I have a pretty good supply of tips and tricks for backyard photography, but was blown away by one incredibly simple idea that Larry Jay and David Langford have implemented for their feeders at the Block Creek Natural Area in the Hill Country where I have been shooting and scouting for the last couple days.

They've replaced the small bars found on thistle feeders with longer twigs. This provides an automatic way to get some interesting and well posed shots without the hassle of taking down the feeder and replacing it with a perch when you go to photograph. The accomplanying photo of a Lesser Goldfinch at one of their feeders shows how you can get natural looking images either by composing your frame to only include the bird and perch or even later by doing a little judicious cropping in Photoshop. The only tricks are to try to get the bird looking in your general direction instead of directly at the feeder and to watch out for the food itself looking too unnatural. No question that as soon as I get home some twigs will be going into our thistle feeders. Thanks Larry & David!
I'm looking forward to putting together a Hill Country bird photo safari for late April 2010, as we've had so much fun doing the Rio Grande trip for the last four years (yes, we'll still be offering that as well, the prior week). Look for our announcement or email us at safaris [at] cardinalphoto.com if you might be interested.--David