General Chat

I have just come back from Malta where we awoken every morning by farmers shooting wild birds. It is supposed to be illegal now but they still do it brenda

Update on the Jays. I have been watching their nest site and no sign of either of them. Seems the magpie won and they have abandoned their nest :-(

When I was in the north west of Spain last week, we were surrounded by lovely swallows. Also saw hawks and buzzards....wonderful...I am still trying to lure the birds to my little patio:( BC

We had swallows over the Easter weekend - they disappeared but some are back today! Robin's nesting in a pile of leylandii clippings - luckily my OH saw them before he took them down to the green-recycling thing at the dump! Seems to be alot of bird activity now - perhaps they were all waiting for the better weather.... Allie x

Can't believe it answered this thread a couple of weeks ago stating we had very few birds then yesterday sitting in a bush having a great feed were two blue tits and on the grass something like a sparrow with a greeny/yellow breast can't think what they are and guess what a sparrow flying around sparrows here seem to be very scarce, at last the birds seem to be finding our part of the wood Norah

Nice to see this one resurrected. Seems like a candle in a dark room. My birds are strangely inactive. Not eating the fat-balls at present - obviously there is a more varied diet elsewhere. thanks for your interest. XXX norah, re below. thanks. If you want sparrows I,ve got more than my share. XXX Happy days

ok for a city garden we are really lucky! we have blackbirds, a robin, blue tits, wood pigeons, collared doves, at least one jay (beautiful), starlings, sparrows, crows a few ordinary pigeons, geese flying overhead to/from the park, magpies - I love watching the birds :-)) Maz. XX ps - I once asked the pet stall man down the market 'have you got fat balls please??' !!!! roflmao - you can imagine his answer !!!

I have been watching the jays in the wood behind my flat. They have a nest in the ivy on one of the trees. Yesterday the magpie raided their nest, and appears to have taken the one day old chicks. Now the jays have gone quiet. :-(

Thanks to you all for your lovely replies. Sure I enjoy reading them as much as you do in posting them. Sometimes feel as though I am there. Best wishes Happy days

Saw our first swallow today doing a reccie. Their nests are still here waiting for them so hopefully in the next few days the rest will arrive and bring summer with them!! We have quite a few pied wagtails and grey wagtails this year as well. Whenever I'm in the garden I do have a Mr Robin who watches what I am doing, and I always speak to him. Jxx

saw 3 female pheasants on sons lawn today.

Three more excellent contributions. Not seen a bat in a long while, but I,m sure someone else has...... Happy days

Hi Harry, just seen my first bat flying around. Anyone else seen them?. Hilary (France).

Talking of woodpeckers, heres a little tip for you. If you are walking in the woods at about this time of year, pick up a stone and tap it on the trunk of a tree, to make a sound like a woodpecker pecking. You will soon see one taking a look to investigate. It works.

Something for gardners to think about, don't cut down your hedging plants till the birds have nested. There was another post a few days ago on which someone mentioned they were getting rid of their conifers. One of our neighbours has loads of sparrows and dunnocks nesting in their conifers. So do try to wait for another couple of months at least. Re magpies, I saw a thrush fly on to our patio with an egg in its beak which it proceeded to smash and eat. The egg was bluish green and spotted so maby a robin or dove?? Have started feeding meal worm with the seeds and they are being polished off. We have most of the usual birds here in Chester but have never had a wood pecker which would be wonderful.

What lovely replies. Many thanks. I am fortunate in having a big garden, but my town is getting to be just a mass of high rise 1 and 2 bedroom apartment blocks, with no gardens other than a relatively small communal one. Seems a shame that the occupants will miss out on one of the simple pleasures in life.( and gardening and gardens as well) Happy days

Harry This thread is brill and I thank you. Today we had a Warbler in our garden, not sure if it was a Willow or a Chiffchaff, it flitted too quickly. We have Green Woodpeckers here and Great Spotted, also a beautful Pheasant, and that is just in our Cul-d-Sac. At the moment we have a Blue Tit that is going in and out out of the straw cacoon type thingy hubbie bought, so hopeing there, also a Blackbird is nesting in our conifer hedge. She has had a field day with all the moss in our garden, but also I brushed our long haird border collie last week and chucked the coat on the garden and that is gone also, so maybe chicks will get a really soft bed! Funniest thing though, hubbie bought a new bird table, wrought iron, 2 hangers, fat tray and bath, and got to ceramic feeders, one for seed and the other for peanuts. Pigeons now use the fat tray for landing and eat all the seed!!! they are so clumsy it is really comical to watch! Kim

We have all the usual garden birds, Wrens robins, songthrushes, blackbirds, blue tits, great tits, greenfinches, chaffinches and so on, but never any sparrows or starlings, though there are plenty of them a couple of hundred yards down the road.We live next to a small wood, and there are Jays, Magpies, woodpigeons and collared doves, woodpeckers and an owl. Just arrived this week are the blackcaps and chiffchaffs. Not bad for just about central Norwich. T x

We have had wrens, thrushes, blackbirds, coal tits, two robins, wood pigeons and collared doves in the garden today ! The way the blackbirds are going there are going to be plenty of eggs in the nest this year !

Hello Hilary, Thanks for that. I too am hooked. It really is a wonderdul site isn't it, and when the chicks arrive, will be even more interesting. Norah