General Chat

Mea, Harry Fancy a Bald Eagle - green with envy - makes my little gold crest dull reading in comparison - Mea you are very lucky - keep the commentry going. Dorothy

Hello all, I sat watching the cormorant catching his breakfast this morning and wondered if he was ever going to surface. He did, and took his small catch onto the bank which is unusual as he usually gobbles it up while still on the water. Next thing was the Kingfisher who had been sat on my washing line flew down and nicked his little eel thing. Felt sorry for one and glad for the other. Denise.

Hi Harry I've got a new addition to my garden this week - a song thrush :-) I think she must have a nest nearby and she keeps appearing from under my llandii bushes with loads of twigs in her mouth :-) I also have loads of blackbirds, starlings, sparrows, blue tits, collared doves and robins visit my garden :-) Karen

Thank you girls. Two lovely stories. Mea - that is one good bird site. Happy days

Hi Harry, My mum has a resident Robin...he has been around for a couple of years. As soon as my mother appears at the back door the Robin appears....he follows her all around the garden chirping away and my mum answering back....waiting for his crushed digestive biscuits and crumbled cheese!! He almosts eats from her hand. It's amazing to watch!! Linda

Now that the weather is warmer and I spend more time in the garden, the blackbirds are getting used to me again and gather round to see what tit-bits I will uncover for them. They know where I nest and sometimes peer in the kitchen window from the top of a nearby shrub. len

Good stuff. Keep the stories coming. Mea, Various different birds to watch on your site. I,m a bit of a sucker for robin and black-bird tales, as they are pretty much all I have apart from sparrows. Thanks for your interest happy days

Green woodpeckers feeding on front lawn this week and spotted woodpecker on the back (in 27 years they have kept to this routine - well their descendents anyway), visited by a heron last week - husband took net off and did not replace it - one large koi gone - he visited next morning at 6.10 a.m. and landed on fence - but the net was on and yes we have a plastic heron by pond. Doves building nest in our almond tree again, watched the other week a wood pigeon doing a courtship dance - never seen that before - robins, wrens, blackbirds, song thrush, sparrow, wren, nuthatch, blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, tree creepers and many more visit the garden - costs a fortune as squirrels visit too! We are lucky there is a wood directly behind us.

Hi Harry When do blue tit's nest? Last Year we had them nesting in our box,seen them around but not nesting in box.

A few years ago a cat came into my garden and killed two adult robins that had a nest in my garage. There were four chicks in it they were quite big so i managed to look after them for two weeks until they were ready to come out of the nest. I was like a mad woman throwing then gently into the air to teach them to fly. I was so proud when they got the hang of it but also sad that they were no longer relying on me. The past two years i have had robins nesting in my garden and they come to my hand to take food, I like to think that they are my baby robins coming to show me that they remember me. I have lots of birds coming to feed in my garden but the robins will always be my favourites.

Hi We have a blackbird which comes to visit my grandaughters rabbit!I see it most days in the pen with the rabbit and quite often it ends up sat in the hutch sharing food from the rabbits bowl. We also have a pair of doves which are drinking from my water feature most days. Happy days. Don (South Yorkshire)

Last year a cat got one of my blackbirds but I managed to retrieve it. It had been scalped and was badly shocked. I thought that I would give it some brandy so poured a half a teaspoonful down its throat - and it went out like a light - drunken stupor. I realised later that what I had given it was the equivalent of half a bottle to a human, weight for weight. Anyway, it probably saved it from going into secondary shock which would have killed it. Cat-mauled birds rarely recover. Whilst it was out, I treated the wound and covered it with an anti-bacterial cream. The bird slept it off and woke up after a couple of hours and flew off. It was thriving several days later as I could recognise it by the white dob of ointment on it's head. Len

Wood pidgeons annoy me. They drink from the birdbath then immediately turn round and crap in it. I'm always having to clean it out. len

I saw a Red-tailed Kite catch his breakfast this morning. Thanks for the web link Mea. I didn't realise that I was so close to you, living as I do about 40 miles east of Seattle.

About 35 yrs ago my children brought home a very young sparrow, wasnt even sure what it was apart from all mouth and not much else. Just stumps of feathers. They found it on the ground. We couldnt find the nest so put it in hot water cupboard and from time to time fed it on soaked bread. Probably not the right thing but it survived, grew to full size. Found an old birdcage under the house to put it in at night or when our cat was indoors. It would sit on our shoulder and try to pinch the food from our mouths so had to put it in cage at meal times. When OH was washing dishes it would sit on his shoulder then hop down his arm and dunk its head in the water. Decided detergent was not good for him so back to cage. One time when OH was in bed with flu he opened his eyes to find himself staring up the sparrows backside! We did let him go outside but he would always fly back in when he felt it was time for food or bed. It was a wonderful experience having a sparrow as a family member.

We have a big garden, areas of it have been left wild intenionally and last year we got a mixed batch of wild flower seeds from a sepcialist nursery who analyse your earth for the right mix - it was over £100 but well worth it. Last year the mix attracted so many butterflies that it was like one of those ads when you walked through the long grasses, dozens flew up around you. Our pond is heaving with tadpoles now and Im expecting the newts to be in there at the buffet shortly. Have you ever seen newts courtship dancing? I fell in the pond once, watching them dancing around in pairs. So what a great shame we have been landed with the neighbour from hell who even cut down one of our tree stumps we had intentionally left in our hedge because it supported so much ivy with berries and gave a nest area for Mrs Wren every year. Did I tell you Harry about putting old boots in the hedge - we had a nest of Robins the first year we did it. And against all Ive been told, we will often have 3 Robins outside my window scratching about quite happily together. Yesterday when I took Ralph out through the wooded area up the road, I saw again the Blackbird who has one white tail feather - it does look strange. The trees and bushes were full of long tailed tits, they are so lovely, they always reminded me of a twittering group of schoolgirls. And, as we walked along, I heard an old familiar screaming sound high up in the sky! The Martins are back!

What a lovely, mainly, batch of bird tales. Nice that people care so much. Reading the stories makes me feel I,m in the garden with you. Good work by you bird healers (and carers) My neighbour has blue tit boxes and says they are nesting now. Can thoroughly recommend Mea,s site if you have a few minutes to spare. I have all kinds of strange objects hanging in my trees and shrubs, but not an old boot. If I,m allowed to swear on this pure thread, damn;damn; damn. Cleared the loft out recently and threw away a pair of (then) unwanted boots. Keep your eyes peeled Happy days.XXX Margaret, re below. god bless you (both) XXX

Hello everyone, a nice friendly thread Harry! I was sat waiting for my train in Harrogate yesterday, and had (as usual) just missed the one I wanted! I sat down on the bench on the station platform where I noticed that someone has kindly left the remains of a pizza. A moment after a little robin sat down next to me and ate some of it! Made my day lol. Other than that, we have a pair of magpies who visit regularly, some wood pigeons who waddle round the back garden most days, lots of little finches - not sure what type but they have blue & yellow faces. We also have a next of very noisy little birds just above our front door in the pyracantha! Happy thursday to you all! Margaret.

What lovely stories. I went to visit my son at Reading university on Tuesday. We went to the cinema in the Oracle centre and then walked back along the Kennet and Avon Canal. I saw Mallards, Coots, a lot of swans and even a heron right in the centre of town. We have a magpie nest in the lime tree outside our house. I had always thought those untidy nests were crows but magpies are just as messy.

There seem to be so many magpies the last few years. Quite often one will land on one of our trees in the back garden and all hell will break loose among the other birds - they are so brave, rushing at the magpie until it gives up and flies off. One day I heard a terrible crying outside and I imagined a cat had caught a bird. When I went out there was a sparrow hawk holding a thrush down on the ground - the poor thrush still had some food hanging from his beak. I ran out shouting shoo and you know what, that hawk just stood and stared at me until I was virtually on top of him. He flew away, poor old Thrush shook himself and took off to, bit of food still hanging from his beak!