My final post (this year) on Eastern Spinebills

Success at last.  After the trials of attempting to photograph spinebills from the kitchen window and the sunroom window Frances commented, after spending some time in the sunroom garden bed that I should just take my camera out there "and they will come".

Yowza.  Was she ever right: as they didn't stay still getting a count was hard but my guess is that there were at least 6 in an area about 20m square.
I am pretty happy with that shot.  There were still raindrops falling from the surrounding vegetation so the bird shook itself, causing all its feathers to fluff out.
There were also some juveniles present.  The first image shows two of them and other 2 images show the poses and plumages of this age cohort.


Vegetarians, or other sensitive persons, should not follow the next link!  So to misquote the phrase attributed - apparently apocryphally - to Hannah Glasser "First plant your red-hot pokers...".

Comments

Denis Wilson said…
Hi Martin
You have to love someone who can declare a project "finished" so soon into the new year.
No more Spinebill photos this year?
Mind you, the juveniles were very kind to you.
I like their gentle colourings.
But I dislike their squeaks. Need a can of WD40 they do.
Cheers
Denis
14 January 2011 at 17:07:00 GMT+11
Flabmeister said…
Denis

Do not be too hasty with your rapture. I did not define the date on which the year (basically a period of 13 lunar months) begins!!

But I was reflecting the number of posts I had made in the last few months about these high speed beasts!

Martin
14 January 2011 at 20:31:00 GMT+11
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