Hobbies and Crafts

Oh my goodness it has been snowing for over an hour now, it actually looks like frozen rain ontop of the snow from earlier. The bird feeders have an inch on the top of them.

Will clear things early tomorrow for the birds coming in.

Locally have seen thrushes, jays and great tits oh and chaffinches. Still have the kites locally too.

Linda xxx <3 <3 <3

I don't believe it. This is the third year running that in the couple of weeks following the bird watch we have had a thrush in the garden, We have not seen one here ANY other time. How strange. And today the great Tits were back, not seen them for a week, and several chaffinches, not so many goldfinches and three or four blackbirds. :-)

Well l had another bird that l thought was a Tree Sparrow, but still not sure.

Definately had 2 Nuthatches and our Wren which, as all are, is usually very secretive....well he/she has been on the low wall near patio door, took photo's but not very good.
We still hear that Green parakeet, he must be cold bless him!
So many blackbirds now, probably 8 or so, male & female, still 4 robins a few starlings pop in and out.

Shaun...that fat feeder l made..NO ONE HAS USED IT YET :-( :-( :-S......
l will fill in that form you gave me, not sure if l can add photo's though.

Take care
jude :-D

Hi, poor dog Jane, bet he wonders why his lawn has changed.

Shaun, I don't think we have any hedge sparrows here, or if we have I have not realised. We do have a lot of house sparrows though. Not that cold here today, cold enough but not frosty or icy thank goodness.

Hello Everybody,

Are you keeping warm , minus 8c at 8.15 this morning :-(

It's a great shock to my body, this time of the year when I see the birds bathing ,once we have put the food, drinking water and bird bath out . OH and myself was watching them this morning before we went shopping, it was freezing and the blackbirds were having a lovely time in the bath.

Lovely photo on Judes blog of a tree-sparrow, I have never seen one in my area, as anybody else seen one?
It would be interesting to see what area's they do visit, so if you have seen one please mention it .

Well you all take care and keep warm.
Shaun

They have all been going Bananas this afternoon.Loads of LTT.Blue Tits,Finches and Robins all after the Coconut.One of the Robins looked like it was dive bombing the others :-S
I think we may have more snow later tomorrow.The poor dog is having real trouble walking on the snow on the lawn now as it is just ICE.
When I let him out late last night I couldn't see him but could hear 'Crunch Crunch ' as he made his way gingerly down the garden lol.His legs aren't too strong now so It's not a lot of fun :-S

The birds seemed to be in a feeding frenzy today so maybe the forecast is right and it is going to be much colder. We had a lot more chaffinches today and the blackbirds were very active too.

Aww shucks Jane, thats kind of you....but l am slow sometimes, l just forget mostly!!

Bless that squirrels heart, perhaps he's telling us we're going to have bad weather, although they do store food anyways :-)

The Buzzards are lovely are'nt they, Vic often see's a few now on his walk with the Mad thing, and often they eat their prey on the same spot in the field, or atleast that's what it looks like!

jude x

Jude you do a brilliant job getting all those pics on the log.Don't fret how long it takes.It's a fair bit of pressure on you.Everyone is patient lol
I will go and have a look up on the Sparrows.
I think that big bird I saw on Saturday could have actually been a Buzzard sat at the side of the Motorway.
One of our Squirrels has made a heck of a mess of the lawn.I think it is burying all the peanuts from the feeder.The lawn is looking very tufty :-S (well it was before all this snow.)Little holes all over the place :-S :-S.It spent hours the other day going from the feeder to the lawn ,digging ,then back to the feeder,digging ,back to the feeder and so on.It must have been exhausted lol

Helo Jane:)

House Sparrows are much more common and have a bigger beardie bit than the Tree sparrow. Also the brown bit at the back of House sparrows head goes down to his back. The Tree Sp has a white ring all around....l think...lol
Check them out on websites.
There is quite alot of concern for the Tree Sparrow!! :-(

Thanks Jane, l love it too, just wish l was quicker at getting photo's on...lol

Take care
jude x

Great pics again on the Blog Jude.I do enjoy looking at them all.
What is the difference between a sparrow and Tree sparrow? Sorry to be so thick :-S.I was down in the village the other week and saw a little bird that looked like a sparrow hopping its way up the trunk off a big tree.

Still loads of snow in the garden,but gently thawing.Loads of Long TTs on the coconut again.They have been around for a good week now.Plus all the little Blue Tits and Robins.I love the way they almost wait their turn lol.It;s like they are queuing up on the branches.Then they have a feed and take their turns again and while they wait they clean their beaks off on the branch.This is just outside my lounge window just a few feet from me :-D

Ohhh l'm not so sure now :-( :-( :-S

YESSSSSSSSSSSS atlast l have just seen a TREE SPARROW IN THE GARDEN:))
My first as far as l know :-D


Its on the blog as is Shaun woodpecker and blackbird. l actually put that on blog then happened to look out the back...and hey presto :-D

A very excited Jude xx

Hi Everyone
Do hope you are all managing to keep warm
We still have a lot of snow in west London and I've just watched a gold finch breakfast on the niger seeds on the bird feeder.
Yesterday after it had snowed the sun came out and there were so many birds flitting about on and off the feeder. More than I've seen in a long time.
Several blue tits,long tailed tits, robins,blackbirds and a dear little wren was feeding on the ivy outside my kitchen window so I had a really good view.
Take care
Von

We used to live in The Westerings off Vicarage Lane which was then (don't know about now, behind the large car park and field that belonged to Marconi where OH worked. We had dutch Elm all down the side of the garden, we moved before the disease took hold.

Actually I live in Great Baddow about 200 yards from the Chelmsford boundary. Recent years have seen a nearby farm and allotments replaced by housing estates which seems to have reduced the variety of birds we see.

How lovely, the last time I saw Redwings was in the early 70s when we lived in Great Baddow.

We've just been visited by a group of Redwings, I counted 18 in the apple tree but there are probably more. It's years since I last saw any of those in the garden here at Chelmsford.

PS A few of them were fieldfares.

Ann they have been coming for a few years now they like sorbus berries (ASh) and the pyrocantha too

Linda x

You are lucky Linda to get Redwings, I don't think there are many of those about.