ARCHIVED |
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JANUARY 2015 |
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24th Jan |
Blue
Tit Release seven days on |
The return of this blue tit is thanks to Fran
and Claire and all at Cuan Wildlife Rescue for
the sterling work they do and in particular
treating this little fellow for a very bad case
of scaly mite. It's looking in much better
health and now has a really good chance of of
surviving the rest of the winter. It's now one
week since its return and release back into the
garden. Despite being in the middle of winter
and the condition of its plumage I am amazed at
how well its coping and getting back to normal.
My other blue tit that was only using one leg a
few weeks ago also seems to be on the mend as it
is now tentatively using the other leg again as
can be seen in the video. |
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VIDEO
Blue Tit Release Seven Days On
24th January 2015 |
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Possibly
because of its different appearance it tends not
to be accepted by a lot of the other blue tits,
but as you can see its quite capable of looking
out for itself. Fortunately its not all on its
own as there is one that seems to be quite
friendly with it, I would like to think that it
may have been its partner from last spring. |
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18th Jan |
A
visit from our smallest British bird. |
Our smallest British bird,
the goldcrest enjoying the January sunshine while
looking for insects in my blue spruce conifer in the
back garden, it makes for this every time it visits.
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The goldcrest is not the easiest of birds to
film not just because its small but it hardly
ever stays still as it flits through & under the
branches foraging for insects, spiders and small
caterpillars.
I made this video just over two years
ago and would like to make another with
a few more close up clips next time. |
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VIDEO
Goldcrest foraging for insects |
30th Dec
2011 |
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16th Jan |
My
blue tit released back into the garden |
I got a call from Fran at Cuan Wildlife Rescue
this morning saying that my blue tit with the
missing foot had finished its treatment for
scaly mite and that as there was a respite from
the bad weather today would be ideal for its
release back in my garden. The time had come for
its release and at midday the weather was
perfect, not too cold, sunny and no wind. On
opening its box it eventually popped out and
flew off across the road into a nearby garden,
but within minutes it was back in the garden
with the other tits and birds feeding on its
favourite, mealworms. It still needs to replace
some of the feathers on its neck but apart from
that it is very active and is in much better
health than when I took it down to Much Wenlock. |
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VIDEO
Blue
Tit Release
16th January 2015 |
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12th Jan |
Can
you tell the difference between the male and female
goldfinch ? |
Goldfinches are one of our
most colourful garden birds and over the recent years
they have taken to coming into gardens to feed on niger seed
and sunflower hearts. |
At
this time of year their natural food supply is starting to become
scarce and they are coming to the feeders in the
garden so it should be a good time to see if you
can tell the difference between the male and
female goldfinches. The male is slightly larger
than the female which is not always easy to tell
unless they are close together. If you can get a
good view of them you
can see that the male has more red on its head
which extends past the eye, whereas on the female
it only extends as far as the centre of the eye.
The juvenile has the same wing and tail markings
as the adults but lacks the red, white & black
markings on the head and face. It also has a
streaky brown body compared with the sandy and
white of the adults. |
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VIDEO
Female
& Male Goldfinches
15th Mar
2014 |
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11th Jan |
Cover Photo Star |
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My special blue tit is now the latest cover photo on the
Cuan Wildlife
Rescue Facebook Timeline. |
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Good news in a message from Fran |
'Hi
Maurice Baker he has now had his last treatment and his
leg is looking so much better. So as soon as the weather
improves he can come home Fran' |
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9th Jan
Today's Tip on Photographing Garden Birds |
Getting
a natural look to your garden bird photos |
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It's
easy to attract birds to your garden feeders but
photographs of birds on a feeder always lack
that natural look, you can achieve a far better
end result if the feeder does not show in your
photograph. One way to do this is
place a small branch as a perch a short distance
away from the feeder and focus on this as the
birds will often land on this when coming in to
the feeder. I find a more effective way is to
just extend the
length of the perches on the feeder. Just find a
attractive looking piece of branch, maybe
covered with lichen, about the thickness of your
little finger and about 20 to 30cm long. Drill a
hole in the end, the same diameter as the perch.
Now push these over the perches on the feeder
and you have a natural looking perch that the
birds will use every time they come to the
feeder. You may be lucky and get more
than one bird on the perch opening up the
opportunity for some interesting action shots as
well. The feeder can be cropped from the finished
picture giving you a very
natural looking finished product. |
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The first picture is the original photo, as
taken,
showing the perch attached to the feeder and the
second is the end result with the feeder cropped
from the photo. |
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Two
more photos taken of the same perch, with a little bit
of Photoshoping. |
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5th Jan |
Blue Tit on the mend |
Went
to Cuan Wildlife Rescue centre at Much Wenlock today to see
Fran and to see how my blue tit with one leg
missing was progressing with its treatment for
scaly mite. It's in good hands and is looking
much better than when I took it in just over a
week ago. Hopefully its feather condition will
improve enough before too long to enable it to
be released back into its home patch and it will
be fit enough to cope with the cold weather. |
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Photographs by kind permission of Cuan Wildlife Rescue |
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4th Jan |
A visit to the Long
Mynd |
A lovely bright
morning to take a walk around the Plush Hill
area of the Long Mynd, I thought we may well see
Fieldfares and Redstarts on the holly trees that
surround the house where the alpacas are kept.
Not a thrush in sight despite the trees being
absolutely covered in berries, perhaps as the
old saying goes, they are saving them thinking
that there may well be some severe weather still
to come later in the winter. It's strange as in
other years they have all been stripped by now,
no doubt we will be coming up here again before
long so we will see how long they stay on the
trees. |
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No thrushes but there is always something to see
up here, although if you are on a mountain bike
you may not see what is right in front of your
nose. Today four ravens were flying around
making their distinctive calls with no obvious
intent other than the sheer enjoyment of flying
and displaying their mastery of the air. |
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1st Jan. |
The Secret Life of the
Robin
With the robins now starting to pair up it is a good
time to take a closer look at the intricacies of the
fairly rigid structure of their life style, you don't
have to go far to observe some of their activities as
many of them can be viewed through your kitchen window
taking place in your garden. In January they have or are
in the process of pairing up and will then share a
territory until mid summer. |
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Right on
schedule, just after Christmas, I was lucky
enough to be able to watch the ritual pairing up
of two robins in the garden. The female had
obviously set her sights on my male robin and made
a number of approaches towards him, each time he
instinctively replied with a threat
posture which she just ignored. Despite making
these gestures he made no real attempt to chase
her off and eventually he accepted her into his
territory, I later saw them happily eating mealworms
in close proximity to each other. |
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VIDEO
Robins Pairing Up
28th Dec
2014 |
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More about
THE SECRET LIFE OF THE ROBIN
can be seen
in an article on
my main
website where I take a look at what makes our favourite
garden bird such a fascinating character. I
follow its activities through from late summer
to the following breeding season. After its late
summer moult it leads a solitary existence until
they pair up in mid winter and stay together in
a joint territory until the end of next years
breeding season. Pair bonding and courtship
feeding form part of the rituals that help
overcome the robins natural instinct to be a
loner. |
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The Life
of the Robin |
by David Lack first
published in 1965 |
Although published in 1965 it is a must
read book if you wish to take a more
detailed look at the complex life story of
the European Robin
It is still
available today through Amazon. |
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Welcome to my
new blog.
I live in Shrewsbury and although most of my blog
will be a diary and observations about garden birds
I will inevitably be drawn out to the beautiful
surrounding countryside of Shropshire, from the
meres in the north to the rolling South Shropshire
Hills.
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Support local wildlife by
supporting |
Cuan Wildlife Rescue |
Much
Wenlock |
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FULL
ARCHIVES LIST & BLOG INDEX |
December 2014 Blog - 4 |
November 2014 Blog -
6 |
October 2014 Blog - 12 |
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Tips on Photographing
Garden Birds |
I
am just an enthusiastic amateur bird watcher and
photographer with a keen interest in
understanding bird behaviour. I will occasionally try and pass
on a few tips that I have picked up that you may
find useful when photographing
birds in your garden. |
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GARDEN BIRD PHOTO GALLEY |
A selection of some of the 39 species of birds that visit my garden. I have gradually changed my urban back garden into a wildlife friendly area by adding water features, fruit and berry bushes & trees and letting the ivy cover the fence, trees and back of the house. I have introduced a rough grass area and encouraged wild flowers such as trefoil, knapweed, nettles & teasel to grow. By year round feeding & adding nest boxes I have recorded 39 different species of birds including predators, which I suppose is a sign of a well stocked wildlife garden.
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The 39 garden bird species captured on film or
photographed: Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Brambling,
Bullfinch, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch. Chiffchaff, Coal
Tit, Collard Dove, Common Redpoll, Dunnock, Fieldfare,
Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great
Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Wagtail, House Sparrow, Jay,
Lesser Redpoll, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Mistle
Thrush, Nuthatch, Pied Wagtail, Reed Bunting, Robin,
Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Willow
Warbler, Wood Pigeon, Wren. and a Garden Warbler no
photo |
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SHROPSHIRE BIRD PHOTO GALLERY |
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My list of
Shropshire bird photos: |
Arctic Tern,
Bar-headed
Goose,
Barnacle
Goose,
Bee-eater, Bewick's Swan, Blackbird, Blackcap,
Black-headed Gull, Black-tailed Godwit,
Black
Redstart, Black Swan, Blue Tit, Brambling, Brent
Goose, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada Goose,
Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit,
Collard Dove, Common Sandpiper, Common Redpoll,
Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dipper, Dunlin,
Dunnock, Egyptian Goose, Fieldfare, Gadwall,
Garganey, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Goldfinch,
Goldcrest, Goosander, Great Crested Grebe, Great
Spotted Woodpecker,
Great Tit, Green Sandpiper, Green
Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Greenshank,
Green-winged Teal, Grey Heron, Grey
Wagtail, Greylag Goose, Herring
Gull, Hobby, House Martin, House Sparrow,
Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Kingfisher, Lapwing,
Lesser Black-backed Gull,
Lesser Redpoll, Linnet, Little
Egret, Little Grebe, Little Ringed Plover,
Long-tailed Tit, Magpie,
Mallard,
Marsh Tit, Meadow Pipit, Mistle
Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Nuthatch, Osprey,
Oystercatcher, Peregrin Falcon, Pheasant,
Pied Flycatcher, Pied
Wagtail, Pink-footed Goose, Pintail, Pochard,
Raven, Redwing, Redstart,
Redshank, Red-legged Partridge,
Red Kite, Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler, Ringed
Plover, Robin, Rook, Ruff,
Sanderling, Sand Martin, Scaup,
Sedge Warbler, Shelduck, Shoveler Duck, Siskin,
Skylark, Snipe, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk,
Spoonbill,
Spotted Flycatcher, Spotted Redshank, Starling,
Stock Dove, Stonechat, Swallow, Swift, Teal,
Tundra Bean Goose,
Whooper Swan Tree Sparrow, Treecreeper, Tufted
Duck, Turnstone, Waxwing, Wheatear,
Whitethroat, White-fronted Goose, Wigeon, Willow
Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellow Wagtail,
Yellow Legged Gull, Yellowhammer, |
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Feature from my Website |
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If
you wish to
Email
Me please use this Link |
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More photos & videos on my: |
Website
Shropshire Bird & Wildlife |
Website
Shropshire Bird Videos |
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Twitter -
@MauriceBaker8 |
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