Photographing Small Birds at my Feeder

A couple of weeks ago I decided to set up a few bird feeders at my house to see what would come.  It has been fun watching all the critters that come to the feeder.  I was surprised by the shear number of animals that come. Including cardinals, blue jays, nuthatches, dark eyed junco’s, woodpeckers, black capped chickadee’s, tufted titmice, sparrows, squirrels, and even a large cottontail rabbit was outside yesterday enjoying the food.  I used to set up feeders and use a blind to make it easier to photograph wildlife.  However due to the large amount of snow on the ground I cannot put out my blind.  So I decided to just walk outside and stand there mostly still and photograph whatever would stay.  I was surprised to find that most of the birds got used to me being there and didn't seem to care that I was there.  Only the blue jays and cardinals didn't like me being outside.  Even the squirrels after a while came to the feeder.  I’m assuming the woodpeckers won’t come either with me outside but I didn't see any while I was outside.  

When photographing small birds on a feeder you don’t want to photograph them while they are on the feeder, but you want to put places for them to land that are appealing when you photograph them.  I plan on adding some branches or something.  I do have a wood pile but all the branches that I put up have died since the last time I photographed at my feeder.  I have also been out eagle watching a few times, but I have not seen any the last few times out.  It has been a bad year for eagles for me.  It’s the first time I have not gotten at least one nice photograph of an eagle during the winter in at least ten years.  I hope everyone enjoys the photographs.  Feel free to comment.  Until next time.