Siskin-fest - February/March, 2018

Warning! This post contains relatively few words (when compared with my usual efforts) and rather a lot of images of Siskins!

For a couple of weeks or so, the most numerous bird visiting our garden on many days has been Siskin. Whilst we get them most years at this time of year, we have never had them in such numbers. It is relatively unusual, at the moment, to look out of the window and a Siskin not be present. The weather, whilst no doubt contributing to their presence, has not, however, aided photography. I have, nevertheless, managed quite a few shots with the camera. If the images look as if they were taken in sunshine it's probably because I have tweaked the white-balance in many cases! All the shots were taken from the comfort of my study, through the window glass.

Tuesday, 6th February

The Siskins had arrived. We had just two this day - one male and one female.

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (male) - our garden

Monday, 12th February

Although, during the preceding week, we'd had up to 5 Siskin in the garden (3m 2f), on this day we had just two again (1m 1f). The females were proving difficult to photograph!

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (male) - our garden

Wednesday, 14th February

It seems that the females wanted to get in on the action. On this day we had 5 females visit, with a solitary male. I got some shots of females!

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (female) - our garden

Saturday, 17th February

We had two of each on this day, and I had a number of photo opportunities.

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (female) - our garden

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (male) - our garden

Sunday, 18th February

We peaked for the week on this day with 8 (4m 4f) Siskins arriving. I had a bit of a field day with photography, but again it was mainly the males that obliged.

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (female) - our garden

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (male) - our garden

Tuesday, 20th February

On this day we had six Siskin (4m 2f). I just managed a couple of shots of a male.

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (male) - our garden

Thursday, 22nd February

On the Wednesday we had peaked at 10 Siskin (7m 3f), and we matched this number again on this day (5m 5f). I only got a couple of shots of a male bird.

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (male) - our garden

Saturday, 24th February

I noted 4 males and 3 females this day. Here's one of the females that briefly stopped just 2 metres from my window.

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (female) - our garden

Tuesday, 27th February

On this day we had 5 male Siskin and 2 females - and a little snow. This was the forerunner of worse to come!

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (female) - our garden

Thursday, 1st March 

The snow had arrived by the bucket load, and so had 14 Fieldfare which kept me occupied for a chunk of the day. I did, however, get a few of shots of Siskin in a snow-free spot outside my window.

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (male) - our garden

Friday, 2nd March

The Fieldfare peaked at 33 on this day, and will probably be the subject of a future post. These birds kept me busy with constantly defrosting the water supply and replenishing the apples that they were feeding on. I did manage a few Siskin shots, however. Here's a final shot for this post.

Siskin (Spinus spinus) (male) - our garden

The Siskins are still with us and omnipresent, and I'm really enjoying their company. The Fieldfare departed on Sunday and have not been seen since, and a sense of normality has returned to the garden.



Garden List - Week 07 - 12th to 18th February, 2018 and Week 08 - 19th to 25th February, 2018

Apart from the Siskin high count of 8, Week 07 was relatively unexciting, although the species count was quite healthy at 22. The Redpoll count had dwindled down to just 2 (m+f), and Jackdaw (with the half-bald breast visited again one day. A male Sparrowhawk put in a brief, and unsuccessful, appearance on one day too.

Week 08 species count was down to 19 species. The two Redpoll were still around and the Siskin count, as mentioned above, had got up to 10 on two days.

 

I hope that you have not found a long blog post with lots of images of just one species too boring. My next post will either be somewhat more varied, or might just cover the Fieldfares - I suspect the former - just to give a bit of variety.

I'm going to be heading into a rather busy period for a couple of weeks, so do not know when my next post will be.

Thank you for dropping by.