Hobbies and Crafts

I spent about 10 minutes today trying to get a photo of a hawk over the sea/cliff, managed to get one but it is not very good as you may expect. It was a bit bigger than a kestrel, reddy brown. Never heard a hawk cry before, quite a high pitched sound.

I am trying to follow the progress of the baby pidgeon in our garden.It looks quite big but is obviously still a baby.It is taking short flights and still making little baby noises.Have tried taking a few photos.
I found a baby magpie that had been half eaten down the garden.Not nice.

Hi Folks,

Jude..........Hope Madoc is fully recovered from his watery adventure, also I hope your O/H has also recovered. I don't understand this nasy business of dog knapping, very worrying. Not much chance of me getting parted from my dog - he doesn't let me out of his sight for a second. Keeps about ten yards in front of me, keeps looking back over his shoulder to check that I'm still coming "can't you go any faster"
He chooses his own route on a walk, I just follow. When we leave the house if he turns left, we're going to the beach. If it's right, we're going up the mountain ( I groan) straight head then he's off to the woods.
If I've been good on my walk, I get a biscuit when we get home.
I do not , however, bark at strangers!

Saw something funny today while watching the birds eating off the ground underneath the feeders. Out of the shrubery popped a field mouse, took a seed then shot back into the undergrowth. This went on for ages, with the mouse scooting in and out taking one seed at a time. The birds totally ignored the mouse, although he was running in amongst them, extraordinary.

Regards
Tec.

Hi all:o))

Our birds seem to sing louder in the morning and l have'nt seen house martins for a few years now, mind you an ex neighbour pulled all the nests down from his eaves because they made a mess....blinky good thing l stayed indoors at that precise time!!!!!!

We seem to have loads of birds at the moment. no chaffinches though or green finches. Dunnocks are coming xloser to the house and feeding off the wall for insects. One crow comes regularily now.

We thought we had lost Madoc yesterday morning....Vic was walking him along the river bank as usual, he looked round and no Madoc, little pickle had gone down the banks looking for stone in the water!! but Vic had walked on quite abit by then and did'nt know. Poor Vic he ran and called for 20 minutes, caught up with a man and his dog and as they both looked up they both saw a white flash in the distance....so off Vic ran again and there he was all wet....phewww such a relief as we have had alot of dog napping in the Forest of Dean lately:o(( Madoc was very tred to say the least and still is now.

jude :o)

Hi Folks,

Ann.......Interesting that the Tenerife blue tits are smaller than ours, also the coloration of the female blackbirds. How nice to have canaries singing around you.

Caz.......Pleased the swifts have arrived for you. May you always feel at home there, with lots of birds to watch.

Christine........We had house martins nesting on the back of this house for many years. Then three years ago the sparrows evicted them. The same thing happened the second year, and last year the house martins failed to build their nest.
Also I think the house martins, swifts and swallows are very late arriving in many parts of the UK this year, and who can blame them with the unsettled weather we are having. I have seen very few of these birds so far this year in my area - North West Wales.

Patricia.......The birds around here tend to sing more in the afternoons, and the evening of course. Although, at 5am this morning I did have to get up and shut the bedroom window due to the melody and chatter.

Regards
Tec.

I justed started to hear the birds singing in the afternoon at work. It doesn't happen in the morning -just the afternnon. Really strange.

Perhaps someone can help or is experiencing the same......we have lived in this house for over 30 years and every year we have house martins - they either nest in our eves or in the bungalow over the road - sometimes both - and in other places in the area. I have always said that their arrival means that summer is here. This year there is no sign - nothing. Any ideas ?

Christine

Well I'm really happy now, it was only yesterday I said the Swifts should be arriving about now at the other house and I would miss them. Just having a cup of tea in front of open kitchen window and a lot of Swifts went screaming past, I feel at home now. When they arrive they always sound so happy to be here with their screaming and mad flying and diving, I love them. Such lovely looking birds as well, I haven't seen any Swallows or Martins yet.
Jude I am not much higher up, there are only three floors.

Caz

Tec
The small birds are definitely blue tits but they are a lot smaller than ours at home. We see quite a lot of them, just a pair feeding off insects in a shrub in the next garden. We also get a lot of canaries round here and boy can they sing another very small bird the male I asssume is the one that is more yellow/green than the female.

The female blackbird is very dark brown ,a lmost black I think which is why we thought hey were all black.

From a distance today we watched a large hawk, don't know what it was as it must have been several miles away we were on a hill looking down over the bay and the hawk was the other side of the bay.

The other animal life around here is of course the Gekos and lizards, a lot of them, very quick and fascinating to watch but OH doesn't like them too much,

Helen.......That sounds cozy :o) Those bloomin Magpies,,,,:o(

Y/Caz....sounds like you'll be seeing quite a few birds then and you're higher up too:o))

Tec....we used to have a pheasant, not seen him in ages. Like your discription.
Madoc has just made friends wqith 2 sheepdogs on his walks, they are noth quite young. Thing is he should'nt run around so much cause of his legs, especially one back and one front:o(((

More pics on the Blog:o)


jude


More pics on the blog

I have so many nests in our thick Yew Hedge.I think there are Pidgeons,Robins,Blackbirds,Wrens,and maybe some tits.They are all neighbours lol.Only problem is there are Magpies I think trying to get eggs.

Hello Tecwyn, pleased to meet you, hi everyone, oooh I have missed this thread. We heard a Robin yesterday and my hubby saw a couple of Greenfinches so it's not so bad up here. The other house had a massive garden full of trees and had fields at the back, this flat is in the middle of the village so it's no wonder there are not as many birds. The birds I do miss are the swifts, they should be arriving about now down at other house, I used to love watching and listening to them.

We had the most horrific rainstorm this afternoon, it woke me up, I could hear it on the roof, we are on the top floor, I couldn't believe it. Would you believe it has just started again. Got to get some good weather soon.

Caz xx

Hi Folks,
Baby birds all learnt to use the feeders - much to the relief of their mothers I expect. Today we have sparrows, greenfinches, blue & great tits, doves, and of course the marauding jackdaws. Yesterday a pheasant marched up the garden, doing his impression of the Grouse Whisky ad on the tele.

Jude......Ianto went walkabout recently too. He decided to visit the sheepdogs at the farm, but got a cool reception, and I had to rescue him.
I explained to him that if he wanted to be sheepdog, he would have to sleep in barn, and work for a living - he was not impressed at all.

Caz.......Hello - don't think we've "spoken" before. I expect there will be more birds around when they've all finished nesting.

Well daughter and co coming for weekend, and O/H just told me what's "to do" list, so I'd best get off here.

Regards
Tec.

Bellblair....l think you're right:o)) lol

Caz....good to see you on here, so pleased you like where you are:o))

Poor Jackdaws:o((

take care:o)
jude xx

Hi Everyone,

Caz glad that you have settle on.
Jude a cows tounge I bet you teacher loved you not. weather here is cold wet and not at all nice. but they are promising us a good summer lol. Jude crows took the egg before we did. and I really must do those pics.

Hi Jude and everyone, it's a long time since I was on this sight, before we moved. I wish I could have brought my birds with me, there aren't so many here, Blackbirds, Collared Doves and Magpies, we hear the Chaffinches but not seen them yet. We had a pair of Jackdaws nesting in the chimney of the house across from our lounge window, one day the Magpie visited and the poor Jackdaws keep coming and looking at their nest and flying away again.
Carole our manager said there are a lot of Sparrows in the front gardens and a few different birds, it means going down to the community room and through the big doors into the garden, it is too far for me to go on my own.
I love it here though and wouldn't go back.


Caz xx

Hi all:o)

Don't know why but l started to type a post on here last night and ended up losing the site, so l went to bed:o(( no doubt pressed the wrong key...lol

Tec....thanks for the compliments re the blog:o) Madoc is always looking for food, which in away is good...this morning he got out the front door and took himself off to our new neighbour, just walked in...lol...all l had to do was rattle the biscuit dish:o))) The neighbour has a friend joining him soon and he has a dog!!!! hope they get on:o)
Yesss get your granddaughter to teach you, its so easy, you use the pc anyway....go for it!!

Sharron.....have never seen a Turtle dove, must look them up, are they simular to the Collared dove??

Magnolia........we have both birds in the garden, not seen them fighting, we did see a pair of male blackbirds last night having a tussle, they sort of ran towards each other on the lawn and chest to chest flew up squabbling, territorial l suppose?

Bellblair..... have been seeing the dunnock and her baby and still hearing/seeing the sparrow sitting on the fence. Is the egg still on the drive??
Aww thats lovely about your OH, is he going into the school? l bet the eldest is really pleased with themselves, l used to love taking nature things into school.
l remember taking a cows tongue into the science teacher many moons ago. l was to chuffed with it, l got it from a farm where l holidayed it was from stillborn calf....can't remember what the teachers reactions were now, probably disgusted...lol eewww sounds horrible now...lol

Hope the weather is good where ever you are, its sunny and bright here but keeps raining:o((

jude :o)

Babies everwhere and the weather here is cold wet and not at all nice for them they hide in the hedge until peter rabbit comes along and starts to eat the new leaves.

Mrs pheseant layed an egg in the middle of our drive the other day,

OH has taken on a task of teaching youngsters next door about the bird etc 2 youngest only want to play with the birds but eldest takes copies of my pics to school etc and teacher would like OH to go and talk to them.

Hi Folks,

Wild and windy here today. The sea looks angry, everything in my garden getting battered with the wind screaming off the mountain - thought it was nearly summer?
The birds are hungry, with lots of fledglings being brought to feed,, the mums tend to feed the chicks on the ground beneath the feeders.

Jude........It all seems to be happening in your garden!...we had a nuthatch hit the window a while back, but it didn't survive. I was very sad about that, we don't see them often here.

Maggie.........Glad to hear the dove won the fight with the magpie. I dislike magpies, they are vicious birds. I watched one recently relentlessly chasing a blackbird until he managed to kill it.

Sharron..........I've never seen a turtle dove here, lots of collared doves. Did you know they didn't arrive in this country until about 1956, from North Africa - widespread now I think.

Ann.........Have you discovered what the small blue tit type birds are in Tenerife?

Regards
Tec.

We had a turtle dove on the lawn today.I have heard them in the trees before but had never seen one until today.