Hobbies and Crafts

On your way, Snowy, could you pick up a load of pigeons from my patio please. They are gobbling all the food...*whimpers.......lolol....

Dormouse......mmm... she does'nt live far from me,so probably not that far from you? l tell her your coming:o))

BC.....l'll have your Pigeons:o))
jude:o)

BC,
The type of food you put out will attract different species. Clearly you are known as a pigeon-food restaurant. You can do two things here, (well three but one involves a gun and a pie dish so we won't go there); you can either change the menu or learn to love the cooing ones.
We have a pigeon who visits our bird table every morning at about 7.30. (he's now so tame that if the food isn't out there, he comes to the kitchen window sill and taps on it - the window, not the sill : )

DM x

(Toddles off to find basket to put BC's pigeons in - then remembers that current thinking is you pop 'em down yer trouser leg........... Hopes BC doesn't have too many pigeons..........)

Morning to a very snowy monmouth:o)

Talking of wagtails......this morning whilst vic was walking the dog he saw a bird fluttering about on some barbed wire,as he got closer it fell of the wire but was hanging upside down, he grabbed it (gently) and untangled its feet from what looked like cotton!! and yes it was a wagtail (pied).He held it up in the air and it flew off and was then joined by another one......he was nearly in tears when he told me, bless him!!! :o))

The blackbirds were out side waiting for their breakfast as usual, about 6 of them and quite a few starlings.

jude :o)

Well had first big snow this morning all gone by 10.30 am Just been watching the news I hope that you are all OK where you are as it looks very bad. Had to go and buy more food for the birdies this afternoon ran out normally can last from sat to sat. and the birds are all puffed up against the cold so its extra portions for a couple of days. Heron was in the field this afternoon.

Morning all,
More snow overnight. Noticed that all the holly berries have now gone from our tree. Putting out lots of peanuts/seeds/birdcake and there are plenty of hungry takers. Yesterday we had 30 or so fieldfares having a stand-off with the resident blackbirds and mistlethrushes over ownership of the apples I'd put out.
Also plenty of small birds flitting around, including goldfinches and siskins. Greenfinch numbers are rising too.

Morning all and Dormouse, I took your advice and put a few pigeons down my trousers but as it was highly uncomfortable, I didnt do it for long. Have great tits blue tits and blackbirds...and pigeons:-) A neighbour gave me some dinky binoculars for Christmas and I live in hope that something glorious and exotic will arrive in my patio... I have nuts, fatballs, sunflower seeds and mixed stuff. What else can I put out to lure the elusive ones? Happy Twitchers Day to you all:-) BC XX

poor pigeons


reports to rspcb

Morning....its freezing here with loads more snow, still snowing and more forecast!!!
Our family weekend gathering has been cancelled too risky:o(((((

We had a heron on backfence this morning, as l opened curtain it landed then took off!! It was like something out of a dineasore (sp) film landing, and so graceful!! aparently it has visited next door allweek and taken allhis fish apart from 2 big ones......ooops!!

All birds feeding well out there now, l'm going to cook some more potatoes in a mo, l put grated lard out earlier, we ran out of suet. The shops seem to have run out os suet aswell, its very hard to get:o(

l wonder how the little wagtail is now that got tangled up, he still had abit of cotton attached:o(

c yeh

jude :o)

PS.......BC have you got a nyjer feeder for the goldfinches.
Bellblair....you'd think you'd have had loads of snow by now, have'nt seen fieldfare for yrs.

Slushy here this morning after more overnight snow.

Birds around early for food, so bucked myself up and put it out for them.

Very dark, reacon we'll have more snow shortly.

Linda :o)

Hi everyone,
BC, To attract goldfinches and siskins to your garden, you need to put out nyger (sometimes spelt niger) seed. These are tiny black seeds that require a pyrex tube style feeder - any mesh style feeder won't contain the seeds.
Thrushes, inc. fieldfares etc, will come for sliced windfall apples and other fruit. Black sunflower seed (softer shelled than the black/white stripey sunflower seeds) will prove popular with a variety of birds like tits and finches.
Leftover pasta, pastry, bacon rind, suet, hard cheese, etc will attract lots of birds and give them extra energy during this cold snap. Make a bird cake by melting some suet or lard and then stirring in a variety of seeds and kitchen scraps, chopped nuts, bread crumbs etc. Shape it, wait for it to go solid and then pop it out for the birds to fight over.
Hopefully, you'll get some new species visiting your garden.

Thank you Jude and DM...will go shopping tomorrow although I must say there is a lot of activity out there! The only thing I am wary of is a return of the mice who absolutely loved the droppings from the bird feeders last year. Took me months to get rid of them. So I am now very careful to clean up when I can. BC XX

ps...I have no garden just a small patio in the middle of London so any stray bird is very welcome:-)

Hi, just seen this thread again after 2 days(?).

Jude, give Vic a hug from me will you please, bless him. :-))
Thank Gawd he was around at the time.
x

Glenys....Vic says your welcome:o)

Its snowing again here and raining, and there is a snow blizzard in The Forest of Dean, where my nephew lives its still 8 - 10" deep!!
D i l just text to say the A40 from monmouth to the M50 has heavy snow now!!

Blackbirds, robins, chaffinch are around most of the day, C/doves are courting, bless em:o)) sparrows, b/g/c/tits, starlings,dunnocks, jackdaws and a magpie are about on and off most days.

BC - we have wooden slats up the front and back of our house and l have seen mouse dropping on there!!! but as far as we know they are'nt indoors, gawd l hope not!!!! don't know how they get to the wood cause below that is white almost shiney paint!!

D/Mouse - we fed them some left over spagette this morning, think its all gone. Must have a go at making fat balls the bought ones are'nt being eaten very fast.

Bellblair,Linda and anyone else looking in - whats it like where you are? have you seen any different birds?

jude :o)x

We just have rain/sleet at the moment. I did put a home made fat cake out lunch time and it has not been eaten, unfortunately it has broken up in the rain, just hope there are not any rats around s i don't want to encourage them. Thought we would have lost the birds while we were away but as soon as we refilled the feeders they came back.

When we were in the Lake District wewere walking near the Windermere ferry on the Hawkeshead side, a robin flew onto the wall next to us, we stopped and 'chatted' to it 9as you do), unfortunately we had no food with us of any sort so we walked on, crossing over the lane, the robin followed us and hopped along the wall beside us. we stopped again to take its photo and I put my hand out expecting to frighten it away but it hopped nearer. It was a very young one so I wondered if it had been hand reared. I felt so guilty that I didn't have any food. we walked on, crossing the road into the wood and it followed for a while sitting on tree branches in front of us, then we got back to the car so it flew off. Lovely experience to be so close and i got a lovely photo.

Ann
Glos

Hello everyone, not been on for a while but still reading. We still have all the snow from last Tuesday, even at the sides of roads, and it's started again this afternoon.
We have had all the usual birds all day it seems, great, blue,coal and long tailed tits, robin, dunnock, sparrows etc. They seemed to have been stocking up as if they knew the snow was coming back.
My hubby said the other day, 'isn't it good how the robin has learnt to cling on to the feeder', he never thought to tell me so I could see it. I said I had seen it hovering and taking seed, he said oh, that's the other one, Men!

During the week we heard the blackbirds making a right racket, looked out of the window in time to see two of them chasing the heron away from the tree where feeders are, the pond is at the bottom of garden so don't know why it was up the top end.

Hope we don't get too much snow this time.

Caz xx

Hello Ann....who's a lucky lady then? next time you go walking make sure you have some seed with you!!

York Caz....well done to those blackbirds:o) l don't think lhave seen our robin hanging onto the nut feeder!! everything else has had a try though...lol except blackbirds!
Men ahhh...lol:o)

jude:o) xx

Hi everyone,
Still snowing in Shropshire and more forecast. Still plenty of birds flitting about on the feeders. Noticed that all the holly berries have now been eaten.
Ann - your Windermere robin will come from a long line of birds that have learned that tourists/walkers etc = food!! It is astonishing how fearless they are - at one reserve we visit, they practically mob each new carload of visitors as they arrive in the car-park and the word goes out on the bird-line. (What you got? Let's see - oooh, over here fellas, this lot have got GRANARY bread!!!)
Caz - we have robins that have learned to 'hover' by feeders. It's because we tend not to put any food on the ground (having 3 Cavalier King Charles Spaniels who just eat it) so all the ground feeding birds have had to adapt and evolve! (David Attenborough would have a field day in our garden... :)

Jude one of our blackbirds hovers and sometimes manages to get a peanut out. He sits for ages watching the other birds and tries it out for himself. Birds are much cleverer than we give them credit for aren't they.

Caz xx

Morning...its still pretty cold here, but not as bad as last night.More snow due later today, and its raining!!

Y/Caz... ours blackbirds just take over the lawn along with the w/pigeons. They're all bossing one another about at the moment, probably pairing up, or do they pair for life. Its quite funny to watch :o)

l think l'll have to cook up some more pasta, its all gone from yesterday.

Dormouse......our robins use the tables and hover for the droppings too. How long have you been birdwatching,your very knowlegeable? we're not twitchers in the sense that we go out for a days b/watching, but l can see the attraction to it, its fascinating just watching them in the garden. We do go to RSPB sites occasionally, probably more when we lived in Sussex. Our daughter is very keen and willspend the day somewhere, but does'nt get alot of time.
l'd like Nick Knowles and his mates to come and do a project on our garden and set up the night camera's.......now that would be great:o)

jude:o) x