A Blue Tit and Coal Tit on the sunflower feeder

I made an effort to get outside and do some chores around the garden before the predicted ‘iceman cometh’. I cleared leaves from various places such as the patio and the steps down to it, as well as the paths at the front of the house and the street footpath, all of which had been covered by autumn’s 'fall of leaves’.

I managed to clean the patio flagstones underneath the sunflower feeder but not before I’d spent a happy thirty minutes on a chair in the cabin sited just beside the patio with my camera atop my excellent new monopod. I could thus ‘hide’, to some extent, from the birds feeding on the sunflowers a few yards away. They could fly in from all parts of the garden or from the safety of a nearby shrub or small tree, from which they could approach gingerly from a safe place.

The sun shone from quite low in a southerly direction which brought light and shadow to bear. I watched as bullfinches, blackcaps, robins, blue tits, coal tits, goldfinches chaffinches, and even a rare appearance in our garden of a sparrow all arriving to feed on the sunflowers.