodpecker. What very handsome birds, as your picture shows, they really are. Living in a city, as we do now, we very much miss the pleasure to be had from encouraging birds into the garden. Somehow pigeons in our nearby square do not quite count in the same kind of way.
However, we are very fortunate in that in Hungary the red squirrel is still to be seen in plentiful numbers. Long may that continue!
Thank you!
And how fabulous to have red squirrels. The grey variety have reached plague proportions here. I’ve seen them working the bird table four at a time.
We did it on Saturday and came to the conclusion that the birds must have known we were on the look out as we had less visitors than any other day last week. They’re back today though!
Exactly! There were many more around today. I can only think that me sitting closer to the window than normal put them on their guard.
What fantastic photographs, really amazing. You have a wonderful variety of birds. I just get blue tits, great tits, robins and sparrows on my bird table. How exciting to have a woodpecker in the garden and so many sorts of tit.
It’s living in the middle of a wood I think. The ‘peckers (obviously!) nuthatches and marsh tits are woodland birds. Never seen a sparrow here though. Not one. And I’ve never understood why.
The squirrel spinning is so funny Jessica!! And fantastic bird photos you’ve taken there 🙂
I do think the stills of the spinning squirrels are funnier than the video. They manage to create a greater sense of movement somehow!
Lovely post. I’m useless at identifying birds but sure we don’t have as many different species visit our garden.
The ‘little brown jobs’ can look very similar. Beyond the ones I see every day I’m certainly no expert.
We did ours Saturday but had nothing as exotic as you. Our results will be posted tomorrow complete with library photos.
You probably saw more than me between the two of you. I found watching, updating tablet and taking photographs all far too complicated!!
Oooh Jessica, I loved to see the birds that are visiting your garden! The tits are especially cheerful and I remember them well from Germany. I am not familiar with the Nuthatch, but boy, is that an elegant bird! Your photo of the Robin is especially wonderful! Thanks for sharing! We have a bird count day here in America, too, but I have to find out when it actually is. We took part in it a few years ago and it was so much fun!
Warm regards,
Christina
For memory, seeing it mentioned on other blogs, I think yours is in February sometime. The Nuthatch is a very handsome bird, definitely one of my favourites.
Lovely photos. I’m afraid mine would have been magpies and crows!
Hi Jen, thanks and welcome to rusty duck!
I counted a few crows. No magpies this time. They tend to be around in Spring to attack the blackbirds’ nests. 🙁
It was so interesting to see this rundown of British birds. They are so different from many of ours, although I recognized the nuthatch, which a friend calls the ass-up-a-tree bird because of the way it perches head down. Our American robins are so different from your little English one, ours are much larger and have no red on their faces. Your coal tit looks a lot like our chickadees. Great photos, thanks for sharing them!
I love your friend’s description of the nuthatch, which is what it will be known as here from now on too. The English robins are so sweet, and very tame. A true gardeners friend, they follow you around everywhere. When I open the greenhouse this one will fly in with me, I have to remember to check he’s left before I close it up again.
Do chickens count? Primrose and Camilla want to know if they may be included, please?
If I could still do it I would include them in mine. Unfortunately I completed the survey on my iPad and on the second the hour turned everything closed up and greyed out. Before I could consider any amendment to my tit count it was game over.
Lovely! What a great post, Jess. All the pictures are wonderful. I’m fairly sure ours are Marsh Tits too because of the sneeze, which is in some ways better as they are the rarer of the two species. And as for the squirrels….. :o)
They are beautiful little birds too. Now that I’ve identified the sneeze I love to hear it.
Truly some of your best photos, the expression and detail is amazing.
Thanks Charlie. We were really struggling with the light. Mike got the woodpecker shots through an open window, an amazing feat given we were so close to them, which did help a bit.
Great photos Jessica! You have a much broader – and more colorful – range of avian visitors than we do, although we also have plenty of opportunistic squirrels here. I must find one of those feeders that spin!
Ah, but you get hummingbirds, which I’d love to have! You’ll get huge entertainment from the squirrel spinner for sure. I wonder if there’s one for raccoons?? 😉
Amazing photos, but I have to say when I saw the action shots of the squirrel and your comment, I was laughing so loudly!!
I love those squirrel shots too. They are getting very persistent! Thanks Chel.
Oh my such pictures!!
Thank you!
Wow, some really fantastic birds there, you are very lucky. Our list was very tame. I don’t think we’ve even ever seen a marsh tit or a nuthatch. Your photos are brilliant, as always, so very impressive. The spinning squirrels made me laugh. CJ xx
I hadn’t seen them either, until we came here. Or a woodpecker. Yet now that I’m aware of woodpeckers I see them everywhere, or hear them anyway. A very distinctive call and mode of flight. Thanks CJ.
Oh my GOODNESS! What beautiful pictures!! A rather successful days bird spotting indeed! That woodpecker is utterly stunning, what colours!
They have fabulous colouring don’t they. That’s the male. The female has no red patch on the back of the head.
Wonderful photographs of a beautiful variety of birds. No sparrows her either – chaffinches, goldfinches and siskins are the most dominant just now, with jays and red squirrels in the front garden. I love to watch, though I’ve not tried to photograph them.
Ooh, lovely to have jays. I see them only very occasionally. And of course am totally envious of your red squirrels.
I was going to ask about your lens as I can’t get shots like these with my kit 18-55mm, but I see you already answered that one. Oh for a new lens… 😉 And maybe, as my intelligent sister is suggesting, it might help if we put a bird feeder up…! A bird feeder… for birds, only…
Ha! A bird feeder would help. I’d be interested to see which species you get out there.
Gosh, I don’t know how you can say the image quality was degrading on that robin shot–it’s excellent! As are all the others! I love Nuthatches, too, and ours are very similar to yours. Love the spinning squirrels, too. 😉
I had to bottle out and use an old photo for the robin! The spinning squirrels give us a great deal of entertainment. But it isn’t quite the deterrent it was supposed to be.
Hi Jessica….
Gorgeous pictures…always love watching the birds….
And…
Not one comment….about…..your nice Tits! Hahaha!
Cheers!
Linda :o)
Well, of course they are!! 😉
I enjoyed this post so much. I love to watch birds but I never know the names of them and I can’t photograph them at all. Your photos are gorgeous. And the squirrel! What a troublemaker.
Thanks Jennifer. The squirrels are such a pain. There is plenty of food around for them, not least all the nuts they’ve buried in my lawn, but they always choose the easy option and go for the bird food.
Wonderful pictures! We do our Great Backyard Bird Count on the third weekend in February, an event I always look forward to, but I don’t expect to get any pictures of this quality.
Good that your birds are returning to the yard Dorothy, I hope you get a good count. And some pictures. So envious of your cardinals and hummers.
Thank you for the wonderful photos of all the different members of the Tit family, they will be really useful for ID if any of them visit our bird feeders.
You must have some very dizzy squirrels in your garden.
Very dizzy squirrels. And yet still they come back, time after time. Either they enjoy it or relish the challenge. I should charge them a fee per ride to cover the cost of the batteries.
Brilliant shots – we counted 17 different types of bird and husband got his telephoto lens out for a little play and didn’t do too bad capturing them – we also had a Sparrowhawk trying to get in on the action too.
Wow, you did really well Elaine. Unfortunately the record disappeared off my iPad as soon as I’d submitted it, but for memory we had about a dozen different species. Plus the bloomin’ squirrel. Sadly I had to say we see them daily.
Wonderful pictures Jess, especially the ass-up-a-tree bird. They are a frequent visitor here too and have quite an attitude when on the feeders. We didn’t do the count but have of the same species. I have noticed a lack of finches this year- even the chaffinches seem down in numbers. Perhaps the winter us proving relatively mild for them and they aren’t visiting the feeders?
Anything smaller scatters when the nuthatch lands.. only a woodpecker ranks higher. It’s a good point about the finches. My barometer for severity of winter is the long tailed tits. The last couple of winters we haven’t seen any, they only seem to turn up when it’s very cold, for the same reason perhaps.
What a wonderful set of visitors you had, lovely pictures to. We took part an had the most miserable count ever three birds in total! Not indicative of the birds that usually visit our garden at all!
They seem to know don’t they! I think I sat too close to the window, to get a better view of the garden. It was several minutes before the birds got used to it.
Lovely post Jessica, your squirrel shots are funny! We have either Marsh tits or Willow tits too, but I haven’t heard their call. We live within 30 metres of water so I wondered if they were Willow tits, but then again…Great shot of your Nuthatch, thats a bird we have yet to see here, he really does look beautiful.
If you go on to the RSPB site there is a recording of the birdsong for both species. It’s the way I got to the bottom of it in the end. The ‘pitchoo’ is quite distinctive.
My hour coincided with the Great Cornish Bird boycott! I look out of the window now and can see at least 6 birds at once, on Sunday I saw 7 in a whole hour! Every year it’s the same – I swear they know! I would have been glad of a comedy squirrel to jolly things along. Well done for photographing them all so beautifully – I never manage that either.
They do know! I like the idea of a comedy squirrel. As long as we don’t have to pay them for the privilege of entertainment.
Jessica I love seeing your birds….some similar to ours. Our bird count is in a few weeks. I don’t have feeders except suet so mine isn’t all that great with who I see in the garden. And squirrels are one reason i do not do feeders here….they are relentless in their destruction of feeders for the seed. And I never tire of seeing your robin especially…such a cutie.
We’ve lost so many feeders to the squirrels, including every so called ‘squirrel-proof’ model I’ve tried. Unfortunately they’ve developed a taste for suet too, so not even that is safe any more.
Fabulous photos. I think I’d left it a little too late on Sunday afternoon to get any good results, there was hardly a bird about, not that I’d have recordered any woodpeckers or marsh tits. I’d never get any jobs done if I lived near you, I’d be watching out of the window all day.
I do stop and watch the woodpeckers, it’s true. Especially in June when the baby ones arrive. They do seem to have a very strict routine though, turning up at much the same time each day. One such is lunchtime, so I get to watch them guilt free then!
Huge variety of species, Jessica! Beautifully photographed as usual! So jealous of you woodpecker and nuthatch . Squirrels … not so much!!
Thanks Jane. If you change your mind on squirrels, I can ship. Just tell me how many.
All lovely pictures but the Nuthatch is special. He/she is so much Nuthatch-like! Ours are slightly different but you recognize it right away.
Yes, I’ve seen pictures of the Canadian ones and they are very similar. The woodpeckers are too, the GSW is very similar to your Downy.. just less fluffy!
We haven’t seen the nuthatch yet this winter, and it is a couple of years since we saw the woodpecker …… fabulous photos of yours! We have to make do with untold numbers of sparrows, which are eating vast quantities of birdfood!
They all get through vast quantities of bird food. A huge box arrived by courier the other day, heavier than I could carry down the steps. I believe we got it at a good price but I do wonder how long it will last!
What a wonderful selection of bird visitors to your garden. After days of being visited by finches and tits plus the thrush non of them turned up for our hour’s survey. We had the usual sparrows (loads of them), blackbirds, starlings and wood pigeons but bless them the robins turned up at the last minute. I love your photos:)
I remember you had loads of sparrows last year too, they must love you! Our robin was the same, in fact I missed him/her altogether. It was just as well Mike had photographic proof or it wouldn’t have been recorded.
Such colorful birds you have. How long did the squirrel manage to hang on?
The spinner goes for a minute and then stops. The squirrels know this.. it doesn’t take them long to learn the brace position (a foot at each corner) and unless disturbed they can usually last the distance. Whoever designed the thing grossly underestimated their intelligence. It is the rookies that provide us with the most entertainment!
Oh that squirrel thing is priceless. I never tire of seeing photos of it in action! x
You’ll have to come over again soon Em… they are all over it at the moment. I’ll put in fresh batteries.. it spins so fast then we get a bit of centrifugal force going (horizontal tail).
Oh you have captured some fantastic pictures of your visitors! It’s not surprising Ptolemy and the squirrel got in on the act too! Where were the mice? sarah x
Would you believe I didn’t see a single mouse? I know they are there though. My new iris bulbs came up only to have their tops nibbled off. Although that could have been the squirrels. Or the big bird.
You had quiet such a wide variety visiting your garden Jessica. Nice to see one or two I am not familiar with. Sadly my count was way down on visiting numbers in the days leading up to the count.
As always your photographs are amazing!
Thanks Angie. I thought ours was going to be dire too. For the first 15 minutes I didn’t see any birds at all! I had to decamp to the study-come-building-site and sit in the dust, where at least I was better hidden from view. I hope the RSPB make allowances, we all seem to have had the same experience.
Lots of feathery visitors with you!! Great to see that the squirrels got in on the action too and provided a little light entertainment!! xx
If there is bird seed on offer the squirrels are never far away 🙁
Ha, loved the ending of that post! Woodpeckers are my favorite, and it is great to see pictures of a different looking one. Such a beauty! Our count in the US is here in a couple weeks. The kids and I always love participating!
It’s good fun isn’t it, even if I’m quite sure the birds hide deliberately! I’d agree on the woodpeckers, ours likes to sit at the very very top of the highest pine tree. Lord of all he surveys.
Seeing the birds in Winter, so colourful and encouraging.
Simply perfect shots of them, and the squirrel on the feeder just never gives up, I’m beginning to think he loves the ride 🙂
Thank you for sharing I’m leaving with a smile 🙂
~Jo
He does love the ride, I’m sure of it. They’ve started queuing now.. I saw one waiting patiently on the top of the bird table while his mate went for a spin..
I love that I can see birds from my city window, although it’s quite leafy around here with gardens and the heath nearby. I regularly see the usual haul of blue tits, robins, sparrows, starlings and a couple of fat wood pigeons (as well as the usual feral pigeons) but have seen parakeets on the Heath (quite common apparently) and jays in the street trees. The jays are my favourites, they’re so gentle. Wonderful pics, Jessica – the nuthatch is so sweet! I’d never get any work done if I lived in your house, I’d be forever looking out of the window!
The nuthatches and woodpeckers usually announce their presence by rattling the feeders with the sharp stabbing motion of their beaks. I love jays too, we see one occasionally but mostly they keep to themselves amongst the trees. It’s a real treat when they do come out.
A post of your usual high standards, Jessica – what brilliant photos and how lovely to have marsh tits and nut hatches in your garden, something we never have. At least we did have a typical range of our visitors, unlike some years – but we haven’t seen our woodpeckers for a number of months. Your squirrel pics must be absolute classics – all your readers will have been howling when they saw them! 🙂
The squirrels are such a pain. They dominate the feeders and the birds don’t get a look in. Revenge is sweet.
the last image and caption did make me giggle (as Cathy above predicted)! Super images of a wide range of birds – think maybe I need to invest in a zoom lens. (Thank you for your kind words about my blog).
It seems that however long your lens, it isn’t long enough. I’m constantly frustrated by it but the cost of upgrading is totally prohibitive. We try to get the shot as sharp as possible and then crop it to create a close up image.
We didn’t do the birdwatch this year, lovely to read all about yours, and gorgeous photos too! Jill
Hi Jill, great to hear from you and welcome to rusty duck.
The photos were a pleasant surprise, at the time I thought we’d got nothing. Birds are even more difficult to photograph than blooms!
My first thought on reading this was ‘Cripes, we forgot’. Brilliant post m’dear … and yes, I love nuthatches too.
Elegant curves and beautiful colouring.. reminiscent of your latest batch of dyed yarn perhaps?
I do love your spiral bird-feeders; they look sturdy and simple and artistic.
They are brilliant, but I didn’t realise until looking at the close up shots.. they are getting a bit rusty now!
I had to laugh when I saw that squirrel … I’m sure he was dizzy after that trip on the feeder.
Not as dizzy as he will be when I change the batteries and make it go faster.. 🙂
Beautiful, stunning photos. I particularly like the Nuthatch. The squirrels must provide hours of entertainment, you could do a short video of them, it would be very popular 🙂
The squirrels provide great entertainment, they might as well give us some value in exchange for all their nuts! I’ve done a video too… (here), although in many ways I think the stills are even more dramatic.. there’s more sense of movement somehow!! I’ll post the video link on Authentic Bloggers too.
[…] cottage and garden ‘off the beaten track’ in the South West. I particularly loved Rusty Duck’s recent post on the Big Garden […]