The Great Storm of 1987 full story...
Doing the Undercliff Walk full story...
Take Three Piers full story...
An abc of Web Design go there...
The Digital Canvas go there...
Garden Wildlife full story...
Tom Russell Hits Town full story...
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The camera I used to photograph the birds is an Olympus Camedia C5050 Zoom - full review at dpreview.com. (Indeed, with few exceptions all of the photographs on this website were taken using it.) I also have an Olympus 1.45X tele conversion lens which gets me a little closer to my subject. The challenge is to have the birds in position when the light is good but the sun is not too strong, nor from the wrong direction. I always use a tripod.
Of course, I'm also shooting through a double-glazed window, which doesn't help.
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Magpie |
The magpie has a bit of a menacing
and guilty look about it. It makes repeated journeys to the food
bowl, grabbing food, flying off with it, then quickly returning for
more. |
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Magpie on Fence |
Like I say, not a bird to mess with if your a
sparrow or blue tit. |
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Magpie |
Although it is the second largest
of the birds which come into the garden, the magpie is very wary,
and tends to do a 'smash and grab' raid, that is, it doesn't hang
around. It especially enjoys a drink of water. |
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Magpie with Grape |
Having taken a grape, the magpie
puzzled about how to eat it. |
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Collared Dove |
The collared doves are very timid.
They sit for ages on the fence deciding whether to come into the
garden. They're new to our garden and are, I think, getting a little
more confident. |
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Collared Dove |
Even after landing on the table
this dove was uncertain about staring to feed. We have had three
together in the the garden - possibly a pair with a young one. |
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Seagull |
The seagull (herring gull) is the king of the garden. Even the magpie clears off when the gull arrives. Like the magpie the gull often comes for a drink of water - though it will eat just about anything that's available. It seems to be able to spot cheese from a great distance! |
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Seagull Drinking |
The gull has to lean its head to one side to
get its bill into the water dish. Then its lifts it head upright
to swallow, using gravity. |
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Family Group of Sparrows |
The sparrows are most at home
in our garden, but they are the among most difficult to photograph.
They're small and never sit still!! |
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Young Sparrow |
A cute little ball of feathers. This one began venturing into the garden on its on. |
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Grey Squirrel |
Squirrels are increasing in numbers,
but not in our area, probably because cats are too numerous.
This one was a visitor a couple of winters ago. Here it is photographed
in the bird feeder which is fixed to the top of the washing line
post. |
This is my own personal record of wildlife in my back garden. You can find out more about wildlife in the city at http://www.citywildlife.org.uk
See also: The Birds of Sussex
