Hobbies and Crafts

I hope Jane and Maryanna enjoy their holidays and the weather is kind to them. You never can tell in this country. About 5 years ago we were staying in Fort William in March so I packed vests and warm jumpers and didn't need any of it. It was warm and, most of the time, dry. I'll keep my fingers crossed for good weather for both ladies.

Bob, I managed at last to see your pics. but I had to sign back in between each picture!! Great photos and good to hear they are fledging. It'll be interesting to see if they have all survived. Mum and Dad must be ready for a rest by now; I should think they are worn out keeping that tribe fed :-D

they are still coming in and feeding the remaining chicks......so all is well at the mo....

the tower is running XP and 'windows camera and scanner wizard' is getting the out put from the web cams.
this shows real time action, and has the facility to " Snapshot" the activity in the nest, and to save the image to a folder.......which in turn I transfer to a flash drive, edit, and then put that onto my lappie which is internet abled.......and so on to keepsafe,,,,,,a bit long winded, I have something like 290 snaps taken mainly early morning or late evening, since she started building the nest, over the last nearly six weeks..........something I've never seen before in real life........

So interesting to see it 'real' isn't it Bob? I expect they are also feeding the young fledgelings as well ar the moment. Are they blue tits or great tits? Have the feathers got any colour do you know?

All very interesting Bob, you will miss them when they all fly the nest.

Hope Jane and daughter had a reasonable car journey and will enjoy Devon.

Maryanna, I hope that the weather is kind so you and OH can have a wonderful anniversary holiday in Scotland.

Vera, I'll also keep my fingers crossed that all is good in Devon and Scotland.

Ann, hope the weather is dry enough for you to carry on working in your garden.

Cold weather here this morning and then became warmer. Dried all the bedding, so I am a happy bunny today.

Sure looks weird, four trying to sleep where ten were huddled together, looks like they cant get used to having so much room........
Bob

well, three went this morning, quite willingly, but the last one took a bit of cajoling, all have gone now, looks like all ten were successful..........
what do I do now?.........I suppose I'll have to get the lawnmower out........

Bob

Bob :-D empty nest syndrome :-D :-D :-D Time for a nice cut lawn now, no excuse.

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I think mum is saying 'for goodness sake get a move on'!

Now you will have to erect a To Let sign Bob.

Snails...... A pain for gardeners, but one I saw this week had me wondering how it had managed to get where it was.

Alongside the edge of a public footpath was a self-seeded small young gorse bush.-
About 2 feet from the ground, amidst all the flowers and prickles was a large snail. It hadn't just been dropped, as there were marks showing it had been moving on the bush.

HOW ?

Determination Gwynne :-D

As I understand it, Gwyn,
the mucus the snail secretes, allows it to traverse a razor blade edge without harm, so a few liddle prickles is no bovver what so ever!

Amazing photo's Bob. I have never seen any so close up ever before. Thank you

We have been well entertained today watching mother birds feeding young ones from the ground feeder. There have been wrens, sparrows and starlings, and it would seem that even mother birds have their favourites as some baby birds definitely had more food fed to them than others!!

Clever..........
Seems a bit pointless putting crushed eggshells or gravel around plants to stop them being eaten then?

salt, is a deterrent! Gwyn

I don't know if this works for you, Vera,
but open a second genes page, leaving this one up, and then go back to the first page,

find the post with the keepsafe links on it and click on a link. this will show you the picture,now leave this pic up.............."open" your first page with the links, and click on a second link, and do the same again....you will have several pics " stored" on the top bar of the page, and you can move between them at will, without having to FIND everything, again

Bob

Bob, I've just opened up GR to post that I had at long last discovered the way to see your pictures without signing in between each one, and there is your post telling me how to do it. Thanks for taking the time to tell me. I don't know why I didn't discover it earlier - I guess I'm just a bit thick.

Lovely to see how the little birds have developed from hatching to fledging. Thanks for posting the pics.

There was such a racket in the garden just now. When I looked out there were loads of starlings all trying to get at the home made fat cake. A few adults and lots of young birds. Most of the youngsters were picking up bits from the grass under the feeder but one little fluffy one was perched very precariously on the top of the feeder and mum was picking bits out and feeding them to the babe. I watched them for a few minutes and it was lovely to see, even though starlings drive me mad.

Just looked out of the window again and the fat cake has completely gone!! The ones I make are about 6 inches square and a couple of inches deep and they fit perfectly into a wire mesh feeder we have. I have two more in the freezer but I am not sure I can afford to give them a couple of cakes a day. Sometimes I think I am spending more on the cat and the birds than on us but it's worth it for their entertainment value :-D

Well, we are here, hotel is right on the shore of Loch Lomond.

Weather is not too bad although it did decide to rain when we went for an explore earlier. I didn't bring my GHDs either. Hair will look like a haystack by tomorrow.

Hotel is fine, could do with a lick of paint and an update but our room is huge and we have a lovely view of the loch.

Have some nice trips planned including a cruise, a distillery trip ( of course ) and a day in Glasgow.

The trees and plants are a good few weeks behind us.

Haven't seen much in the way of wildlife apart from a few gulls and geese.

Was so sad to log in last night and read the sad news about Dizzi.

Maryanna, how lovely, have a great time and I hope the weather improves/stays dry for you. We did a distillery trip in that area, good for me as I drink whisky but not for OH as he doesn't, he enjoyed the trip round though as it was interesting. Enjoy yourself and I hope the foos is good. :-) :-)

Maryanna, hope your time in Scotland is a good one for you and your OH. Yes, an awful shock for us all reading about lovely Dizzi. She will certainly be missed on Genes

Hope also that Jane and daughter are having a nice little break in Devon.

Vera, I agree that the Starlings are very greedy, they are also very aggressive too.

Lovely to see all the young birds now. Just had to sweep up bird seeds yet again.
Not sure who is guilty of throwing the seeds out of the window feeder...I am not amused.