Songbirds - part 1

This is the first part of a three part series where I focus on the varied group of birds known as passerines or as some are better described as songbirds. I’ll be including a few different ones like, Pipits, Chats, Flycathers and more. Featuring passerienes as they are busily looking for food during the spring is the first part of this series, where I’ll share a few shots from birds photographed during this important period.

Firstly it is important that the birds aren’t spooked or distressed during this important time. So I made sure that I kept an appropriate distance away from the nest and by watching their behaviour I was sure that my prescence wasn’t stopping the birds from feeding their chicks.

While photographing Meadow Pipits on a coastal sand dune, I was able to locate where a nest was, in a brambles bush. Around the nest bush there was some cover and a few scattered clumps of flowers. So, I set up nearby waiting for the adults to fly in. And eventually they did. They were curious, but they carried on bringing in mouths full of insects into the nest, so I knew I wasn’t affecting their behaviour and they kept returning every few minutes with more food.

I managed these close up, nice looks, of the Meadow Pipits which would be more difficult in any other season. And they made use of the variety of different perches, so I had a varied section of shots.

The two shots below are also another example of waiting nearby for action to happen. A Willow Warbler was flitering around in a pine tree and calling loudly, so I waited until it finally showed itself and I was surprised to see it with a bunch of insects in it’s beak. Also a similar circumstance with this Stonechat where it had a few fledglings in the gorse so was occupied looking for food and appeared on this branch with some sort of moth. Durning spring and summer insect prey is plentiful so bird species won’t stop looking for food, which means the action can often be non-stop.

Compositions are also nice when you get an obliging bird ready to fly into the nest. As with this Redstart, it was on a small tree underneath the pine the pair was nesting in. The weather was overcast but I liked the small in the frame style for this one.

More shots and details/behind the scenes on encounters with songbirds in the next two parts of this series’s of blogposts to follow soon…