Hobbies and Crafts

Tec....l do hope Lanto is feeling better soon, bless him, nothing worse than having our beloved pets feeling and looking sad!! Are his eyes and ear probs linked??

Our Madoc has had a flea and that sets off an irritation, he has scabs all round his inner back legs and one on his paw. He's got some cream to put on but its NOT working wonders!! Vic took him to the vet as soon as we realised he had an itch and a few scabs, but vet said he could'nt see any....grr...so now they are bad!! :o(

DizzieLizzie....Hope you can work it that you have the dog for 6 months, such fun to have around. Your other one sounds like he was a great character.

Nothing else to report today.
Take care

jude :o)

You know those days when you decide to fill the feeders, and you decide to do it on the conservatory table, then the food (in this case suet bits) suddenly comes out of its container in a rush and flies everywhere? well i have had one of those days today. Do you know how long it takes to pick up those little pink bits??? If I had done it in the garden as usual I could have left the spilled bits for the birds to clear up.

Ann....its never happened to me .....lol lol :o)

My suet bits are white!! lol

jude :o)

Hi Folks,
I wrote this earlier (or one like it) and it disappeared mysteriously into cyber space.

Ann...........I think it's called Sxds Law - If I fill the feeders in the garden, not a seed spilt - do it indoors, maybe because it's raining, and seeds everywhere. Glared at by OH, who passes me the vacuum. Oh well.

Jude...........No - Ianto's ear and eye problems are not connected. The ear problem is very recent, but we suspected his eyesight was failing a few weeks ago. Since his mate went, a long time ago, he refused to sleep downstairs. So he has his bed on the landing upstairs. A few weeks ago he appeared to have lost his confidence going up or down stairs. We had to use a lot of persuasion. One night I slept on the sofa because he wouldn't go upstairs, but wouldn't stay downstairs on his own.
( I didn't sleep actually - he snored all night)
Anyway it soon became apparent that he couldn't see unless things are very close. His eyes are still bright, not glazed or anything, and he is still a handsome dog with a shiny black coat - gets patted a lot by old ladies when we're out.........I don't.

DizzieLizzie........Hello - Your Moz sounds like he was a good fun dog, and you are so kind in considering looking after another old dog - I hope that works out for you.

Do excuse me Ann - I know your lovely thread is supposed to be about birds - and I've gone on about dogs.

Regards
Tec

Feel free Tec. We don't have any animals now but have had both cats and dogs. Both our dogs went blind, the second one then also went deaf.

HI Ann in Glos, Litttle story for you. At about 4.30 every day when I go up to school to lock up I empty the bin where the kids put their sandwich remains from the dinning room. We have 2 crows that nest in the school grounds every year so I feed them with some of the left overs on top of the large metal container where the kids lunchtime playthings are kept. Not only do they know the time, they know where I live and roof and wire hop as I walk up. This year they have had 3 young and every one of them is pied, White flight feathers and white tail feathers with od blobs of white in their other plumage. Now there have been crows just 2 for at least 10 years same nest site but we have never had pied young before, both parents are black. Any one have an explanation? Elaine.

A naughty magpie????

The birds can be so clever. With the river at the bottom of the garden we of course see ducks and swans who seem to like the windfall apples so they come up onto the garden quite regularly - also I take them the remains of bread so they've got used to us since we've been here and to at least one of our 3 cats Buster - he doesn't chase anything and they seem to know he presents no threat to them. Every so often if they think they haven't seen us for a bit a couple of them will come all the way up the garden, up the steps to the patio and knock with their beaks on the glass doors. We were so surprised the first time they did it. That time it was breeding time and the drake knocked the door. When we took titbits out he let his OH have priority on the food. Very gentlemanly and caring. And when they came along later with their ducklings the parents let them have first pickings too.

Tec - Moz was such a laugh. If people on our walks had stopped to have a chat he would stop too and sit on their feet for a fuss. If they'd got time to chat they'd got time to give him some attention. Mostly they complied.

Hi all, I have been catching up with the latest news on here and decided I am jealous of DizzieLizzies garden, I would love ducks knocking on my window. The nearest we got was a robin came to visit our pet bird and a sparrow used to sit on the windowsill when it was feed time. However I was taken up by Issabeles story of the blue tit, my hubby parks his car in the same place at work and had his mirror actually prised out of it's socket. There were always marks of birds feet on the cars round the windscreen wipers and always crows and magpies about. He thinks one of them tried to get a spider from behind and pulled the glass out, it was smashed on the floor. Big strong brutes those crows, we watch them on the roof opposite our window and I never realised how big they were.
Nothing else of interest up here for now.

Caz

Hi Folks,

DizzieLizzie........Your garden sounds idylic - how wonderful to have ducks and swans come into to visit you. We do get the occassional pheasant who arrives to mop up fallen bird seed.

Issabele..........You certainly have a good variety of birds there. I find that mine seem to come and go in the summer, but nearly all return in the winter months. I am particularly anxious to see the return of the song thrush. We used to have swallows nesting under the eaves, but the sparrows evicted them three summers running, so sadly they no longer nest here.

Y/Caz.........Those crows of yours are cheeky. As you know, I have a running battle with hoards of jackdaws here - hooligans, all of them. They drive off the small birds, and that really does annoy me. How is your cockatiel, has he settled into the new place?

I have two ambitions this year. I want to attract the goldfinches back into my garden, and also lure the woodpeckers, who have never visited me, although I know they are around as I hear them in nearby woodland.

Regards to all,
Tec.

We had our solitary goldfinch on the nijer seeds today, also saw what looked like a young sparrow hawk fly over, will have to keep a look out for that one.

I have to say we can't quite believe we managed to find a place like this. Even on the coldest winter days it's attractive - especially when the frost and snow made it look so sparkly too.

Ooh looks like I'm not the new girl anymore Izzy unless I'm mistaken and you've been on this thread before.

We went out for a long walk yesterday along the Kennet and Avon canal from Caen Hill Locks in Devizes. We saw some black ducks that looked very much like mallards but didn't have the right markings. OH looked them up when we got back and guess what, they're called Black Ducks and I think he said they're from North America.

We haven't seen our swan family with their sullen teenager cygnets in a while, but we did see a family with younger ones on the canal yesterday too. I did see a vole going along on the other side of the river on Saturday evening though.

I love walking along a canal path Dizzy, always a lot to see. We sometimes walk along the Gloucester Sharpness canal.

Welcome to the thread Izzy.

Ann
Glos

OH has been reading a bit more about Black Ducks. Apparently they are the ones that Daffy Duck is based on because they are the commonest ducks in North America, but it's quite unusual for them to be seen elsewhere - so it seems we were quite lucky to see them. Perhaps they were escapees from someone's ornamental collection.

Afternoon everyone:o)

Welcome to all newbies:o) (l might have already said that..lol)

Dizzie....would love to see photo's, l have a blog where peeps from here send me phots of flowers, pets, wildlife etc....l have had some probs sending my photo's but new ones should'nt be a prob, if you are interested l will send you the blog to look at:o)
These Black ducks sound lovely, have you thought of telling the rspb, they may want to know where they have been spotted!!
Your garden sounds wonderful:o)

Seems like Izzy has deleted!! :o(

Tec....hows Lanto today, has he had to have the op on his ears?? Hope all is ok.

Madoc is still suffering with annoying itching, will have to take him back to vet.

We keep hearing a different bird call, no idea what it is.


y garden is getting very over grown but the birds love it, especially the tall grasses grown from their seeds. We seem to have about 20 - 30 sparrows again, plus various other breeds.....perhaps the Sparrowhawk sticker did put them off!!

jude:o)

Jane....did you get the photo of Woodpecker and hows the rabbit??

jude :o)

Anyone know why Izzy deleted off the thread?

Jude ,no ,no pic of woodpecker .But I see it often,as it makes such a racket.
I think poor bunny has gone to bunny heaven,but have seen another lively one hopping around.I have noticed lots of squished ones on the road over the last few days,so I think there are many sick ones that just can't move too quick.

H all:o)

Jane...which woodpecker is it??

Meant to tell you this yesterday.....our new neighbour has a dog called Wolfie, (l think l have mentioned that before)....well he and Madoc are such good friends. The other day l heard a sort of bump at the front door, Madoc was getting really excited, so l opened it and there was Wolfie sitting on the doorstep.....the neighbour said he'd been there about an hr, neighbour was cleaning his car so Wolfie sat on step to watch him and wait for his pal to come out.....how sweet is that....needless to say he came in and had a game with Madoc, they went outside, upstairs, everywhere. He's been in again this evening and had a right old game again:o))))))

jude :o)

Hello Izzy....welcome back:o)))

We've had simular prob with our windows and have stuck birds to the window, seems to have helped:o))
lthink you are right, various birds come from other gardens, probably hopping from one to the other dependong on whats to offer and who has cats etc!!! Also l think once their young have fledged they take off to other parts.

jude :o)