Hobbies and Crafts

I did a long post yesterday only to have the internet cut out before I could press send. WiFi is very slow and intermittent here.

Ann we are in the middle of nowhere 3 or 4 miles from Corfe Castle. The biggest problem is not having a pub or restaurant within walking distance so we have to take the car in the evening and OH has to stick with one small beer. Sadly we have to go home tomorrow.

We haven’t seen the merlin again but there are plenty of other birds around. Lots of sparrows, chaffinches and blackbirds and we have had some yellowhammers fly in front of the car, but I haven’t seen any starlings.

Yesterday we went to Monkey World. You may have seen their television programmes. They rescue damaged and abused primates from labs, the pet trade etc and they are a main centre in the European Breeding programme for endangered apes and monkeys. OH adopted an orangutan called Amy about a year ago and is going to continue his adoption. We were able to see Amy and take a couple of photos. We expected to stay a couple of hours and stayed nearly 6 hours. A very enjoyable and instructive day.

I’ve been able to assure OH that his adopted “daughter” is just like him :-D

Lol Vera I am sure that pleased him. Isn’t it always a culture shock to suddenly find yourself with slow WiFi? We had the same problem in Saundersfoot. Shame there is nowhere to eat in walking distance but it sounds as though you have had a good time. Safe journey tomorrow. :-)

I have never seen a Merln Vera .That was lucky you got to see one :-D
We always had trouble with Wifi and phones in Dorset . Just not signal . Suffolk has been the worst place for non existant phone signal .You really would think by now everywhere would be ok to be able to use a mobile phone . Monkey World sounds amazing . I have seen the programme a few times. I am not surprised you spent 6 hours there !!!. :-D :-D

I walked past the nesting swans earlier today.
They are right next to a footpath, but someone has given them the protection of a light wood fence, so dogs etc. don't disturb them. The pair don't seem to mind people standing quietly nearby and we were lucky to see the sitting bird get up to have a little shuffle and tweak of the nest. Sadly this showed that they have just 3 eggs now. We can but wait and see whether or not these hatch. The swans seem to have built up the nest, so that it stands well clear of the water now . Indeed they were still collecting and adding to it today.

Hopefully the fence that has been put up will now protect the nest and the 3 surviving eggs will hatch safely :-) Lets hope there will be 3 little Sygnets soon :-D

There are lots of kamikaze birds along the road .They must be making nests in the hedgerows . But they suddenly fly so low just in front of the car .I just have to grit my teeth and hope I havent hit one :-(. All safe so far :-D

I hope the final three survive Gwyn and the fence protects them.
Jane daft things birds, no road sense.

I hope the cygnets hatch and survive OK. At least the fence will give them a bit of protection.

OH is away for a couple of days so I've been trying to do a few jobs I don't seem to find time for when he is around. This morning I decided to give the pond a clean; (I always feel silly calling a glorified bowl a "pond"). We had no frogspawn this year and I've seen no sign of life in the pond so I thought it would be a good time to clean it up a bit.

How wrong can you be? As soon as I started scooping mucky water out I had frogs leaping everywhere. Eventually I moved 7 fully grown frogs from this tiny bowl and deposited them in a damp, shady spot out of the sun. I cleared all the water out but I had trouble with one creature that was clearly the Frog Town village idiot. Every time I turned away he leapt back in and sat at the bottom of the now dry bowl just looking at me.

I don't know how there was room for 7 frogs in there as in this bowl there is a brick under the water as a ledge for a couple of small plants in pots, a grass and a marsh marigold, and there is also a chunk of rock that is there so that anything that lands in the water has some way of climbing out again.

Still, I am really pleased the frogs are there :-D.

Vera, I now have a picture in my head of you running round chasing a uncooperative frog who didn’t want to leave home. I hope they all settled back in ok.

There is always 'one' Vera LOL Fancy there being so many Frogs in your'POND'
Did you scoop them up by hand? I have never held a frog. Not sure I would be too keen to be honest.This one certainly gave you the run around :-D
I havent seen a frog for ages now. A few years ago I would find one right by the back door!. They have a lake next door. I say a Lake .It is big enough to have a little row boat,so I think the frog must have come from there.

The birds are so busy making nests in the garden.Especially the Wood Pigeons . It must be exhausting . A few twigs at a time. Some so big too.

Glorious day again here today. How nice was it yesterday for the Royal Wedding. Just the perfect day and a perfect wedding . I thoroughly enjoyed it all on TV.
My Daughter is coming home later today and we are Wedding dress shopping tomorrow. :-D Wedding in December :-D I never thought it would happen LOL She is 35 ! Its all very exciting :-D

Been there. done that recently Jane only our daughter is 56 and it will be her third wedding so no long white dress for her.But she has a very nice outfit which only she and I have seen so far. Silky pleated skirt and matching top from jaques Verre.

some of you might recall that I had a thread going regarding a family of blue tits in one of my nesting boxes that had a web cam inside...10 eggs, 10 fledglings....well, i see this week end that the Tits are back but sadly not in the one with the camera...

Bob

beats watching weddings, ( for me, anyway!!)

Yes I remember Bob, what a pity they chose a different home. Still you will still be able to watch them. The only time great Tits have used one of our boxes was when we were away. :-D

I visited the nesting swans yesterday and saw that Mother Swan was still sitting and her mate was sitting quite close to her. I watched for a while, - they don't seem to be at all bothered by people walking the footpath adjacent to the nest, but the male was on full alert when any dogs were walked along past them. The dogs paid no attention to the swans, so there was no bother.
I was thrilled by the sight of one fluffy little head, which poked out from under it's mother's wing. Although I stayed quite a while, I didn't see any others, but Mum hardly moved, so it was difficult to see if there were other cygnets, but I thought I saw an egg, so there is hope yet.

Our little great tit left the box yesterday and sat on the ground all day :-(

OH had set up a camera so we noticed that Mum had flown down to feed it :-D but we were worried for its survival. :-0

My OH put some strategic branches around to area at least they would deter any prowling animals and Mum could still reach it. I will just add that we use this area of the garden but it didn't deter the adult birds.

There is no sign of little one today but there are great tits about so we're hoping it learned to fly ;-)

Vera there always seems to a frog in the mud at the bottom of our pond. You always get one ;-) ;-) ;-)

Gwyn sounds as if at least one has survived then. Keep watching!!

Von, hopefully little one has got to a safe place.

We have a resident blackbird that feed right outside the lounge window and even come to feed on the patio table if we are there. He is obviously feeding a young one somewhere because he is back and forth all day.

Little cygnet was basking in the afternoon sunshine yesterday, from time to time snuggling it's head into Mum's feathers.- So cute. She was still sitting firm, but not in a position where I could see whether or not there were any other babies under her.
Dad was busy foraging in the water nearby.

I'll visit again in a few days.

A friend showed me a photo of 2 baby cygnets with Mum. I haven't been to check on them myself, because there's a strong cold wind blowing and they are likely to be snuggled under their Mum.
I was so pleased to hear that at least 2 have hatched.

That is great there are 2 little survivors :-D :-D. They will be fine now.
I hope your Baby Gt Tit managed to get off the ground Von . I always fret when I see a new fledgling on the ground ,but the Parents are always about and come down tot feed them. I sometimes think we worry as much as we do when having a new baby LOL .

The Jay is still visiting the window feeder :-D. It is a whopper.

That is lovely Gwyn, do hope they survive.

Bob, I hope your blue tits are doing well. Shame they didn't pick the box with the camera. Keep us up to date with the news from the blue tit house.

Great to hear that there are at least 2 little cygnets, Von. Let's hope the third egg has hatched as well and they all survive.

I have seen a few young sparrows in the garden and several young starlings, who are beginning to squawk as loudly as their parents :-| They are bold little things. I watched two fluffy little starlings pecking at a slice of wholemeal bread OH had thrown out when a collared dove flew down beside them and tried to take a bit. These two little things fluttered their wings and squawked and twittered at him until he gave up and flew away. Then together they dragged the remains of the bread under a garden bench and pecked away at it in peace there :-D