Welcome to my first Jo Foo Wildlife Photography blog post for #BLOGtober2017!  I thought I’d kick-start this year by letting you in on a new project I’m working on. My husband and I moved to Frankfurt earlier this year and I’ve been getting to know our new neighbours.

And I don’t mean the humans (although they are lovely!)

Our garden is a haven for various bird species including: robins, blackbirds, sparrows, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, pigeons, magpies and jays. The jays are a fairly recent arrival and I was excited to spot them, well, I heard them first!  There are also a few other tiny brown birds that I’ve yet to identify once I get a close enough look at them.

Jays are a recent addition to our garden

I’m also delighted that we’ve got red squirrels in the garden too. At the moment it appears that we have two who visit regularly: Jeoffrey and & Sputnik

Jeoffrey the Red Squirrel

Sputnik the slightly darker Red Squirrel

And that’s just some of what I can find in my garden. In the local parks it’s not difficult to encounter rabbits, green woodpeckers, grey herons, geese, ducks and lots of other wild animals. I’m looking forward to spending more time in their company.

Grey Heron, Frankfurt

Local park bunny

Fairly well hidden Green Woodpecker

Over the last couple of months though, I’ve been focusing on the wildlife in our garden and set up different feeders to encourage them to visit. The feeders aren’t constantly filled as it’s important that the food I leave acts as a slight boost to their foraging instead of becoming a relied upon supply.

The plan is to record and photograph the different species as they visit our garden and I hope to get to know them all better. The real trick to wildlife photography is understanding the species in front of you and that takes dedication and patience.

Watch this space as I learn more about the locals here in our new city.

What wildlife do you have in your garden?