We have a pair of siskins who visit regularly now. This is the male and it was lovely to see him in all his bright colours today. Until I saw the second image I hadn't noticed the beautiful markings on its underside.

Delighted to have a few of these visiting us now. When googling to learn a bit more about them, it said that when a goldfinch visits you, they symbolise the importance of optimism and the value of happiness, joy and simplicity in your life. We can all do with a bit of that at the moment :)

Excited to have some long tailed tits arrive in the garden. They were only a few of them and they weren't here for long, but it made my day :)

With nowhere to go and no one to see, I have taken to watching the birds in the garden. It began slowly with feeding a few of them and as word spread amongst them, many new arrivals appeared ! We now have bluetits, chaffinch, Goldcrests, nuthatch and a siskin appeared yesterday, together with a very brief siting of a long tailed tit. I bought a lovey watercolour painting of a long tailed tit at the Weald Country Fair last year and would love to photograph one, but they are super speedy.... so that's my next challenge !

Really enjoyed using my macro lens again... it's been way too long !

Woke up to a really heavy frost; such beauty in the garden.

We had a very different Christmas this year.  Heartbroken that our children couldn't be with us due to Covid Tier 4 restrictions, but we made the best of it.... wine and chocolate helped :)  Doing my best to stay positive through it all, but like most of us I have good days and bad days. I am really enjoying watching the birds in the garden and have started feeding them, so I am trying to capture a few photographs too; but they are super speedy !
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A couple of years ago I went to Eagle Heights with a friend, Andrew Moss, who very kindly gave me some great tips on photographing birds in flight. They were obviously much larger birds, but the principle is the same. If you get the chance check out his instagram feed, he does some great work "mossfoto"

It's been such a difficult and unsettling time for us all with Covid 19 and with continued uncertainty ahead. I am enjoying the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the wonders of nature and trying to learn which bird song belongs to which bird.....
​Just after dawn this morning I recognised a Wren singing and also managed to capture an image of it.  Whilst its not great, it captures the recognisable "football" shape and I am very pleased as its the first time I have been that close to one

The next bird is a chiff chaff. It was a very long way away and singing its heart out in the tops of the trees