DAY16. Thursday 24th March 2011 sunny with cold wind

Wow hasn't it been a lovely few days; clear sky's and a warm sun. today would have been just as nice except for that niggling wind reminding one that it is not quite as warm as we all would like. I went to the garden to see what the birds were up to as its been quite a while since I have spent a good amount of time watching them. I was in the hide for couple of hours and there were hardly any visitors to the feeders. This could be due to the fact that there is a lot more food around and therefore the birds do not have the same need to visit the feeders as they did. I did however finally work out where it is that the Blue Tits are nesting in the wall. They are still being very cautious about revealing its whereabouts and as soon as I bought out a 600mm lens to photograph them going in and out from a shrub they spotted me watching and just hung around in the tree not going in. There clever, I have to pretend not to be watching them for them to go in. they are quite happy for me to be photographing the Primroses that are closer to the nest site than where I set up the 600mm. Out of the corner of my eye I can see them going in and out. As soon as I train the lens on them they stop and just sit there.

The Magnolia tree flower that I have been observing is coming into full bloom and the first perfect green leaves are starting to come through. The Primroses are looking pretty good too with a healthy bunch of flowers.

DAY15. Friday 18th March 2011 Weather: rain clearing windy

It was a rainy start today but come the afternoon the clouds were clearing leaving behind lots of droplets of water on all the plants in the Garden. I was observing the plants again today, photographing the change. With the rain and wind many of the less robust plants have fallen over. It was strange the rain, it was the first time that I have experienced the smell of summer rain this year. That smell of water landing on dry ground and dust. After the rain had gone it would have felt warm except for the wind.

DAY14. Thursday 17th March 2011 Weather: cold start but sunny.

When I was leaving the Garden yesterday there were some people setting up nets around the feeders. This frustrated and angered me as I have been working hard to get the birds used to my presence and the capture of birds right where I am trying to do my project seems a bit inconsiderate. However I swallowed down the anger that I felt and approached them asking if it would be ok to come and photograph what they were doing. They informed that this would be fine and told me that they would be there from 7am the next morning.

It was slightly chilly when I got to the garden to find a group of people ringing birds that had been caught already. The birds were hanging in bags from the back of a van, sometimes the bags would move as the birds struggled to free themselves. The birds were taken from the bags rung and then released. The process seemed to be fairly stressful for the birds but otherwise none the worse for wear.

There was one bird in particular (a song thrush) that was having a bad time and in its struggle to free itself had managed to get its beak tangled in the net along with its wings. It was defiantly the Thrushes Redwings and Blackbirds that managed to get themselves into a real tangle. The Tits did not seem as bothered about the process and just hung upside down struggling from time to time. This may be due to the fact that they are much more acrobatic than the Thrushes and Blackbirds and are used to hanging upside down from branches.

A good thing that I feel came from this was that a pair of Bullfinches was captured adding another bird to the list that i have seen in the Garden.

Now I am not against the ringing of birds; it provides a wealth of information on a species. However it would have been nice if they had not done it right in front of an obvious hide where people observe the habits of these birds. I fear that now the birds have been disturbed just as they are starting to build nests (potentially in boxes with cameras) that they might abandon them and go elsewhere. The birds no longer come to the feeders when I am at the hide.....i am going to have to start the whole introduction to my presence again. I also wonder if this is worth the effort, for all I know they might keep doing these practicals till the end of the year.

DAY13. Wednesday 16 March 2011 Weather: very warm sunny clear sky

It was warm today, in fact it was very warm, positively delightful when in the sun. the plants are basking on this new energy and new growth is coming up left right and centre. So much so that it is hard to keep on top of the amount of change that is occurring. There are many more bugs and there was one in particular that caught my attention. This was a small red bug that was congregating on the lilly leaves in the metal pond. I was unable to identify them and shall do my best to do so in the next few days. I have also noted that the leaves of the lilly are changing; turning a more red colour.

I was just heading back to pack away the kit that I had left in the hide when I noticed a mouse coming out from under the shed. It did not appear too afraid and scouted for food right by my feet. I think that this shall be on my list of things to try and photograph.

DAY 12 Weather sunny and windy. Warm

I went to the walled garden today to photograph the change in the plants. Although it is only early spring there are lots of buds and shoots appearing on the trees and shrubs. I was not able to get to the walled garden before now and already the Primroses are in flower and the Magnolia flower that I have been watching is bulging out of its casing. The daffodils are still coming out, some of them are a little top heavy and have been blown over by the wind. I plan now to record in depth the change of these three species of plant and observe how they change over the course of the project.

DAY11. Weather: light rain showers very brief, sunny intervals, warm

Spring is defiantly on its way; the Daffodils are in full bloom and the Magnolia trees are starting to come out. Many of the weaker flowers such as the Magnolia have been effected by the cold of the last couple of days and have crinkled and gone brown in places. There are many buds still to come out however so I don't think that it will effect the tree.

There are a lot more insects around the garden, with many bumble bees buzzing around. Along with the bees from the wall and the the hive.

The birds are much more dispersed around the garden as someone else has come in and placed feeders all over the garden. This is a little annoying as to be able to carry on with my project on them I shall have to go round and take down the feeder and then replace them when I have finished. The Blue Tits are consistently behind the hide and I am now convinced that they are using the wall as a nest site. This is only one pair and I think that there is another pair that are looking at the nest boxes. I saw a Robin with some nest material in its beak. However it refused to fly to its nest spot with me watching and just sat looking at me with it before finally (after about 10mins) dropping it and flying away. At this stage it seems very difficult to find out where the nest sites are due to the birds being very careful not to give them away till the baby birds have hatched and the sound of there calls for food give away the location of the nest.

Today I also spotted a female Gold Crest a very small bird that was feeding off something on the Magnolia trees. I have been told that these birds are around campus but I have not been able to spot one myself till now.

All of the birds are much more active with bursts of song and territorial displays.

DAY 10. Weather: warm when in the sun and sunny

Time has gone so fast. It feels like only yesterday that I was last in the walled garden. Unfortunately I have not been able to access the garden due to work going on outside. It defiantly feels like spring now the sun has that warmth to it and it appears that all the plants and animals can feel it too. Today the bees were buzzing around the garden. I even saw a bumble bee and a wasp but unfortunately was unable to get a photograph of either. The magnolia trees around the pond are starting to bloom, the daffodils are in full bloom along with the forsythia giving the garden a splash of yellow. The snowdrop flowers are now on there way out the flowers turning brown and falling off.

Because I have not been able to get into the garden I have not been able le to fill the feeders. They were all empty today except for the Niger seed. I refilled them all and even as I was filling them the birds started to arrive. The Blue Tits that I have been suspecting nesting in the wall behind the hide are still hanging out there a lot and showing some aggression toward other birds that come too close. I shall keep watching to see if I can find the hole that they are using. I also noted that there was another pair of Blue Tits hanging around the nest boxes again. The Great Tits were acting very strange today. They appeared to be chasing one another around a tree. I am unsure as to why this is but my theory is that it is some sort of courting behaviour.

DAY 9 Weather: overcast but dry

Today I experimented with the use of a wide lens and a remote shutter release. Setting the camera up next to one of the feeders where I new the birds would fly. I placed the SB900 flash guns up around the areas I hoped the birds would fly and waited in the hide with the remote shutter in hand. As soon as I saw a bird fly across the lens I took a shot. This allowed me to get shots with a very different perspective than using a longer lens. The disadvantage however is that with all the equipment around the feeder much less birds come to get seed, the ones that do are very fast and weary spending a lot of time in the cover of the tree. To get round this I often let a few come without taking a shot so as they didn't get scared by the flash.

I have noticed that there are a couple of Blue Tits spending a lot of time by the wall behind the hide. I think that they might have found a nest site there and a claiming it as there's. I shall keep watching to see if my suspicions are true. I spotted the Green Woodpecker again today on seeing me it quickly flew off.

DAY 8 Weather: very wet warm

I went to the Garden today to observe and photograph the birds again. Over the cause of the day there was a lot of activity around the feeders. To start with there was a lot of Goldfinches around the Niger seed feeder. They tended to get into fights over who had the right to sit on the feeder. The other new visitor was a loan Green Finch who decided that it was too much to contest with Gold Finches for the Niger seed and flew away. The most amazing appearance though today was a Green Woodpecker that swooped down scattering all the other birds. It was gone in a flash of green and landed in one of the big trees bordering the garden. It stayed there for a while then flew off. It seems that there are a lot of woodpeckers around campus. I would quite like to try and photograph them but they are very shy and tend not to stick around while I am in the hide.

DAY7. weather: wet warm.

I spent much of today in the walled garden. Lots of bulb plants are coming through and in some areas there are some primroses coming up. The snowdrops are in full bloom and look really good with tiny droplets of water on there petals. It has been damp and mild over the last couple of days which has really benefited the mosses in the garden.

There was a lot of activity amongst the birds in the garden today. Two Spotted Woodpeckers flew by and I could here them calling to one another for most of the day. Amongst all the usual visitors to the feeders there was another male Chaffinch which spent most of its time fighting with the other male. I was also blessed with the presence of a family of Long Tailed Tits that didn’t notice me by the tree and and flitted around really close. I have never had such a close encounter with these birds and it was a great experience to have a whole family come so close, constantly calling to one another while performing some great acrobatic flights. At about mid day I herd alarm calls from the magpies and blackbirds, looking up I saw two falcons swooping around. They were two high to see what they were and quickly flew out of sight.

DAY 6

It has been a while since I have been able to go to the walled garden as I have had a lot of work to do. However today I managed to get down there to refill the feeders. There were a lot of Blue Tits around the bird boxes in the tree next to the hide. Fingers crossed they were checking the out as potential nest spots. I also noted that they were feeding of something that was in the lichen growing on the bark of the tree. I would quite like to find out what it was and try and photograph it.

DAY 5

It was very cold today. I visited the garden only for a brief time in the morning and found that the pond was entirely frozen solid. Because it was so dry there was not frost, only a freezing wind. When I went to check the feeders I found that almost all of them were empty and that a squirrel had chewed through the big seed feeder that I had been using for flight observation. Although I was very annoyed I couldn’t help but marvel at the cunning of the squirrels who had chewed through the thinnest part of the feeder where I had repaired it.

DAY 4

I had to refill the feeders today as they had gone right down. I also moved the sunflower hearts feeder closer to the hide so as to get some better shots. As usual I was trying to get some shots of the birds in flight. However is was not as light as it had been on that first day so in order to gain a fast enough shutter speed I had to push the iso right up. The only two new visitors to the garden were a pair of Squirrels rather than the one before. Thankfully they fed of the seeds on the ground rather than the ones in the feeder so the birds still came to the feeder. There have been a couple of Jackdaws in the bigger trees surrounding the garden. I think that they are checking out the feeders but are too shy to come down while I am in the garden.

DAY 3

It was a very wet day today in the walled garden with frequent rain showers. Between showers the birds came out to the feeders. The most exiting moment was when the Spotted Woodpecker came to the feeders. It did not stay long as it saw me in the hide and flew away. I can also confirm that there are two Goldfinches and two male Chaffinches as well as the females. Yesterday I thought that there was only the one Coal Tit but there was defiantly two there today. It has been a little more mild which has meant the snowdrops have put on a lot of growth.

DAY 2

There was a very thin layer of cloud today creating nice soft shadows and highlights. Because it was not too thick there was still a good amount of light allowing for fast exposures at low isos. I went to the walled garden with the intention of photographing the change in the Snowdrops and to take a few landscape shots. However when I had completed the work on the snowdrops I was detracted by the amount of birds on the feeders. I decided to go and grab a long lens (600mm f.4) to see if I could get any good shots. It was perfect light, lots of feather detail and no strong shadows from twigs or beak. The feeders had gone down a so I refilled them, on doing so I noted that the Niger seed was going down which is good because it means that the finches have found it. I set up my stuff in the hide, just as I was putting the camera onto the lens I herd the sound of beating wings. Looking up I saw a spotted woodpecker on the tree right next to the hide. It saw me at the same time as I saw it and flew away.

I was concentrating today on the Chaffinches. There are a lot of females and only one male. After I had been in the hide for a while a Nuthatch visited the sunflower hearts feeder and a goldfinch enjoyed the Niger seed.

Unfortunately my shoot was cut short by a squirrel. This pest scampered with ease up the metal pole of the sunflower hearts feeder and preceded to scoff the lot.

DAY 1

Today was the first day in the walled garden observing the animals and plants. Yesterday I put up the bird boxes with cameras in. I hope that in the spring I will be able to watch the chicks grow in the box. I have also put up bird feeders to try and attract birds to the garden and photograph them from the hide. I put out sunflower hearts, Niger seed, black sunflower seeds and a mixed seed. Birds are already visiting the feeders with lots of tits about. ( blue tit, great tit and a coal tit are the species of the tit family that I have seen so fair.) other frequent visitors include a black bird, robin and a hedge sparrow.