Hobbies and Crafts

Now I will take more notice when the doves and pigeons come-a-courting! Thanks Ann.

Vera I hope you can soon get your feeding station in place and your garden birds will come there for a feast, but you do have to be patient though.

It has been raining hard here for most of the day with strong winds and it's bitterly cold. No sign of the young blackbird again and when I filled the ground feeding tray a load of starlings swooped within minutes and cleared the lot, they are greedy/aggressive birds.

kandj I would love to read that the young blackbird or any bird had found the food in your feeder :-D

Today the shooting season closed for partridge and pheasants :-D although not for duck and goose that's not until the 20th Feb :-(

Have lured your neighbours goldfinches into your garden yet Vera? ;-)

Ann we lived in Silencio for a short time before we had our girls (my first pregnancy was confirmed at Las Americas Hospital) and from our bedroom window we often use to see dolphins swimming in the ocean :-D :-D :-D

Lesley x

Why didn't you stay there Lesley? We love Tenerife although prefer the North. Hopefully going for 4 weeks in September. Usually go for 4 weeks in May as well but OH has begun to find it too difficult to cope with the garden after 4 weeks at that time of year. When we go to the south we usually stay in Golf del Sur.

Lesley ,you mention the end of the shooting for Pheasants,which has reminded me I haven't seen the Male Pheasant in the garden for a little while.I hope he wasn't 'got'.Maybe he knows it is safe now and has ventured out and about :-D.
I went to London yesterday for the day with OH and Son to meet my Daughter for the Theatre .I filled up the window feeder to the brim at 10am and when we got home just after 10pm it was totally empty.So I went in the dark and refilled ready for this morning .After a lie in I came downstairs about 10 and it was almost empty again !!!

I have never been to Tenerife.I don't know why but it is somewhere I have never thought of going.I know my neighbours love it there.I must have a google and find out about it.

No more sign of Ratty (thank goodness :-D).I am still very curious as to where that coconut has gone.There is no sign of it anywhere :-S

Hungry birds Jane.

We love Puerto De La Cruz in North Tenerife. Not quite so touristy and as thery get a bit more rain there are a lot of flowers.

Ann it was me that wanted to come home when I found out I was pregnant, cranky hormones kicked in I guess, the first property we looked at was on Golf del Sur, MOG just shook his head and said if you think I'm paying those prices think again so we ended up with the show duplex on Amarilla Bay, that was before Amarilla Golf had even been started.

Lesley x

All sounds lovely but back to a cold Yorkshire and NO young blackbird or any doves,starling, gulls, pigeons today........... what's going on here? Methinks they are all have flown over to Jane's garden and eating her out of house and home!

Kandj they are all tucked up in the warm somewhere.

Lesley was that in the 80s/90s before prices of accommodation rocketed there? Amarilla Golf has really spread since we first knew it, I suppose it is better because when they built that and the newer hotel complexes they opened more restaurants. When we first stayed that end of G del S we had to walk up to the centre for a decent meal.

We have 3 Female Pheasants in the garden this morning !But still not the Male.I have only seen 1 female here before

Kandj ,I have told all my little Birds that there is someone else who would love to feed them,told them which direction to fly .But they have decided to stay put .I wish you could see them.They are all puffed up like little round balls this morning :-D

BREAKING NEWS....... the young blackbird flew on to the gripper of the window feeder, looked in at hubby sat reading the newspaper....... and flew off again! Perhaps he doesn't like what's on the menu?? I had refilled it with wild bird seed earlier and have just sprinkled some of the berry suet pellets underneath the lounge window hoping to encourage another visit.......... fingers crossed! It is dry but bitterly cold wind today.

oooh!,fingers crossed then Kandj.Now it knows where to come,hopefully it'll be back and with a bit of luck bringing some friends too :-D :-D

Kandj tell hubby he has to keep the paper very still if a bird lands or the movement will frighten them off, fingers crossed he comes back. I am not sure but our blackbirds are more attracted to the suet bits than seed and also dried mealy worms.

I agree Ann ,The suet is the favourite of the female Blackbird.I did put some seed in the feeder with the suet pellets .....The seed was the stuff that was left.

I think the Pheasants must have all come out of hiding as plus the 3 girls in my garden ,I came across 2 Male and 4 Females down the lane when I went to drop in on my friend.One of the Males just wouldn't get out of the way and It trotted along in front of my car looking as daft as a brush until I put the window down and shouted at it.It soon scarpered then lol

Ok......point taken and thanks for the tips Ann and Jane. Tomorrow I will fill up with the berry suet pellets and wait and see who comes visiting. All so exciting now!

waiting in anticipation :-D :-D.

Ann we were first in Silencio in the mid 80s before the house price boom and sold late 90s.

kandj you could always send your OH into the garden to dig up a few worms for the blackbird:-D

Cock pheasants have more than one partner Jane;-) ooh la la :-D :-D :-D

Lesley x

Lesley we first went to Golf del Sol in about 1997 staying a week in a timeshare the Amarillo end after a week in Chayofa, then we had several holidays down the other end at various places, timeshares usually on exchange with our own. Some better than others. These days when we go we opt for Santa Barbara or Aquamarine hotels. We prefer not to have a car when we stay in Tenerife these days as the driving is horrific, especially down South and the hotels run buses into Los Cristianos.. But we do still go for 4 weeks at a time to above Puerto de la Cruz in a small studio apartment.


Kandj..... any luck.

Jane the pheasants had probably heard that there is food to be had at yours and were gathering for a party. :-D

No young blackbird as yet Ann..... we are still ever hopeful though.

I have filled the feeder with the berry suet pellets this morning and also added a little dried mealy worms Lesley will they do?

Jane what play did you see in London with your family? Have you spotted the male pheasant around yet? I do hope he hasn't been shot when he is a regular at yours!!

Hoping to be back later to announce the young blackbird has tasted his "feast"

Morning :-D
Well I am shocked.My son has seen the Spotted Woodpecker on the window feeder 3 times this morning (before I came downstairs).He did manage to get a pic but it is not great as the window was filthy .So i have given it a quick clean ,filled up the tray with food and now hope woody will return.The only thing now is that because it has found the food there it will be scoffing the lot !!!!

Kandj we went to the Old Vic and saw a play called Fortunes Fool.My Daughter had bought tickets for all of us for Xmas to actually see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night at the Apollo.But that was the theatre where the ceiling fell down and it is still shut ,so she got a refund and we saw this one instead.

Come on little Blackbird,visit Kandj.She is waiting patiently with lots of nice food :-D

No sign of MR.Pheasant :-S,and no girls so far this morning.

It's a lovely morning so far but very breezy.I think I will make the most of it and actually chance putting some washing out.

FINALLY, A RESULT!!!

A little while ago I hubby spotted the young blackbird on the wall (great!). It seemed to be sizing the surroundings and then flew down on the the ground feeder tray and quick as lightening the thrush who lives in our shurbbery shot out and chased the blackbird around the front lawn until it flew across the road and disappeared into our neighbours huge conifer.... with the thrush following but landing on the neighbours fence.

What a disappointment, and what a bully the thrush is when there is enough ground food around for plenty birds!

Well, we thought that was the last of the blackbird for today, BUT
whilst we were sat chatting we heard a bump on the windowpane and saw that the blackbird was back and had landed on the gripper. He popped his head into the feeder and took a suet pellet and flew away. What a daring blackbird he is.
Here's hoping he will be back more frequently and bring others along too. YIPPEE!!!