Richard Hardwick Photography

Garden Birds

5 July 2009

Posted in: Photography, Technique, Wildlife

Photographing garden birds is probably what sparked my interest in wildlife photography. I’ve spent a fortune on feeders and bird food and brought hundreds of birds into the garden.

Birds attracted by the different foods:
- Niger seed: Goldfinch, Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Greenfinch, Chaffinch
- Mixed seed: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Blackbird
- Black Sunflower seeds: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Greenfinch, Chaffinch
- Peanuts: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Great-spotted Woodpecker
- Mealworm: Robin, Blackbird
- Fat block: Robin, Great-spotted Woodpecker

I’ve attached interesting, lichen covered old branches to the top of one of the feeders to act as a perch and placed the feeder so the background is the opposite side of the valley. I shoot with the 400mm lens through a gap I’ve created in the hedge:

This is the result:

Canon EOS 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM