A dedicated wildlife photographer has used lockdown to catalogue the parade of beautiful birds visiting his garden—and has snapped all of the pictures through the kitchen window.
Cancer survivor Andrew Fusek Peters, who remained isolated throughout most of the pandemic, forced himself to adapt by working with subjects closer to home who were already socially distant.
The 55-year-old used his double-glazed kitchen window as a makeshift hide to capture stellar images of wild birds outside his Shropshire garden.
In the last week alone, according to SWNS, he has managed to photograph goldfinches fighting each other midair as well as redpolls, nuthatches, and blue and long tailed tits taking flight.
He spent several hours every day camped in his kitchen while drinking tea to complete the project he has called, “The secret life of birds in lockdown.”
Andrew, of Lydbury North, used an Olympus EM Mark III camera with a zoom lens and shot the birds at 60 frames per second.
He said: “I’ve been carrying on this garden bird project through lockdown and these have worked out really, really well.
“Usually I’d have gone away to Scotland and the Shetlands but instead I’ve managed to showcase this amazing wildlife in our garden.
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“The garden has great light but I need the sun to be at the perfect level at a certain time, and have the ideal weather conditions.
“The sun can’t be shining at the window or the glare makes it impossible. There is only a small window of opportunity really.
“The bird needs to take off and fly past the exact same place for it to come off.
“Because I’m behind the double glazed glass I have to clean the windows inside and out daily to get the shot as sharp as possible.
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“The birds are so fast you are photographing like crazy. The six or seven shots I’ve managed to get are about a one in five thousand chance.
“You have to understand the behavior of the birds, which are all different.
“I think these are some of the best shots I’ve done,” he said of the goldfinches fighting.
“They look ferocious with their claws up and the look in their eyes is so intense. Their colurs are beautiful.
“It’s quite magical to see such a variety of wildlife in your back garden. It shows how beauty is all around us, if you look closely enough.”
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