Baby Bluetit season

Every spring a pair of bluetits takes up residence in our garden bird box to raise a family and around the beginning of June we hear the incessant calls of young fledglings demanding food from their harassed parents. This year’s brood appeared a couple of weeks ago and today I finally found an hour to sit in the garden with my camera to capture some of their activities.

When I’ve done this before I’ve always had a battle with my camera’s autofocus to catch the birds among the branches of our buddleia bush. But since I updated my camera about 18 months ago the new autofocus system has made this so much easier. It was even able to pick up birds deep in the branches and focus on them and that make such a difference when you’re dealing with small creatures who move so quickly!

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

A couple of years ago we bought a new bird bath, which is raised off the ground and placed closer to our bird feeding station. It’s made a huge difference to the number of birds who use it, and I was surprise how many came for a drink, even though I was only sitting about five feet from it!

Although the garden is dominated by bluetits at the moment, we had plenty of other visitors too…

A rather tired looking Great Tit

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Photos taken 23 June 2025

Murmuration in training

At this time of year our garden is often invaded by a large flock of starlings. We see them murmurating over the road behind out house in the winter - just a few dozen birds - nothing like the huge displays you see by the coast. By late spring this year’s youngsters have fledged but are still happy to noisily demand food from their parents when they can get away with it.

I was doing some gardening when they arrived en-masse so I left what I was doing to top up the suet ball feeder and to throw a few handfuls of mealworms on the ground. This was enough to keep them happy and allowed me to quietly sneak closer with my camera and sit on the ground nearby.

This garrulous gathering were so focused on their food that they barely noticed me creeping down the garden path, allowing me to get within a couple of metres of them, sitting on the ground in plain sight.

Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.

This youngster was so oblivious to me that it landed on the edge of the bird bath about four feet from me!

Our unruly visitors were so noisy that many of our other garden visitors stayed away, but it didn’t take long for them to return when something spooked the starlings and sent them fleeing, however briefly.

Mrs Blackbird foraging among the wildflowers.

Judging by his threadbare tail I think our visiting robin has been busy raising a family and he or she is looking rather worse for wear!

Photos taken 29 May 2023.