Hobbies and Crafts

33degrees on the patio this afternoon but we have been sitting down by the beach under shades eating lunch. Then came back in a taxi, too hot to walk up.

Oh thats nice Ann.A lovely long break :-D.Its been like summer here today and the Red Kites have been back :-D Well 2 of them,plus I noticed a Sparrow Hawk when there was a sudden flight of Pidgeons !!!(flying for their lives )

Yes Jane until the 22nd :-D

Yes they are all here Kandj :-D :-D.Honestly it is crazy the number of visitors to the feeder.Some days I can't even count them .You can see them lining up in the tree lol
I'm sure they will be back to yours though :-D
The don't seem to be squabbling with each other so much the last couple of days which is nice.I hate to see them being so aggressive .
It is so warm today.Summer tops out again :-D
Ann are you still on your Hols?

Very strange isn't it Kandj? But it seems to be general so don't take it personally :-D

We still have hardly any birds here in Yorkshire. Only a couple of pigeons and one regular blackbird have been in our garden all week..... there are no birds in the sky or in neighbours gardens either. It is really very strange. Perhaps they are visiting your feeder Jane?

I must find time and make up the fat birdcake and hope this will bring them back.

Well tomorrow looks like we might get 21degs :-DSo not too far below you Ann.I don't think it is going to last though :-S
I have bought a different bag of Bird seed today to mix in with the suet pellets.I think it is called Blue Tit mix but suitable for the other little birds.It will be interesting to see how well that goes down.Looking out now the feeder is VERY BUSY :-D

You do have crafty squirrels and wiley birds Jane :-D yes North Tenerife. At the moment it is 26 degrees on our patio but it is cloudy with a breeze so quite pleasant as not humid. Teidi has not shown her face as she is behind cloud.

Lesley,once again we have no Hazelnuts left on our tree.Every year we just find the HUSKS on the ground in a pile :-S.We have yet to taste one of our own Hazelnuts.
So you have an England female Goalie in the making then :-D :-D..Go little girl :-D :-D

Ann I take it you are somewhere HOT now.I hadn't realised you were off on your travels again .Is it Tenerife?.I must have missed a post saying where you were going.
I think we have had a high of about 15 today....scorching LOL

I put some broken up bits of seeded bread in the feeder today.The seeds have been picked out and the rest left behind :-S

Thank you Lesley, always a pleasure to see you on here. :-)

Welcome home kandj :-D it is lovely to see you posting again and thank you for asking after our 8month old Princess who now crawls and pulls herself up for England..she'll be a goalkeeper yet ;-)

It is mostly tiredness and research that keep me away from the boards Ann and of course bird feeding, birdbath filling and gardening.

Jane the squirrels [tree rats] in our garden are driving me mad...yet again they are getting more of our walnuts than we are.

We too have had persistent rain Vera although the ground needed it I do wish it would only come at night

Maryann and Ann I hope you both have a wonderful holiday.

Lesley x

27/28 degrees here at the moment and quite humid :-D

Persistent, fairly heavy rain all day today. It is just starting to ease up. While we were having lunch one solitary long tailed tit flew on to a feeder, decided it was too wet and flew away again. Apart from that all I have seen today is one very bedraggled starling on the fat balls.

Well done your Katie Kandj :-D.I am so pleased that this challenge is going to make more people aware of Motor Neurone Disease .When my Dad had it there was very little help and support and I know both him and my Mum who cared for him suffered more than they needed to.Thankfully time has moved on and now life can be made much easier for sufferers and carers living with this illness.

I got a bit of a shock just now.I heard a scrabbling noise and then spotted a Squirrel with its front paws scratching on the Patio Door !!!!Then its little face appeared lol
I wish I had got a photo of it as it looked s funny.As soon as I stood up from my seat it scarpered and ran off down the garden and up the big pine tree.No doubt it will be back again as I think it was after getting into the window feeder :-S

No really heavy rain here so far today.It is just steady light rain and miserable.My son got back from Chislehurst a little while ago after the weekend at his Girlfriends and he said there was an awful to of water on the roads and a lot of traffic.Luckily no hold ups.

Vera I think it is brilliant you have so many long tailed Tits :-D.It is not too busy bird wise here at the moment.Although I see the food has gone down a lot in the feeder since I filled it up first thing.They must have all been when I was out shopping.

Still hardly any birds here again today, tomorrow and Tuesday is forecast heavy rain so I probably won't see many birds around tomorrow either.

Interesting to read about the Vapourer Moth Vera, I will Google this now.

Well Done to your daughter Jane, her Grandfather is sure to be pleased with her efforts. My Granddaughter Katie also took up the ice bucket challenge and is now aware of this debilitating disease and supporting this worthy charitable event.

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

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

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.

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

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.