Lucky

For weeks now I have been trying to get photos of fledglings being fed. Every day my bird feeders dispose of nearly ½ kilo of bird food so the sparrows are already on their second brood. I feel very protective of them because they live under the roof tiles above my bedroom. Houses in Scotland are constructed with wooden sarking under the tiles so there is no access to the house roof space for the sparrows and they are therefore not a nuisance. Usually I seem to have a ‘year of the sparrows’ or a ‘year of the greenfinches’. This year is a year of both. My cameras are nearly always within a metre or two of me when I’m in the kitchen or study where I have the best views of the birds. The light and weather (and no rain on the windows!) have to be just right for me to get a photo. That happens occasionally but then there have to be birds too. The day after my birthday I had a wonderful and slightly belated present:

And then they were gone

Greenfinch Close Up

Adrian posted a picture of a Greenfinch a day or so ago.  Adrian would possibly say it was a passable picture but it really is very good.  It made me look closely at the image, particularly at the eye.  Then it made me go back and look at some of my pictures.  I suddenly realised there is more to the beautiful Greenfinch than I'd taken in.  So I decided to post a few more.

A softened muted picture showing the strength of the beak in relation to the head and body

Who's a pretty boy then?

A youngster or female - or both

Dropped it?

Definitely got it this time

Feed Me!

This year I’ve had an abundance of small birds in the garden but Greenfinches outnumber Sparrows which is unusual.  This family have a lot of hungry mouths to feed so my seed feeders are emptying at an alarming rate.

    

Greenfinch

The Study in Tigh na Mara has two sides of glass and a roof of smoke tinted polycarbonate. The disadvantage of this is that, even with blinds that do not allow any light through the windows the amount of light in the morning when the sun streams in makes working on the computer difficult. All this has to be traded for the fabulous views and the fact that the bird table is just outside it. Yesterday's picture was an 'ah!' one.