Hobbies and Crafts

It's been a lovely autumn day here today. Misty but with the sun breaking through too. Spent some time in the garden today and before I came in I made sure the bird tables and feeders are all topped up. I've had the ducks following me around reminding me they're there and there was some lovely birdsong to listen to around me. Also a couple of squabbling robins - territory I suppose.

When I popped out in the car earlier it reminded me with a bing that the temperature was quite low - about 1 degree at noon. Brrrr! Out tonight at choir so I'll need to make sure I've got me woolies on.

Much milder today and no frost or fog. I'd thought we might get another frost because it was such a clear day yesterday after a very sparkly frost that lasted most of the morning. But last night on the way back from the pub quiz we realised it was much warmer than the previous night as next door's red car was not all white as it had been the night before.

Still whilst escaping upstairs to where it was quiet to speak to daughter on the phone I saw another deer arrive in the garden. Only thing was next door's dog was out to play and although it didn't seem as easily bothered as I'd thought it did decide it was policy to nab one of the windfalls and take it away rather than stop and eat it.

Meanwhile I spotted the neighbour pick something up from the lawn - it was my coconut half fat feeder that the squirrels had half inched again... So will have to work harder on the defences on that front.

Wet and quite a cold wind here today. This morning as I looked out of the bedroom window I saw a large Heron fly past, obviously on the look out for somebody's fish pond. Such graceful birds aren't they.

Jane,

I love owls but all we have here is moreporks (small brown owls) and I have touched them and been up close at the sanctuary, they have names for them all there is Owlton John, Owlvis Presley, Owl Mcpherson, Owl Capone a few others and one called Owl Owlfa. And yes Jude one of the care givers handed me a pellet that the wee owl had regurgitated and that was made up of the bits of the mouse that it doesn't digest.

My daughter was on the tube in London and there was a passenger with a live owl on his arm, she was amazed.
She also sent me some photos of an owl that rides a skateboard, its owner had been at a fair with his owl and the owl took a shine to this skateboard.

Persey

I don't think I have heard of Moreporks.Love those names lol
The Barn Owl that was around has definitely gone now.I am just so glad I got to see it up so close in the 'wild'.
I put a Fat Cake out today.The poor Dogs nose was in overdrive on the twitching.It must smell soooooo good lol.He will be mooching around underneath it tomorrow to see if he can snaffle up any little crumbs !

They are called Moreporks because when they hoot it sounds like they are saying more pork.
The Tuis imitate other birds and some will copy humans as well, they can be quite distracting. Two come (like nuns they travel in pairs) and chat to me occasionally when I am hanging out the washing - they eat the flax berries and Totara berries and anything else they can get their little beaks around.

Persey

Right, now my empty coconut half is dry again I'll make another, 'nother filling for it. This is getting quite repetitive now. I think I'm going to hang it with a bit of old metal hanger now. But instead of putting it on one of the hooks under the bird table I think I'll bend it round one of the corner posts that holds the table cover on. I can just see they'll knaw through the bit of coconut shell near the hole that's drilled to thread the wire through. But we'll see.

The one up by the house is fine as it's on one of those poles with a baffle to stop the squirrels climbing and we've managed to find the optimum distance from the rose arch and the buddleia so that the birds have quick cover but the squirrels can't use either of them as launch pads.

Morning...brrr its wet,damp and cold this morning. Vics just gone out with madoc, bit later tham usual, we did'nt get up til 9.15am...can't believe it...lol

Last week (l think it was) vic said he'd seen an Otter, yesterday he saw 3!!!l rang Gwent wild life and they say they have re-established themselves in the Wye now, so thats great but asked me to fill in a report form via the trust, they like to have these things reported especially an unusual animal or bird sighting!!
Here is the link for reporting sightings for South East Wales....

http://www.sewbrec.org.uk/recording-form.page

Persey...are'nt they fascinating, (owls droppings)?? and such strange names you have!!

Dizzie.....no good telling us about them, we want photo's:o)) lol....l will try and get the otters, thats if vic can get me out this afternoon.

jude

Well I can't see a darned thing out there The fog is so thick.I did have a wander down the garden to check the seed holder and it was on the ground EMPTY.It is either the Magpies or the Crows that have somehow managed to pull it off a really thick branch.How dare they !! Greedy so and so's

I would love to see Otters in the wild.I don't know if we have any around here.

Half an hour ago we had long tailed tits feeding on our fat balls. Hope they come back, I love to see them.

Last winter we had a lot of the long tailed Tits.I haven't seen them yet,but I think a lot of Coal Tits (I think Coal Tits) on the feeder this morning before it was vandalised lol

Hi
I had lots of various tits on the feeders this afternoon. There were also some gold finches. It was wonderful to see them darting in and out of the bushes and onto the feeders.

I've decided that I spend too much time on here and not enough time looking out of my kitchen window. Lol
Take care
Von

Evening all :o)

No otters for the past 2 days...and vics taken the camera too!!!
Not had longtailed tits for over a year l think:o((
Wehave the other main ones:o)

Madoc has been poorly, he ate something that was wrapped in foil and ate some of the foil with it (Vic left it in the rubbish bin in lounge...grrr), he seems fine now, but was sick 3 times in the last couple of days.....will be keeping a close eye on him

A neighbour went on her hols and left her 2 budgies with me....they are runts, not very good wing and tail feathers, infact the white one had no tail and hardly any wings, bless her....sadly she died yesterday, she's looked thin from the first day she had her (rescued), so obviously not a well bird. As you can imagine l felt awful....
l miss not having them around, they used to get all excitied when l put a recording of bugies on the pc!!

jude

Saw the heron again today, wonder if anyone is missing the fish from their pond?

Photo's from Jean on blog:o)

jude :o) x

Jude I hope poor Madoc is feeling better today.He may be passing Silver Bullets lol
Poor Budgie! That reminded me of the time a friend of mine looked after a friend of mine's Parrot.I think she looked after him for a couple of weeks.She used to let him out for a fly,and one day she rang me in absolute tears and real panic ,because she had tried to get him back in the cage (He was being very naughty) lol,and her husband made a grab for him and accidently pulled all his tail feathers out !!!!!.My poor friend was beside herself .She was so worried what the owner was going to think when she got back her bald bottomed parrot .It was fine .No harm done ,but he did look rather strange for some time lol
I have hung out a fat cake and coconut,and now have the most amazing amount of Tits and Finches.No Long Tailed yet that I have seen.
Off to have a look at the blog now.

Yeh he's fine now, little pickle!!!

Ooo my word, bet your friend felt awful, and her hubby....fancy pulling his tail feathers out...lol
Wehave'nt put fat balls ut for ages, they were'nt being eaten:o(

jude

I'd love to get a photo of the deer too, but I always seem to see them as I open the curtains and them being so sensitive they either whizz off then or once I nearly got there with the camera but it shot off just before I got the shot. Maybe one day.

On Monday as I was getting washed and dressed I started to hear this strange bark going on and on. Sounded a bit like fox but not quite. Thought it might be something in distress so hurried up and went down the garden towards where it was coming from. Saw it was from over the river and I thought I was seeing the colour of a fox but standing up and very still. I waited to check it could move and it started moving calmly but away so obviously all right. As it came into a clear patch I saw it was actually a little muntjac deer. Never knew their sound before. It's uncanny. But still don't know why it was going on. Didn't seem to be any bad reason that I could tell.

Blinky squirrels - another fat ball gone. I saw somewhere that you can put chilli in with peanuts as the birds aren't affected but the squirrels don't like it so I think I'll try that in my next fat balls for the end of the garden and if it works I'll incorporate it into the Baker Acme recipe.

Well, so far so good on the fat ball defences. The coconut half is still in place partly due to the piece of wire hanger around the roof post of the bird table, and the squigs have not gnawed the whole piece of fat out of the shell either, presumably due to the chilli. Also I've seen lots of bird activity at it, but since it's the one at the bottom of the garden haven't looked closely at exactly which birds today - been mostly in getting on with some other things today - just happy to be optimistic about continued success. Thank you to whoever or wherever I got the chilli information from.

We had a young squirrel in the garden this morning but he or she was content to glean up what the birds had dropped onto the ground from the feeders.

Coming home about 3pm today as we walked down out road we were aware of masses of birsd overhead, they were crows in one area and seagulls in another. We are used to seeing the gulls on their way back to the tip to roost, but never seen so many crows all together.