Hobbies and Crafts

Von...would love to have seen that:o)

Ann....one would think so??

jude

Many years ago a friend conned me into taking in his pair of caged :-( parakeets because his mother wouldn't give them house room. By dawn I knew exactly why! Never mind 'ring necked', I was sorely tempted! They had to go. I don't know where they went but assume this is why these exotic birds are now naturalised in parts of the UK.

I have been wondering Jane - I'm pacing the floor awaiting results.

Going back a couple of days - yes Ann we are so lucky to see some of the birds and wildlife we see here. I had been lucky enough to see a kingfisher once before we moved here, and even here where we have a fairly quiet point on the river at the bottom of the garden it's only occasional. I had never seen a goldcrest,egret, green woodpecker or yellowhammer (only seen the last on local walks, not in the garden) before we came here - I had to look them up the first time. But it is such a treat when we do see them. The goldfinches are still playing hard to get too. They give us moments of hope that we'll see them more regularly and then don't return for a while. But it does make it special when we do see any of them and keeps us looking out for any new visitors.

Ann in Glos... that is because they must be the biggest and fattest well fed pigeons I have ever seen in my life... I don't think I would be able to pick them up, either, lolol

I have popped in to tell you of my experience a couple of days ago.....

I was sitting here at my pc.... as you do, when there was a massive thud, and it felt like the conservatory was going to collapse... I legged it into the living room... and then realised that there was a massive bood, collapsed on my glass roof....... I thought it was dead... anyway, then it moved, and turned it's head... I realised it was a raptor... it was trying to get up, but it was stunned, plus it's claws were slipping on the glass... I ran to get my phone and my camera... but by the time I had done that, it had managed to take off... it was in the tall Ash tree at the back of us, where it stayed for about 10 minutes before flying off.. I was talking to our neighbour yesterday.... the nice one, lol... and he was telling me that lees than 2 miles away, as the crow flies, is the Transporter bridge... and there have been peregrine falcons nesting there for about 10 years....

I described the bird to him... he did Zoology for his degree... and he thinks that the poor raptor with a headache is probably one of those..... which would also coincide with the fact that a few weeks ago, during that very cold snap, I saw one swoop down after a collared dove.... it just brought up short from the roof, and flew off into the distance... I am certain it was the same type of bird...

He is going to keep an eye open, as he is interested in the birds, and belongs to the RSPB... he said he counted the birds in my garden for birdwatch this year, as he had none in his own, lolol

Plus.... this morning, the little wren chased the robin away from the seed container, lol.... that was very funny!

Love

Daff xxxx

Had a bit of an experience yesterday. Driving along the M4 when suddenly I saw a hen pheasant face in front of me. Because of the speed the poor thing didn't stand a chance. Left me shaky for quite a while. Such a thud I thought it must have dented the car but thankfully not. (a while back OH had a similar thing with a stray chicken which suddenly decided to flap out in front of him and damaged the front of his car quite badly!). OH had been wanting me to put the top down because it was a sunny day, so glad I decided it would have been too cold for that on the motorway. We did have to do quite a clean up job when we got home.

We've had a pair of mandarin ducks visit our garden a couple of times this week. We knew they were on the river but they tended to stay near a particular bend a little way away. Previously we've only very occasionally seen one on the water, but it was good to see the pair half-way up the garden. I think the mallards told them about the ground feeder table and duck pellets we put out. The second time it was at dusk and they looked like they were going to settle down for the night along with a couple of mallard drakes. Hope we see them more often in future to replace the swans that seem to have been rustled by the lady by the bridge.

Mandarin ducks are such pretty things! We have had a couple of wood pigeons this week, first since we can remember in this garden. Well fedthey look too, but they have been feeding all winter on the crop of the farm next door!

Don't think I've already said this on here. Have you seen the website The Big Wildlife Garden www.bwg.naturalengland.org.uk. I discovered it recently through a scouting newsletter I receive. It's set up by a primary school in conjunction with Natural England. The aim is to get as much of the country as possible signed up as caring for wildlife in addition to the official nature reserves. It's suitable for everyone, individuals or educational organisations, and you can put photos of your garden on there, make a diary, collect points towards certificates(which you print off yourself), connect to friends, and get ideas of new things to do to improve your garden for wildlife. It's written in a very clear way to help adults expain to children and there are a few activities on there with instructions you can print off but it seems to me there's content on there to take it to whatever level you are happy with.

I've past the children stage and not in the realms of grandchildren yet, but I reckon it would be a lovely thing to help pass a rainy holiday morning or afternoon with small people.

I printed my certificates off ( I think most of us birdie people will be straight to bronze and luckily due to our area, the size of our garden and the way previous owners have looked after it so that we could continue, I discovered I was up to silver too). I took them into work with me to show the owner of the nursery in our children's centre as they have been doing a lot of work in the nursery garden and plan to do more and of course they can tell parents too.

I started mine up a couple of weeks ago, but plan to do a bit more of my diary this weekend. The weather's quite changeable here, can be bright sunshine one minute, then drizzle, then sometimes torrential rain. (The river's quite high and fast flowing at the moment), so I'll use some of the rainy times to do a bit.

Have a look - you can see quite a bit of content without joining up.

Morning all:o)

Not read through properly yet, will do later.
We have been watching the Cormorants that sit in the tall tree's along the river Wye:o) one had a white chest, which we have'nt seen here before, will look them up on a web site later. Off out now:o)

jude x

Hi all, I hope you had a good Easters birding.

The Derby Cathedral peregrines are sitting on eggs. They're always worth following.

http://195.224.106.202/peregrine/webcam.htm

Hello Island

l went to the attached site, is there a video of the Peregrines??

We visited Symonds Yat ywice at the weekend and chatted the the rspb lads about the cormorant with a white chest!! he said they like others birds have different colour plumage just like us, fairer or darker etc. Buzzards can be darker or lighter in colour. Also some cormorants have white marks on their heads etc. Vic has been watching them most days, sometimes diving!!
We also told them about the Woodpigeon that got caught and eaten in garden opposite, he said it would have been a Sparrow Hawk and was so excited that we had such a bird flying around and catching their prey so close to us!!! He was almost jumping up and down with excitement, bless him:o)) l so wish the neighbour had phoned me!!!

Off now to read back a few posts....can't sleep!!

jude

Me again:o)

DizzieLizzie....l have just put up the website you mentioned The Big Wildlife Garden, will check it out in a mo, Thanks for that:o)

Sorry to read about the pheasant. We hit a rabbit some years ago, then the deer last December, that wrecked the car!!

Mandarin ducks....are'nt they lovely looking birds, l still remember the first time l saw one at Arundel:o)

Daff....did the peregrine return?

jude:o) x

Hi Jude

The derby peregrine cam isn't a streaming video unfortunately, it updates still images every 15-30 seconds but is live (if that makes sense) It is more interesting when the chicks start to hatch and onwards.

We're off to see the Kites this weekend.

I have typed this out once, and when i went to post it, a notice came up on the screen that GR were doing mainenance, and it disappeared, so I'll have another go.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in hospital all week. When I got home, I noticed that a pair of Magpies had started building a nest in the trees that are at the back of my back garden. They were very industrious, and had built the 'bowl' of the nest already. I thought that was it, but last week I kept watching them. They then wove a 'lid' on the top of the nest. Now this week, all is quiet, so perhaps they are nesting.
I watched them one day, seeing off the squirrels and wood pidgeons. Very territorial are these pair.
Each time I stand at the kitchen sink, I look through the window, and watch for any activity.
All this nature to see, and just from my kitchen window.
Julia in Derbyshire

PS. Island, are you in my neck of the woods, so to speak, with your knowledge of the Derby Peregrines.

When we were in Spain last week we had a tiny bird on the lawn, no bigger than a blue tit but with the colouring of our Black Cap. Didn't have a Spanish bird book so not sure what it was. There was also a blackbird who sang beautifully to us each evening.

Hi Julia
No, I'm not in Derbyshire, I'm 'dahn sarf'
A birding friend found the Derby peregrine cam and sent me the link about three years ago.

Island, I thought you were up here, because of your interest in the Derby Peregrines.
They sometimes do a feature about them on Radio Derby, because there is alot of interest. I havn't heard mention of them lately, but will keep my ear cocked in future, and keep you posted.
All the Best
Julia in Derbyshire

At last I've started to see a few bees around the garden, and some ladybirds too. We have a lot of violets in the garden and in the bit of hedgerow that is ours opposite that screens us from the playground I discovered white violets. I've never seen that before.

Also after a long while I saw a greenfinch at the feeder this morning.

We have had a lot of bumble bees for the past month, they always seem to want to fly into our conservatory. have seen the odd one or two of smaller bees as well.