....... And blow the birds about the sky

Well that was one windy weekend. The sun on Sunday was a bonus, and I headed over to Rich's field to see what I could find. It seems at least one of the barn owls has survived, although it was well tucked up by the time I got there. I could see some finch flocks coming down to the sacrificial crops, but they were as flighty as most finch flocks are, and I was never going to get close enough for photos. I decided to try putting up the hide near a small feeding area he has set up where I could hopefully catch birds in the crop, but if not, on the table.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the finches were twitchy and at first even the chaffinches stayed in the tree. In the Forest I have found the first finch down to food is usually a female chaffinch, but here it was a male, on, I think, quinoa - or possibly millet. Sadly the best of the crops at are the far side so the shot is a bit distant, and the angle meant the fencing couldn't be blurred out.
In the end it was only the chaffinches that came to the table, but they did provide good views in the morning sunshine, and reminded me of the full range of colours present in the male bird. I love the way they pick up a sunflowers seed and rotate it with their tongue, splitting off the shell (and all with no hands!).
I'm going to leave up some form of hide so they get used to it as he's had linnet and siskin recently. Probably needs a few 'rustic' perches popping in - never was over keen on snapping birds on feeders.

As always the pics look better here on the web album