I blame Springwatch...

The influence of Springwatch is lingering on in our house. For the uninitiated, Springwatch is a wildlife programme in the UK which makes heavy use of webcams in nest boxes and beautiful wildlife films. DS, who is ten, was absolutely enthralled and has now become fascinated by wildlife and wildlife photography.

While we were out for a walk we came across a whole load of bumblebees on some beautiful blue flowers. I am ashamed to say that I don't actually know what they were! DS took these shots with my phone:

On Saturday DS and I had the afternoon together. He spent the entire afternoon hanging out the upstairs window with my camera, trying to take snapshots of the birds on the feeders. Despite using a tripod, these photos are a little wobbly as he was taking them from a distance. He moved the feeders close together so he could take take photos of both at the same time. This woodpigeon took full advantage!

The sparrows and blue tits obliged by posing as well.

Not content with still photos, DS decided that he wanted to set up a webcam and get some live action. He kept on about this for long enough to convince his Dad he was serious, so DH found an old webcam and set up this strange contraption in the back garden.

The cable leads to a laptop on a garden chair. We have birds in our garden who are used to our strange antics, and they blithely took absolutely no notice of the camera. The output from the webcam was really poor quality, so DS invested his own carefully put aside savings in a newer model. He has only had one 45 minute session with this, but there was a little bit of action:

It's not exactly David Attenborough standard, and the bird is coyly hiding behind the feeder, but I am so proud of the persistence that DS has shown. He has shown patience that I didn't know he was capable of and is learning lots about our native bird-life. He has joined the RSPB so we are planning a few trips to their reserves during the fast-approaching summer holidays.