One for you bird lovers. A moorhen in my garden.

Sorry, www.budfox.co.uk/moorhen.jpg

There's quite a lot of moorhen (or as Tommy calls them, Grebe) on the canals around Stoke.

nice picture

Yes, not an uncommon bird but I've never seen one in my garden. I'm right in the middle of a town, but I do feed my feathered friends a lot.

The picture was taken 5 minutes ago in very low light. Luckily I have a Nikon D700 because very few cameras could get that shot on a 300mm lens at this time of day.

Looks like it's about to have a peck at some bread. Did it eat?

nice one garlicbread.

Yes, it ate loads of seed that I'd thrown out and then had a bit of a nibble on the bread.

Here it is on the fence before it flew off:

www.budfox.co.uk/moorhen2.jpg

How do you stop pigeons taking all the food...is it just a case of getting a birdhouse with a small aperture?

I put out a LOT of food.

The stuff that I scatter is just small seeds really, rather too small for pigeons to bother with.

They pigeons also scare very easily and with a busy path at the back of my house, they often get sppoked.

I have a feeder with nuts in for the great tits and blue tits etc...(I know that word will get censored).

All in all, any birds who wish to eat in my garden will find plenty of food.

The squireels are the worst ones for nicking stuff...

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/londislagerhound/Birds#

These guys are my favourite:

www.budfox.co.uk/robin.jpg

(The darkening around the edges is deliberate, I don't buy bad lenses)

yes robin's my favourite too. Get meal worms from the pet shop for mine from time to time if I can.
That's a good camera alright.

Yes, the camera is awesome and worth every penny of the fortune it cost.

The 50mm f1.4 I normally use on the front is magnificent too.

my camera is also a phone!

Well done, great spot and what a super photograph.Excellent.
Look out for special bird programme SNOWWATCH - 8pm on BBC2 tonight . With usual Spring/Autumnwatch team.

robins are viscious little buggers. my resident blackcap keeps being harrassed by one

Robins are very territorial. One in my garden is same. Chases off all the Dunnocks. Can 'lord' it over one or more gardens.

is the dunnock the commonest unrecognised bird?

Probably ! The Dunnock or Hedge Accentor is often called ( erroneously) a Hedge Sparrow( not related to the House or Tree variety)

When I was young I found a moorhens (or waterhen as we used to call them)nest with 14 eggs in it up a tree! Couldn't believe it.