Having seen some great photographs taken in people’s gardens I have decided to have a go myself.
Now we don’t get many birds in our garden, mainly Starlings, Sparrows and Blackbirds – the fairly common species. I also don’t really have any photogenic places to photograph them so I’ve had to manufacture one.

First up was to try to build a set-up to capture the very aggressive behaviour of our Starlings, this entailed making a post and attaching a weathered old fence post (found whilst walking the local countryside). Next was to attach a cup to the post – behind the post so as to keep it out of shot and to then create a suitable background. The backgrounds are quite messy so I decided on a piece of 6′ x 4′ wood painted in a dull greens to block out the unwanted scenery.

I tried a range of bird food to tempt them in and the mealworms are by far the most effective bribe that I can give them. A week of feeding without photographing got them to know there’s free food to be had. I then set about capturing some shots and the first ones are below, I can and will improve on these but I now know the set-up will work for me.