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alanhill
10-14-2006, 2:31 PM
Rich (squidfish) and I planned to photograph the waterbirds flying around the Dee estuary at high tide last Sunday. Unfortunately conditions were not in our favour; there were plenty of birds, but they were moving around in small groups well away from our spot on the shore.
Rich suggested Plan B; the public hide at Thurstaston country park. I'd never seen much there, but he was right, there was a nice selection of garden birds attracted to the feeders. I also liked the way there were bushes with nice perches close to the hide - which suited my 300mm better than his super tele. He was trying to shoot the difficult stuff, while I concentrated on the easy shots: I was quite pleased with some of the results.

Cock House sparrow
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/NH/Thurstaston002_051.jpg

Dunnock (also called a hedge sparrow, but not related to the one above)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/NH/Thurstaston002_063.jpg

Collared dove (posing nicely)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/NH/Thurstaston002_092.jpg

and finally a robin
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/alanhill/NH/Thurstaston002_090.jpg

Alan
Schnauzer
10-14-2006, 2:52 PM
Very nice Alan. I particularly like the first and last.
I'm quite surprised at the difference between what you in the UK and we here call a robin.
alanhill
10-14-2006, 3:30 PM
Yes, our robin is related to the chats and nightingales. This group is now classified with the Old World flycatchers (it's not just fishes that get pushed around by taxonomists).
When Europeans landed in new places and saw a bird with a reddish breast they immediately called it a robin, so there are lots of unrelated 'robins' all round the world. Yours is a thrush, which I think is quite like our blackbird . . . but that's another story.

Alan
kross
10-15-2006, 3:43 AM
i like the robin....:-)

cheers....
Willy wombat
10-15-2006, 5:59 AM
Yes the last one is lovely Alan.
squidfish
10-15-2006, 2:24 PM
I'll add a couple more that were around the feeders but first you can never resist a robin :) which are always useful for xmas cards :)

http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/files/490-bob1.jpg

A green finch

http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/files/490-gfinch.jpg

A chaffinch

http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/files/490-chaffer1.jpg

and a Blue tit

http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/files/490-bt20.jpg

Despite my efforts I still failed miserably with the Coal tits :redface:

cheers

Rich