Hobbies and Crafts

We had a pair of Gold Finches sitting on the telegraph wire outside earlier, pretty little things.
I don't know if it's the weather but the Gulls have been especially noisy the last few days.
They were having a great time on the beach yesterday, we had the Red Arrows and I got more photos of Gulls than of the planes !!! Not intentionally, they just always seemed to get in the way.

M.

We have had lots of Gulls too Maryanna ,but not from the sea.The farmer has been tilling (is that right?) the field opposite .
I have a feeling there is an airshow nearby on Sunday and so we might see the Red Arrows.Also there are supposed to be 2 Vulcan Bombers.I hope they fly over us :-D

Big stand off in the window feeder just now.There were 2 Chaffinch holding fort and stopping any other birds from landing :-SThey are becoming right bullies.

We had a real invasion of starlings this afternoon. There must have been 40 or 50 on our little lawn and they all looked to be young ones in various stages of getting their adult plumage.

There were also a couple of sparrows and a few long tailed tits but I was most pleased to see a robin sitting on the fence. Up until a while ago we had one in the garden most of the time but we haven't seen him for a few weeks. I don't know if it is the same one back or not but it was nice to see him around.

I've taken up the ground feeder for the time being as nothing seems to be using it now, except a few dozen earwigs! I'll put it out again in a couple of months when the birds might be looking for more food.

Hello to everyone and Thank You So Much for all your kind thoughts and encouraging words over these many months. Each one has helped hubby and me along a challenging journey. He still has a long way to go but I'm back and that is real progress (imho).

Jane has been kind in sending pm's to encourage me and now I am back to posting BUT I am ignoring Ann's little field mouse because they still make me cringe!!!
I am still the wuss that I ever was and don't like mice or birds that flap their wings too near to me ha ha.

I am still using the window feeder and have been filling the two bird baths with water, especially during the heatwave that has now passed by. We have been entertained with few birds but nothing very special here in Yorkshire.

How is baby Millie doing now Lesley? I guess she will be amusing you now.

It is nice to be back though and I will read through the thread later on.

Very many thanks again for all your support to one and all. Greatly appreciated!

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

KANDJ is back.

Lovely to see you Kandj we have missed you.

I am pleased to hear that Hubby is making progress it must have been a worrying time for you. Look forward to hearing more about your feeders now. :-D

Oh this is a lovely surprise :-D :-D :-D :-D
Welcome back Kandj <3 <3 <3.You have really been missed.You just pop in and out whenever you can.....I won't tell you about our mice then LOL
Plenty of activity here again on the window feeder.I just wish the Chaffinches weren't so aggressive :-| :-|

Great to see you back Kandj :-D :-D

I think we are going to be birdless for a few days as daughter has left her two dogs here this morning. One of them is a lovely dog but is completely mad and is a barker. As soon as he sees a bird even fly across the garden he is out there barking at it. As I don't want to upset the neighbours I have to keep hauling him in but I think the birds are getting the message. Hopefully they will come and feed at dawn while he is still tucked up asleep.

The cat always takes up residence in the garage when we have visiting dogs. She seems to consider it her holiday home. She has her bed, litter tray, food and water bowls out there and OH fixes the up-and-over door so that it is open just enough at the bottom for her to get in and out but not wide enough for the dogs.

Thanks to Vera and to everyone for your kind words to welcome me back.... I have to say it's just lovely to have a little "me time" once again.

I see you have had a birthday recently Ann? I hope that it was a good one for you.

Jane, I have read some of the postings and STOPPED at your mouse/maggots!!!!!

All very quiet on the window feeder, perhaps the birds are fussy and going elsewhere since I haven't made any fat seedcake for them for months. Poor neglected birds lol.

It is so good to see you posting again now Kandj :-D :-D...Sorry about my posts LOL
The saga continues with the mice in the garage ,but I will say no more ;-)
I have been and bought MORE fat pellets again today.They jet love the Berry flavoured ones.As for the seeds they just get turfed out of the feeder :-S
I have noticed that the Robins have been very noisy the last few days.I don't know why.(I think it is the Robins)

There are some big clouds building up here so I don't know if we are in for some rain tonight.It has been a lovely day on the whole with lots of sun :-D

I have lost count today of the number of Chaffinch.Iv'e never seen so many coming to the feeder.It's like Wacky Races !!I just wish they were better behaved :-S.

I hope Maryanna has had a good journey to Spain and has arrived safe and sound . :-D

We have not had a single bird on the feeders today. We did have a dragon fly over the water feature though :-D

Only one regular blackbird here today but we had a few wasps on the window feeder.

I had put chopped fruit and added sultanas to treat the birds but just got wasps instead
Not very happy about that, so I emptied the feeder and washed it out. Hopefully the wasps will disappear and not be tempted with plain boring bread!

Not seeing many birds around at the moment but some of the food is disappearing so I think they must be coming in before we are up. There were three or four long tailed tits on the feeders at lunchtime. Luckily daughter's mad dog was indoors at the time and didn't notice them. Daughter has been this evening to collect her dogs so maybe the birds will start coming back.

I think OH must have disturbed our frog when he took down the shed as we haven't seen him around for a while. I hope he is still about as I was getting quite fond of him.

When we were doing daughter's garden last week OH disturbed a frog on the lawn, it was about an inch long, not much more than a tadpole :-D

Still no birds around here again today. Not even pigeons.

I wouldn't like a frog jumping out at me Ann..... I am a real wuss and don't even like the idea of this.

The birds seem to have deserted our window feeder and I think that as the farmer is cutting the fields leading into our village then the birds are all feeding there.

It is a beautiful bright sunny day here in Yorkshire so far, with bright blue sky and white fluffy clouds and a warm gentle breeze but we are forecast to have heavy showers this afternoon so I do hope that they have got this wrong.

There is a Summer Gala in the village today with bouncy castle for the children and bunjee jumping for those that are brave enough to do this mad thing. The Community Centre is directly opposite the village pub and so I am thinking that perhaps the youths might have a go at bunjee jumping after some dutch courage!!

Must think about some lunch. We are peckish now even if the birds aren't.

You not going to try the Bungee Jump then Kandj !!!!! :-D.I think people must be bonkers to do that .I can't imagine anything worse :-S.I hope it does stay dry for the Gala.I must say it is starting to look a bit black here right now.My Daughter and her girlfriends are going to an open air Film and Picnic this evening ,so I'm not sure how that will pan out if it is raining.
It's fairly quite on the bird front here today.No doubt they will all be scrabbling to get on the window feeder later.

Just sparrows here feeding, still better than nothing I suppose :-D

Not much bird activity here either but I've had one little bit of excitement in the garden today.

OH called me out to look at a caterpillar that was chomping its way through a leaf on a blueberry bush. Neither of us had seen one like it before so he took a photograph and we have wasted a lot of time when we should have been doing other things comparing his photo to various online caterpillars.

We are sure it is a Vapourer Moth, also known as the Rusty Tussock Moth. Apparently they are not picky eaters - any deciduous bush will do. We are wondering where it came from as we've examined both my bushes carefully and it appears to be the only caterpillar there. We've left it for the time being but, if it appears to be causing much damage to the blueberry plant, we'll find it a new home.

The poor female Vapourer Moth doesn't have much of a life. It emerges from the pupa wingless, lays its eggs on the pupa case and dies, while the male has a lovely time fluttering about. Not much equality in the moth world :-(

Edited as I said chrysalis and apparently that only applies to butterflies.

Vera,I just looked up the caterpillar and I too have never seen one like that.It does look like the hair on it could be quite irritating for human skin.I know some caterpillars are.It's quite a colourful one isn't it :-D

Well I am now thinking all these Chaffinches I have are adults and young as I spotted a couple being fed on one of the branches in the tree near the feeder.Mind you the young were much bigger than the adult lol Maybe this is why they are being so aggressive while they are on the window feeder.Protecting their young and wanting as much food as possible.
I can see now that it the food has almost gone again and just the seed bits left so I better stock it up once more.If we get the awful weather forecast for tomorrow they will probably all stay in hiding(if they have any sense) :-D
Looking out now the sky is blue and it is a lovely evening :-D.I don't think we shall be going anywhere tomorrow if the forecast is right.

My Daughter has just done the Ice Bucket Challenge and got a real good soaking in aid of Motor Neurone Disease.A terrible illness that my Dad sadly died from.So I hope he is looking down on his Grandaughter and giving her a good cheer for her part in raising money for this good cause. <3

I topped up all the feeders this morning and within seconds there must have been 20 long tailed tits on them. :-D

A bit of the food fell on the grass and two of the birds flew down and started squabbling over it. They didn't seem to be a bit concerned that I was standing right beside them and they were so busy fighting that they didn't notice my cat creeping up on them. Luckily I did and clapped my hands loudly. All the birds flew away and I haven't seen a sign of them since. :-(

Well done to your daughter Jane