I’ve been doing a lot of work to our garden recently to improve it both for our own enjoyment and to enhance its suitability for all sorts of wildlife. We are now starting to reap the rewards with a large increase in moths, butterflies and other insects, not to mention the variety and numbers of birds that are visiting our collection of feeders. It has been very pleasing to see that several avian species have decided that our little patch is just the kind of place that they want to bring up their families, as the numbers of juveniles seen so far this year is way ahead of the last. My favourites have been the Blue Tits that have such great little characters that its hard not to love them.

24744 - Blue Tit
24732 - Blue Tit
24731 - Blue Tit
24730 - Blue Tit

We have also had several young Great Tits though they seem far more wary of people that their Blue cousins.

24741 - Great Tit

Our pair of Dunnocks look to have had a successful year as we have two juveniles visiting on a regular basis. I just about managed to photograph one of the adults (below) before it once more disappeared into the undergrowth.

24734 - Dunnock

Our most colourful, and incidentally the noisiest, visitors are the Goldfinches. I have never had much luck photographing this species in the past but remarkably a pair arrived whilst I was laying on the grass just beneath the feeders. I was able to prop myself up on one elbow without disturbing them to get what are by far my best pictures of these brilliant birds. What makes them doubly special is that they were in my own garden.

24735 - Goldfinch
24738 - Goldfinch

Away from our regular birds we have also been treated to a brand new garden species in the form of a young Nuthatch. We only saw it briefly on a couple of occasions but I’m hopeful that it may make a return. A male Bullfinch has also been visiting more frequently and he does a fine job of hoovering up seed that has been spilt on the ground by the other birds. For this I am eternally grateful as I currently have bird seed germinating all over the place! If only the others were as thorough in cleaning up after themselves.


15 Comments

TexWisGirl · August 8, 2011 at 11:31 pm

gorgeous photos! your goldfinches are so beautiful! and i LOVE the jumping shot on that little one!

Unknown · August 8, 2011 at 11:52 pm

Great shots Adam!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

holdingmoments · August 9, 2011 at 4:26 am

Always good to see our gardening efforts appreciated like this Adam. Cracking series of pictures, and a great variety of visitors.

Bullfinch hoovering up the fallen seed? Sounds better than my Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves that do the same.
Appreciate their help though lol

Bob Bushell · August 9, 2011 at 8:11 am

At this time it's a good thing to see the hard work of the Bullfinch, great photos of all the rest of them.

J · August 9, 2011 at 11:36 am

Great shots, Adam, especially the Goldfinches. I've had a niger feeder outside my kitchen window for several months, but no sign of a single Goldfinch!

Malgorzata Ingstad · August 9, 2011 at 2:30 pm

Wonderful shots!

theconstantwalker · August 9, 2011 at 7:00 pm

Fantastic images Adam… I love seeing Goldies.

Arija · August 10, 2011 at 1:26 pm

You certainly have a great collection of resident birds. Isn't it lovely to establish habitat and then see the resulting influx of wildlife?

Springman · August 10, 2011 at 8:20 pm

Way to go Adam! Landscaping with native plant species takes extra care but just look at the results! We could all take a page out of your book.
Your pictures are superb and well deserved!

mick · August 10, 2011 at 9:01 pm

Great photos and congrats on making a beautiful habitat for birds.

joo · August 10, 2011 at 9:05 pm

All of them are terrific. I love Blue Tits, they are so lovely to watch.

Fotokarusellen · August 11, 2011 at 8:27 am

Wonderful post and very beautiful images. Well done.

Neil · August 11, 2011 at 8:31 am

All the hard work on the garden looks to be paying off.Great photos.

Anonymous · August 11, 2011 at 11:33 pm

Terrific images of these lovely little birds!

Adam Tilt · August 14, 2011 at 8:58 pm

Thanks all for your kind comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures and it just goes to show what's possible with a bit of sensitive wildlife gardening. I've got plenty more plans in the pipeline and I'll keep you posted as to how they develop.

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