Hobbies and Crafts

Hi! I'm also in Glos and moved in the early summer. I'm not an expert on birds but we have a visitor which looks like a huge male robin - must be about 4x the size of Bob, our garden robin. Any ideas?
Had to defrost the bird baths today and blackbird had lovely splash!

This weather makes me glad that the birds can get water from our waterfal and pond. We keep the water running all year and so it stays ice free.

Hi Everyone
Birds all over the place today feeding like mad.3 Squirrels that have demolished the feeder yet again !!.and just a couple of hours ago there were a huge number of pidgeons that suddenly took to the air.Maybe a couple of hundred.I think they must have been in the back field .I have defrosted the bird bath twice today.Still no snow here(YET)

A "murder" of crows Ann. I remember seeing a programme about Kakapos, Perse, I recall it was fascinating. The bird bath took a bit of thawing this morning. Poor old magpie was crumpling his beak on the ice. Not usually one to feel particularly sorry for magpies, but all life deserves water.

Interesting Perse to read of birds unusual to us. Love the sound of the parrot that can't fly and thinks he's human.

We have had an influx of birds today, loads of starlings returned, greenfinches, chaffinches, a little robin, blackbird, first time seen for a while, lots of sparrows, bluetits, greatits and a coal tit.

We have a parrot here that does not fly, known as the Kakapo and they trust humans completely. You can just hold them and they snuggle into you, there is the worry that they will become extinct so we are encouraged to look after them well.
One of them named Sirocco is on facebook, he thinks he is human some of the doc (department of Conservation) guys headed down a pier to go for a swim and they heard him plonking along behind them then they heard the splash and then worries what if he can't swim but no he was happily floating on his back.

Last year with the hot summer sun our Northland became very dry and the poor old Kiwis started coming out of their natural habitat in search of water. They tend to be a bit stupid and could easily be run over so everyone had to keep an eye out for them and assist them where as normally we are not supposed to touch them. They are very noisey with their feet you can hear them in the bush and if you are in the bush near them at night and you stand still they will barge along and stomp right over your feet. Their predators are weasels. stoats, rats etc.

Persey

Cant rmember if i had told this story before. We had tried all sorts to stop squirrels, a baffle board at the end of the line on which we hung the feeder, special feeders etc. The squirrels just made a blind jump trusting to luck they would land on the line the other side of the baffle which was too big for them to see round. In the end, we cut the bottom off a squash bottle, and put peanuts inside, leaving the bottle on the concrete slab near the bird feeder. it took them about half a day to work out that they had to lift the top off to release the peanuts, but once they knew, they never forgot. It did take their minds off the bird food! And was amusing to watch.

Squirrels!!!!! Naughty things.One in particular has been digging lots of little holes in the lawn ,then found the seed holder.I spotted it hanging upside down on the branch with it's paw stuck down inside the feeder scooping out the seeds.Then later it had got a friend to join it .The feeder was on the ground and they were both snaffling up all the seed.
I will just stick with fat cakes and fat balls at the moment.
The birds have been going crazy today.Whizzing all over the garden.No snow ,but just bitterly cold.

Pic sent Jude of a Newt I found on my back door mat.I thought it was dead but have now been told it was probably 'playing dead'.I put it in the bin and now feel really bad!!.I thought it was a lizard but have been told it was a Newt

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Photo's from Jean on blog:o)

jude :o) x

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

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

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

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

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

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.