All a-twitter

Spring has brought forth such a huge number of birds to my back garden that the noise is getting deafening! The lorikeets come in for their breakfast at eight in the mornings and scream in annoyance if their daily fare is ever so slightly late! They scream in delight when it is on time and even louder when it is early - so ear-plugs at eight are recommended! There is screaming whatever I do! These days the numbers of lorikeets have swollen as the chicks have left their hollows in the trees and joined their parents at the feed dish. The size of the juveniles is identical to that of the adult birds but I can tell the newbies because they find it very difficult landing on the round railing on the veranda fence either falling forwards and having to take to the wing again or else slipping backwards and clumsily trying to save themselves with their beaks but usually falling off and flying away to return and land on the feeder cage! They can manage that!
The finches have multiplied too. In fact there are swarms of them. Once the lorikeets have left the feeder the finches move in. They know not to compete for space with the bigger birds when they are pushing and shoving. They will venture in when there are one or two lorikeets still feeding and surprisingly the bigger birds don't pay any attention to them at all.
While the finches are waiting their turn they have taken to using the telephone wire as one of their lookout locations. I never seem to have the camera with me at the breakfast table so one morning I made a point of it and was rewarded with this line up of double bars.

f/9   1/500   ISO200

Mostly we see a maximum of six birds on the wire so this line-up is not usual and I found it quite thrilling. I was quite sneaky - using the 300ml lens at almost its full extension - I didn't want to take the chance of scaring the birds away.

Having taken the shot I wanted I stood up to try and get a different perspective and just as expected, the majority flew away. But not all. A few were grouped together so I isolated them with this next shot.

f/8  1/500  ISO200

My next challenge is to try and get a decent shot of the chestnut breasted finches (alternate name "manikins") as they crowd into the feed dish. They come in such numbers that I have been unable to count them.

AJ