Hobbies and Crafts

Brilliant Jane, I bet that was a surprise the birds turning up so quickly. I'm pleased you have some to look at now. I meant to ask, does Thomas notice the birds with the feeder being on the window?

We had another bird on the feeder yesterday, again Sandra got her book out to see what it was, she loves it. I'm sure in time Ann you'll see some birds, like you said there's plenty of food around at the moment, but come the winter they'll be around for what ever you put out for them.

I've just had my new fridge and freezer delivered so I need to sort out the packaging they left behind. OH and Sandra have taken the old one to the tip, so I want the rubbish out of the way before they come home.

We did have two blackbirds on the fence this morning although not feeding. And a wood pigeon too, otherwise we have been out so don't know if some sneaked in while we were not here.

I will refill the window feeder tomorrow. It is down about 3 quarters now.It is so lovely to see the birds all back again. Even the greedy blackbirds. The main thing though with have the window feeder is the mess left on my window sill :-S .Poop ,and soggy suet bits :-S. :-D

Great that you are able to enjoy the birds on the window feeder Jane.

I don’t know what has happened to the birds around here. Last Friday morning, before we went away for the weekend, I filled the feeders and they were still nearly full on Monday morning. Then on Tuesday we saw our usual flock of sparrows and there was one blue tit and one great tit on the peanuts.

Then we had a couple of days with hardly a bird in sight. Even the mealworms went untouched though they had all gone when I drew the blinds this morning. I have put more out in the ground feeder but haven’t seen anything on them or on the fat balls, the seeds or the peanuts.

I think all our birds must have flown up to Jane’s :-D

We have not seen many birds at all until this morning we had six sparrows in the pyracanthus by the house and a couple wee eating seeds and drinking from the water feature. We also had one starling in the apple tree looking lost on its own (not seen any starlings for way over a month. On the fence we had 2 male blackbirds. I put some mealy worms out and the magpie pinched some. :-D

We never get Starlings here Ann. Maybe once a year when they suddenly all fly in and land in the conifers,but then they fly off again. The Magpies are still hopping around the garden as are 2 Squirrels.I seem to be seeing more Blue Tits now on the window feeder which is nice.I shall need to fill it up in the morning as it has been a busy day there today.I am just hoping the Squirrels don't realise the feeder is back as they will scoff the lot :-S

We had a squirrel trying it's luck on our feeder the other day, it was quite funny to watch him slip down the pole with me putting Vaseline on it, so if anyone has problems with squirrels Vaseline is the answer.......it works a treat. I haven't seen the squirrel again, so it looks like it's working.

I still have lots of food in the feeder, so it looks like it's going to last a while yet. We did have a flock of starlings once or twice which pleased Sandra. We've set the feeder up so she can sit on the sofa and see it without having to get up, not like OH and I, we have to go to the window to see anything. Sandra's still checking things in her little bird book, it's the best thing I've ever bought her, she loves it.

I was quite amused this morning watching a pigeon trying to work out how to get onto the bird table OH and Sandra made, it's not very tall so it was walking back and forth on the roof until it realised the only way to get on it was to fly onto the table, I was surprised it did it, but it looked very squashed eating the nuts and mealworms on there. We have lots of blackbirds, but they seem more interested in the worms in the lawn. We've also had a few great tits eating the nuts on the feeder, so all in all Sandra is really happy watching them all.

So we've had quite a variety of birds coming and going, I'm sure they'll be more once the winter sets in though. I hope you all see more birds arriving in your gardens soon.

Still have a few sparrows but it is very wet here this morning so I think all the birds are in shelter somewhere. I am sure that is why they are not using the feeders Gill, they can still get worms and insects because it is still quite mild. :-)

Quite a few blackbirds about this morning. I think the rain overnight and first thing this morning has brought all the worms and other insects to the surface so the blackbirds are having a field day.

There was a robin bobbing around on our flower pots yesterday so I hope he is the one eating the meal worms. I never actually see anything in the ground feeder but the meal worms and other stuff I put out is being eaten and only small birds can get at it.

The dratted pigeons have broken our newest, sturdy seed feeder. Because it was nice and sturdy it would bear their weight. They learnt that if they were hanging on the perches they couldn’t lower their heads enough to get to the seeds, so they would swing the feeder to and fro until they unhooked the plastic slider things that held the tube to the base. Then the whole thing would fall to the ground and they could get at the seeds :-|. When I picked the feeder up from the ground yesterday I found they had broken the plastic sliders :-P.

I bought that feeder because it seemed strong, held lots of seeds and looked attractive, but it was expensive. So it’s back to the cheap small ones again.

Cheap and cheerful feeders needed then Vera. Naughty but rather clever Pigeons :-S
Touch wood the Squirrel hasn't found the window feeder yet here. I might have jinxed it now by saying that though!!!

Kandj will not be coming back just yet.There just seems to be one tragedy after another.This time is is not a family member thankfully but her next door neighbour had the most upsetting news and Kandj is trying to support her as well as coping with all that has happened in her life lately. She knows that we all still think of her . <3 <3 Kandj

Oh dear poor Kandj, she needs somebody supporting her not her doing the supporting. Thinking of you Kandj

Vera wow, the wrecker pigeon!! Can you hang a feeder where there is cover over it somehow to prevent the pigeon getting near it?

'Our' blackbird has returned. We know it is the same one as he has a whie patch on his wing. He was back on the table this morning eating mealy worms. We also still have a small flock of sparrows, and two days ago we had 5 or 6 starlings on the fat balls so birdlife is returning slowly. :-) :-)

Poor Kandj, I hope things improve for her soon.

We're still getting the starlings on our feeder, much to Sandra's delight.

The pigeons can be a nuisance Vera. We have two dishes on our feeder, one for water and the other for food, to keep the pigeons off the food we put the dish just slightly under the water dish so the smaller birds can land on the food dish but the pigeons don't have enough head height to get to the food. Maybe you could try something like that.

Not seen many birds around the past couple of days but it has been very mild. cold weather forecast for next week.

We have just been into town to go to the Victorian Christmas fair at the Docks. Goodness it was crowded, but not too painful once you got round the people whose aim was to eat and drink lunch using the free samples. There are easil over 200 stalls so a lot to see plus the skating rink is now open and also the Christmas Grotto. It was all very colourful and 'Christmassy'. Coaches come from all over the place to see it. we bought cheese for us and wooden Christmas ornaments, one for Gt Granddaughter, one for the Gt grandsons' tree and one for us, three for £5 very good value. Then we got flavoured coffee for daughter, a miniatur Gin for one of them, and a Glos rugby mug for youngest grandson plus a Glos rugby bottle opener.
The restaurants where the stalls are (and there are many restaurants) were all very busy so we walked round to the other side of the docks, guessing people on the coaches wouldn't know they were there, and had a lovely lunch in the Greek restaurant there. I had a delicious Moussaka and OH had a chicken/tomato pasta which he said was very tasty. We had a glass of a house red each which was very nice (no driving we were on the bus) We then shared an orange filo cake and ice cream which was really lovely. All while looking out over the docks in the glorious sunshine.

Thinking of you Kandj <3

You sound as though you have had a good day Ann. We don’t even attempt to go to our local Christmas market. It gets so jam packed that there is no pleasure in it.

Gill, We used to have one of those wrought iron poles with feeders and water dish etc. We took it out when we put in a couple of trees and a bird bath but I expect it is still at the back of the garage somewhere. If it is the only way to stop the pigeons getting at the bird seed I shall have to get it out again, but at the moment all our feeders hang from tree branches.

They seem to be leaving the seeds alone today. I have hung a much flimsier feeder on a different tree and I don’t think they feel very secure hanging on it.

The starlings are back again. They are such greedy birds and they don’t leave much for the others. I expect they will be here for the winter now.

We have a couple of Chilean Guava bushes in large pots. I had picked a few berries, went out the next day and found they had almost all disappeared. Then I saw a blackbird hop on to the pot and very delicately pick off a berry, hop down to the path and eat it. I don’t mind really because they are fiddly little things to pick and eat, but they had a wonderful smell as you walked past the pot. Now, no berries, no lovely smell. I hope the blackbirds enjoyed them :-D

EDIT. OH has just told me that he asked around our friends and no-one wanted our wrought iron feeding station so he took it to the tip!!! What would you do with him? If he wanted to get rid of it he could at least have taken it to a charity shop. He is not in my good books

I have not heard of Chilean Guava bushes before. The Blackbirds obviously had a good feed on your berries. Our window feeder this afernoon had a sudden huge visit from a great number of Blue Tits. They were all in the tree pecking around on the branches so maybe some lovely tasty insects?
Ann you sound as though you have had a lovely and exhausting day at the Victorian Xmas Market. We never have anything like that here :-S. Kettering is a dead place these days and we would have to go elsewhere for something like a good Xmas market.
Oh dear Vera OH in the dog house then :-S My OH has often taken things to the tip before I realise what he has done. Then there are WORDS :-S

Why do these men do things off their own back without asking the boss??

Rather quiet on the bird front around here lately.
The seagulls are ever present, surveying us from the rooftops before shrieking to herald any comings and goings from individual houses.
They are such noisy birds, but even more so when they have young.
We have a wren darting about on the ivy-covered fence most days, but I've no idea where it lives.
I have seen a solitary robin foraging in the back garden and there was a really tame one in a churchyard in Hampshire yesterday. It flew to the ground just a couple of feet in front of us.They are so inquisitive.

On the same round trip, we also visited a Christmas market in Winchester. The setting is perfect alongside the magnificent cathedral. The stalls were selling some lovely goods, although some were rather pricey.
Just in front of the main cathedral door are more stalls. It was a beautiful sunny morning and suddenly there appeared a splendid Red Admiral butterfly, which fluttered around before landing on one of the garlands decorating the chalet. It was just lovely to see it so relatively late in the year.

aaw that was lovely Gwyn. Winchester Christmas fair does have a good reputation, daughter and her OH always used to go when they lived in the area, they bought some very expensive Christmas decs there. The Cathedral setting is lovely as it is so I am sure it enhanced the fair.

I don't think I have been to Winchester. The setting for the Christmas Market sounded lovely. I miss the sound of Seagulls after growing up by the sea. We do get a fair few flying overhead here but they probably just visit the landfill sites :-S We are right in the middle of England here.
There has been a Red Kite flying above us and the sun was shining under it wings .The red colours were beautiful.
Window feeder very busy at the moment :-D

For some reason we spent a week's honeymoon in Winchester. Lovely town but it does seem an odd choice for a honeymoon :-S We stayed in a small "private hotel" run by two elderly ladies. Our first evening there we decided to go for a wander around and perhaps have a coffee somewhere. Everywhere was closed so we made our way back to the hotel to be greeted at the door by the two ladies who said "If you are going to be coming in so late at night you had better have a key". It was 9 pm!!

I am sure things have changed in Winchester now.

Yesterday afternoon I put the rest of our guava berries on the ground feeder and lifted the cage off so that the blackbirds would be able to get at them easily. Much to my surprise they are still there although I have seen blackbirds hopping about the garden. They obviously taste better straight from the bush.

EDIT OH has blotted his copy book again :-| This morning I was complaining that I didn't have time to get out to the garden and he was off to the pub to meet a friend for Sunday lunchtime drinks, so he said he would help me by doing whatever I wanted. Not trusting him with some jobs I suggested he changed the sheet and pillowcases on our bed and emphasised that was all that he needed to do. I told him where to find the clean ones and left him to get on with it. After half an hour I thought he'd been a long while so went to investigate. He had removed the almost clean duvet cover, which I wasn't going to change, and was sitting on the floor trying to stuff the duvet into a new cover. His 'help' means I now have extra work - a king size duvet to wash, dry and iron. I love him to bits but...grrrrr