Spring scenes at Tangarreg Hides

Whilst I’m reeling from missing out on last Friday’s spectacular aurora(!) it’s still been a pretty satisfying week for photography, including a bluebell photoshoot with an adorable little girl and her sausage dog, perfecting flight shots of mason bees in the garden and rounded off with a repeat visit to one of my favourite locations.

To me there’s no better way to spend an afternoon in the sunshine with camera in hand, surrounded by the twittering of birds and what better place to do this than Tangarreg pools with it’s purpose built hides and feeding stations offering fantastic, up close views!

Sunny skies looking out of the Rowan hide

Whilst a newly resident pair of pied flycatchers sadly failed to make an appearance there was still an abundance of other small birds down at the Rowan hide to keep me entertained during a pleasant few hours in the sunshine.

A pair of male house sparrows on a mossy perch a few meters from the Rowan hide

A jay on lookout from the same perch

Among the visitors to the feeding station were house sparrows, robins, blue tits, nuthatch, great tits, dunnock and the occasional coal tit, all tempted down by the fresh mealworms cached among the moss and foliage.

Great tit in action

Dunnock posing on a perch

Great tit with incoming house sparrow

Male house sparrows

Great tit poised for action

Blue tit – they were quite skittish and difficult to photograph on this occasion

A robin singing softly

Nuthatch on the feeding platform

Dunnock – one of my favourite birds

Nuthatch on an upright branch

Robin with bluebells in the background

Coal tit

Robin seizing a mealworm

A soggy nuthatch!

Dunnock on the landing perch

With nesting season now well underway, it appears many birds were feeding not only themselves but hungry chicks waiting somewhere out of site, filling their beaks with as many mealworms as they could carry.

Great tit

Nuthatch

Great tit with mealworm

A male house sparrow gathering as much as he can carry!

A great tit filling it’s beak

Among many of our familiar garden bird species, both the male and females share the burden of raising young and providing food. For the house sparrows today it was a case of many beaks make light work!

House sparrow mothers gathering worms

Male house sparrow doing his share of the work

Female house sparrow

Foraging beside the bluebells

Female sparrow on a mossy mound

Adjacent to the large feeding platform, a selection of purposefully placed branches of bramble, blossom and sycamore provided more photographic opportunities in a more natural setting. Once again the birds were very obliging!

Nuthatch on bramble

Great tit fluttering among blossom flowers

Female house sparrow on sycamore

Flock of sparrows

Curious coal tit

More house sparrows feeding on mealworms

Great tit with mealworm perched on a bramble stem

Posing robin

Great tit on a blossom branch

Female house sparrow (l) and male (r)

Male house sparrow on sycamore

A perfect spring scene!

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Photographs copyright of Claire Stott/Grey Feather Photography © 2024
www.greyfeatherphotography.com

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