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.