23rd October - Absolutely Nothing!

There was midweek rain that I missed, and the weather has changed, although it was still today.with plenty of clouds keeping it quite mild.

The garden has been very busy first thing in the morning, and then again as it starts to get gloomy in the afternoon.  There have been good numbers of Goldfinches, with a maximum count of 26 today.  There have also been three Coal Tits at any one time which is very unusual at this time of year, they have either got cleverer, realising there is food in the garden, or their natural food is not as plentiful in past years.

The first Redwings were heard flying over the house early yesterday morning, a very late first report, over the last 4 years they have been around at the end of September.  The number of Blackbirds in the garden have also started to increase.

What has become quite a saga has been the territorial disputes between the Robins.  I have three singing birds in the area of the garden and neighbouring gardens, and the boundaries are becoming clearer.  One Robin has the north end of the garden taking in the area around the shed and the main bird bath and two feeders.  The second bird has the pond and more feeders and the the Leylandii hedge on both sides and uses the cycle path sign on the street light to sing from.

This means that it is in the light so you can hear it singing all through the night!

Its main rival is a Robin on the other side of the road, and this bird seems to have realised that there are feeders in my garden, and makes little sorties through the hedge to try and use them, but the Robin whose territory is is quite alert, and regular fights break out, the Robin above always seems to take the high ground and is able to chase the invader off.  On Thursday evening we watched them squaring up to each other in the middle of the road.  This engagement never came to anything though.

I am still experimenting with the new camera, I was particularly interested in the images at the high ISO speeds.  This was taken at ISO 3200, and through a window.  I am very pleased with the results, little noise, and in the circumstances a sharp image.

This weekend will see more opportunities to experiment as long as the weather behaves!