General Chat

No-one heard a cuckoo yet? One of my robins has been sat in my pear tree (yes, it was a robin) and has been fertilizing my lawn for me. Think most of you know by now that I keep fat-balls on the ground. Most birds seem to prefer them that way. My neighbour has a hanging one and a sparrow was working on that. He gave up and came down to mine. He Hee. Happy days

Was out in this afternoon Harry with my little one who is called Harry, and we saw a Robin. x

Catherine, I envy you for that. Lovely. Happy days

Heard a cuckoo two weeks ago Harry,but no underhand poaching up here lol,leave his spuggies alone .My fat balls are up on the line and even the starlings have learned how to hang on the feeder.Fred.

Havent seen a cuckoo yet, but the parakeets are screeching beautifully, in he park, there seems more of them this year. And the blackbirds and pigeons love the fatballs on the ground. Peanuts on a tree, but no offers so far(: BC

I got a blackbird sitting on 3 eggs in one of the bushes -saw a wood pecker last week.

Harry Have you got any tips how I can attract the birds to my garden without going over the top on these fancy penthouse type bird feeders. Would love my Harry to look at the birds. Feathered Variety I mean.Lol. x

Understand what you are saying James. My garden is deliberately semi-wild and I get load of cats. The birds seem to have learned to work in pairs or groups. Not seen a scuffle for a long time. Congrats, does seem the first cuckoo Fred - not one taker last week. Catherine, Deceptively simple. Ideally give them plants and trees they like - often berried treasure. And/or put the food out for them. Birds are not daft theyll come. Happy days

Have hear a cuckoo up here in the highlands.last week, got two sheep at the moment. !

Not yet, Harry :-)

I put fat balls in the tree for the robins,wrens,blue tits,sparrows and green finches,but the other week the pigeons started squashing themselves in to the tree to get the fat balls and pulling them off so they fell on the ground.They've not tried it since one of them lost its head to a local cat!

No cuckoo yet but have a blackbird on cherry tree at eight every morning Val

Got two woodpeckers out on the nuts now......

Repeating myself from previously, I have a stick in the ground securing the fat-ball down in a relatively open area. I have no doubt whatsoever that my birds prefer to be on the ground. They are placed about four yards from the kitchen window and your chair is the perfect place to watch them. I am always fascinated by the 'pecking order' - who gives way to whom. Not always does size matter. Who,s the boss in the blackbird family. etc. Good luck happy days

A wild white Mother Duck is now sitting on her eggs in our old greenhouse. ..... there are at least 13. This is her 3rd year visiting us, just for nesting. She may have to share the area with the robins. There was a flurry of activity at the weekend and they were inspecting the possible free areas of the greenhouse and taking nesting materials in and out, even tweaking a few pieces from M.D's nest

Wow Gwynneth, that is great! I have a hedge full to brimming with sparrows. sometimes it looks like one of those games where the heads pop up. They all feed on my feeder, and I have a starling feeder on top, where I put bird-cakes (I mould them into old lemonade bottles to fit in) & a tray full of raisins that they all tuck into. I will have to wash out the nyjer feeder & put that out soon, as I have had a breeding pair of goldfinches for the last 2 years, who depend on it for their chicks. There are a lot of ring-necked parakeets around, but so far they haven't ventured down to feed. I hear they are quite vicious, so I'm not sure I want them to! Carole

Parakeets? New to me as a garden bird. My son,s manager has just paid £500 for one - must have been mostly for the cage - if they are the same type of thing. Some lovely happenings posted - I envy you. Happy days

Harry - there are two big magpies in the front garden.

Harry, a colony of parakeets has been established at Foots Cray Meadows & they are spreading across NW Kent. You can hear them squawking as they fly overhead. I've seen a dozen at a time on occasions. A grey heron flew across the A2 as I drove to work this morning. I see them quite often & it always puts me in a good mood. :-) Carole

Harry I don't know if you will be able to help. I live in Southern Spain in the mountains and two weeks ago i saw a huge bird with a massive wing span. The bird was brown in colour and it looked as if it had some sort of markings on it. Anyway, this bird was gliding in the air over a small area of land and it had a snake in its beak. The snake had to be atleast 3-4ft, the bird dropped the snake and when it landed a huge puff of dust rose into the air! The bird then swooped down for its prize. I have no idea what sort of bird this could have been, so i'm hoping you may have the answer. I've googled birds of prey in Spain but most of the sites don't have pictures for my to reconise the bird in question. I have never seen this bird before and sadly haven't seen it since. Annie