Astronomy, Photography and Weather

Sorry about the title as I just couldn't think of anything different. Several Robin shots from a freezing snow-covered park in Magherafelt where the deep ponds were frozen solid for the second year in a row. This place was full of wild Robins who were very tame due to their hunger, I saw more Robins in one hour than I ever have in my life and they came so close that I could catch them with considerable success using the 18-55mm kit lens, but you would think they were taken with a zoom. At times I was so close I could have touched them. The second image shows one sitting on my car bonnet. Check out the tree shot - there are 8 Robins visible at the same time, that image looks better at a larger size.

(http://i55.tinypic.com/rgvsw3.jpg)

(http://i51.tinypic.com/5d2ohv.jpg)

(http://i55.tinypic.com/2h3ac8j.jpg)

(http://i52.tinypic.com/294pfkw.jpg)

man that 3rd shot is class.

Agree with Conor, 3rd is a stunner! with no.2 very close behind, nice contrast with the blue paintwork and the robin-lovely crisp images.   That shot of 8 robins is rare, never seen any more than two together, just goes to show how this extreme weather was affecting them.

8 ? - Amazing as is the one on the car. Take them some food if you go again,Martin.I carry a mix of birds seed,fat balls and ground up nuts with me and I've doled out a few handfuls here and there.

Wonderful shots Martin. I agree with everyone else # 3 is the hit, classic nature shot. # 4 kind of reminds me of the movie "The Birds", replacing the crows and gulls with Robins. Poor little things must be turned completely upsidedown with the weather. Another question, the 2 years I've been on the forum the weather in Ireland and England seems to me as though it's been to the extreme, is this normal? Just curious!

Thanks very much for the comments everyone  :)

John, how many did you count?, there are 8 in the image however there were more on the tree which I couldn't get in the frame. I was kicking myself for not having any food with me, I felt so sorry for them, next time I'm here in the snow I will have something. On the plus side lots of money has been spent on feeding the birds in the back garden, every day and night they get fresh seed and nuts in the feeders and a plate of water which always freezes over then gets replaced. Keeping them fed is turning costly but it's worth it when you wake up to that happy snow scene every morning with so many Bird species feeding together, I love it  :)

Richard, lol yes I does have the Alfred Hitcock quality to it doesn't it, I hope Hollywood doesn't steal the Robin idea though or they will go bust with a big flop on their hands  :), 'The Birds' was certainly good though!.

As for the weather turning severe or extreme it's difficult to say so soon, Conor and I have discussed this over the last year or so and we think that the weather has been getting more extreme over the last two years,  this really has been striking during the Winter months, whether this is a trend or just a fluke remains to be seen. I would certainly like to see an increase in severe thunderstorms though because they have been lacking during 2010. Late 2009 and early 2010 brought the most severe winter weather I have ever seen anyway, one would need to go back 50-60 years to see anything like that again, and now we have just had the most severe late Nov/early Dec Winter weather in many years too so that's very interesting.

However going back to the files in my memory bank I can recall much more severe gales, storm forces winds, mad all night thunderstorms and more tornadoes - these haven't been as prolific in recent years so I would like to see an increase in that side of things, perhaps 2011 will produce the goods. I don't believe in statistics, trends, global warming induced weather events etc, I just think things happen based on the synoptics at the time which are unpredictable - chaos theory, weather will happen for the good or bad regardless of man's attempts to label and understand the 'reason' behind it.  So with that I'm sitting on the fence observing what's going on at the risk of opening a can of worms  :)

Ah..  :)  Martin...Herein lies the  vulnerability of forum and web in general  chat , which I find quite frustrating . Lost meaning and worse misunderstood statements etc. , in this case my... 8 ? ..was meant as an exclamation of  astonishment -  I mean to have 8 robins in  one  tree like that was amazing. I hadn't counted them. I don't like the  exclamation mark as that is,  in most most instances of it's  use,  akin to shouting at peole in writing so I went for the question mark ,maybe it should, on this occasion have been one.  Neve mind ,we got there in the end.  That's great looking after the birds in the garden like that. I think it literally saves their lives during these severe periods of cold weather.

Very nice Martin, never seen so many Robins together.

Excellent shots Martin. And all with an 18-55? Wow, you must have been close all right.
To see eight robins in a tree and more out of frame must have been weird (never seen that many so close together).

Thanks very much John, Dave, and John - yes that was at 55mm, amazing place to photograph Robins, I will go back there again where we get more snow  :)