He was a bit reluctant, so I spent some time trying out an idea I had to use my Panasonic FZ30 on a wide angle setting with a long cable release to get some close ups. Unlike a DSLR it has a silent action, so once the birds have accepted the camera it shouldn't put them off. Focusing proved somewhat tricky but eventually I got a couple of reasonable shots of a nuthatch and marsh tit on the bird table. Definitely worth more experimenting.
Anyway, eventually the male brambling did appear. The light was rubbish and it was a pretty active feeder - you know how some birds just move all the time - but I got a couple of OK shots in the end. Despite Kay's comment (see title), I think he's rather gorgeous. She's right in as much as this is the northern relative of the chaffinch, both being Fringilla species.
The name probably has nothing to do with brambles, but is derived from brandling, an old word for brindled pattern - look at the back view below and you can see how this could be true.
Next up the blue and great tits
then the chaffinches (one shot looks like one of those pottery hens - I found it amusing until I noticed the scaly leg that probably accounted for the posture. So many of the chaff's seem to have this.)
A blackbird called by and caught a patch of sunlight beautifully
One of my favourites - nuthatch - showed up as well. The last shot was taken at the feeding station at Beechenhurst, and it really did look like the bird had closed it's eyes and spat out the seed.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the great spotted woodpecker - not so much that it showed, but that it came so close - I had a coat with a hood up, but no more of a hide than that.
In the same area I finally got a shot of it's cousin a green woodpecker - OK it's not great but it's the best I've managed, and to get this I was lying up against a tree smelling very strongly of piss!
Round at Beechenhurst there were a few bramblings in with the chaffinches - with another couple of hours I expect I would have got some better shots, especially of the quite elusive male grubbing around in the leaves, but that's life.
I went chasing some more brambling this weekend near Pontypool (Pantygasseg to be precise), but didn't find them. There were some twitchy redwing perched in the treetops, then I finally thought I'd got a better shot from the car, but it's not so good after all. Shows the colours as well as I've ever seen though.
This year I was obviously earlier, and the fruiting bodies were still spiny. Quite a few had ruptured, but the spores hadn't formed.
But my favourite was a fungus I'd seen in the BBC wildlife magazine, yet doubted I'd find. Let alone just a couple of hundred yards up a busy road from our house. These bizarre things are earthstars. Sadly I was just a little late and they'd all released their spores, but still pleasing. I was disappointed to read that most don't return in the same place in successive years, but you never know. One for the calendar.
