Turning my garden into a photography paradise

It’s a new year and I have set myself a new project, to turn my garden into a wildlife photography paradise, or at least, try to…

To get started, I sent up the drone, to get an aerial view of the garden so that I can make myself a rough garden map and see what is currently here and where I can make improvements and additions to help encourage the wildlife into the garden even more.

We are quite fortunate that we have some established trees like a big copper beech and ash tree, as well as some fruit trees in the form of a couple of apple trees and a cherry tree. We also have a few hawthorn trees that the birds really love. Now the trees in the garden behind the driveway do have a lot of ivy on them, I did a bit of research into this and according to the RHS it doesn’t strangle the tree, and provides great cover for birds, I am not sure how much is too much. If you watch the YouTube video, please comment and let me know if I need to trim it back a bit.

Bird feeder wise, I am currently down to one peanut feeder that is hung on the cherry tree, I did have some more, but the recent storms played havoc with them which isn’t ideal, but one is better than none.

Now I know what is in the garden I think a bit of observing is in order, to see what, in January 2025, is actually visiting (and yes, an hour or so on one sole day is not enough for a ‘big picture’ as to what visits often, but it is a start). We have your usual garden birds visiting, a lot of beautiful blue tits, great tits, robins, black birds, dunnock and there is a wren that has been living in the garden for a couple of years.

So, we have our (tiny) sample, so the next job is to fit the new feeding station (thank you to Tim’s mum for this as a gift for Christmas). The station was a bit fiddly to set up, in that you can’t actually fit the attachments onto the pole once the screws have been fitted, and one also had a rivet left long on the inside which I eventually managed to flatten enough that I could fit it onto the pole with the rest of the attachments.

Once the assembly process was complete, it was now a decision of where to put it. My thoughts were, either just behind or in front of the cherry and apple tree as the birds are already used to coming to the feeder already set out. I deceived that in front would be the best option and once in place, I could fit the feeders on. It was then onto a bit of pruning in the garden, with my focus on tidying up the new growth on the old sycamore and down by the fence area, as this is what is going to be my backdrop for the photos and currently, it’s incredibly messy. Once my first attempt at that was done, it was now time to wait for the birds to get used to the new feeder.

As I am documenting this into a YouTube video, I waited a whole 2 ish hours before heading back out to see what, if anything, was visiting. The light was dropping fast, it being after 4pm in the beginning of January, but I did see one blue tit visit, which is a promising start.

The following day, I pruned the apples trees back and a tiny bit on the cherry tree before building my first photography perch. I had shopped the garden and there was a really straight branch that had dropped off the ash tree in a recent storm that was perfect for what I wanted. I bashed in a post and fitted the branch between the apple and cherry tree, as there is a gap into the field here and even at f8, the background is really nice and blurry as it is so far away from the branch. Once it was all fitted, I added some seed on top to try and encourage the birds in.

After a few hours away from the garden, I was back to see, what if anything was around and if the birds had any interest in the new additions (again, I know I have only just fitted them so it will take a while for them to get used it all properly).

We had a visit from the usual garden crowd, and a robin did, very briefly, land on my new perch! I did notice that there was another area that I could do a bit of tidying in, as there was a old green garden chair that was a bit distracting, so I moved that out, and also decided to move the feeder further down the garden between the hawthorn and sycamore as I felt I was a bit too close for the birds to be comfortable.

I waited it out some more and the most amazing site happened, a small flock of long-tailed tits flew into the garden! They were not there for long, and I only managed one image in all my excitement, that is more a snapshot, but this was the first time ever, that a long-tailed tit had ever visited the garden before.

There was a fair bit of activity from the blue tits and robins and a visit from a pair of bullfinches, but they were right down the bottom of the garden and not interested in the feeders I had put out.

As I started to get cold, I called it a day, expecting that to be the end of part one of this garden project. However, the following morning, I woke to a covering of snow, and what kind of wildlife photographer would I be to miss the chance to get some images of birds in the snow.

I set up once again with my A7iv and the 200-600 G lens, and spent an hour in the garden, watching and photographing all that went on. I expected there to be a lot of activity given the weather conditions, and I was not wrong, there were birds flying in from all over the place, mostly blue and great tits and there were also some visits to the new photo branch.

I am really happy with how this project has started and, while there is still lots to improve on, this was a step in the right direction. There is still more that I need to so, like add some more perches between the feeder and the hawthorn as, at the moment, the birds are just hopping straight onto the feeder (mostly from the hawthorn), as well as work on adding some extra bits to the larger branch that I added in.

The garden project will be ongoing throughout the year, so stay tuned for additions and updates as I progress the garden into a wildlife photography paradise.