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Ok Jude but send them before Saturday if you don't want to wait a week. We will be away and I don't like adding from the IPad.

Jane lovely for your OH to see the woodpecker so close.

Cheeky bird going into the conservatory, all we get are bees.

Jude, would you like some of my starlings? We are overrun with them. Our resident robin has left home I think.

Today we went into the conservatory for a lunchtime snack and found my nice clean tiles decorated here and there with bird poo! Some cheeky so and so had popped in the open door and hopped about while relieving himself.

Tonight I was sitting there and a blackbird looked in but beat a hasty retreat when he saw me there.

Hello Everyone....welcome home Jane:)

l have 15 pics to send to you AnnG....you decide which to add to your blog :-)

l have'nt seen starlings here for ages and ages, like months!! we used to get a few at old house.
On our feeders we get...Robins and young, blue tits and young, dunnock on the ground and young, they are quite like a young robin with speckles. chaffinch and young, great tit and young, black birds and young on the ground, although sometimes parents feed off the fat balls, the occasional red woodpecker, a green one too but on the ground, the occasional thrush on the ground, w/pigeons, crows or are they rooks, on the ground.

Still waiting to sort out a camera to put in the woods, a neighbour is sortingit but he's had big probs with his puter :-(....once thats up we'll be able to see alsorts of wild life.... :-) :-) :-) :-)


The Elephant Hawk moth is amazing is'nt it, could'nt believe my eyes, at last we have seen one :-)

Jane...l remember from a few years ago that you had the Moorhens nesting near you. Have you still got the moles??

As you say...nature is so cruel :-(

Sorry if l have'nt mentioned you all.
jude :-) :-)

My friend and I have just been sitting in the garden after work.

I was just telling her about the Magpie goings on, when right on cue a whole load of them flew over the garden and landed on the roof.

I think there may have been more as they were jumping all over the place but at one point I counted NINE. !!!

All shouting and arguing with the Sparrows getting het up and shouting as well. Himself stood at the back door and asked me something and I couldn't hear a word he said over the noise they were all making.

I did have a thought though that I have hardly seen anything of the Blackbirds, Tits and Robins since the Sparrows, Magpies and pigeon / Doves have been nesting in the garden.

Gone away for a bit of peace and quiet I expect.

Glad you had a good break Jane and hope you are feeling a lot better.

Daughter, son in law and grand daughter have all got a horrible cough and cold at the moment, baby keeps being sick she is coughing so much. Poor little mite, doc has just given her anti biotics to clear up her chest and said she has an ear infection as well.

Just hope I don't catch it. Or worse still........ Himself. :-(

M. :-)

OH walked down the garden yesterday and surprised the Woodpecker sitting on a branch of the Apple Tree.He said he wasn't sure who was startled the most lol.
I don't remember if I said the other day ,but when I looked out my bedroom window over into next doors garden I saw a Moorhen with one little baby :-D.Usually there are more babies so I am guessing they might have been got by something :-(

Still just got lots of starlings and sparrows plus the occasional blackbird collard doves and wood pigeons. Nothing exotic for us. :-(

I had a nice surprise this morning to see 2 Skylarks .We don't usually see them around here. :-D They were high up over the field across the road.
The Nightingale is still here but I STILL haven't seen it :-S.I get the feeling I am not going too.
I was watching a little Wren hopping around on the Summerhouse roof earlier.It looked so cute :-D

Afternoon Jane, welcome back.

Jude, I had to google the Elephant Hawk Moth as well. Never seen one before but isn't it beautiful?

There was a heck of a racket outside a short while ago. I looked out and there were several gulls circling overhead and screeching at each other. Then they suddenly disappeared, as quickly as they had come.

Yesterday and today there has been a very young blackbird in the garden for most of the day. It's obviously fully fledged as it flies well and feeds itself easily with insects from the grass but it still looks very young and quite lonely. I'm keeping a very watchful eye on my cat.

Welcome home Jane. Glad you had a good time despite the heat.

Jude that moth sounds a wonderful find.

We are inundated bt young starlings and sparrows at the moment, such a noise when theya re all feeding. None of them have gone near the new bird table yet :-D

Afternoon all.
Back from Antwerp,and it was a lovely break even if it was far too hot and muggy.We had a horrendous hailstorm on Sunday night.Lots of damage to cars ,skylights etc.I have never heard such a noise.

It sounds like it has been murder and mayhem here with all the killing :-S.The Magpies are a real nuisance here .I hope the cat was not got by the Crows.

I am having to look after my friends cats over the weekend.I have to say I am not looking forward to going into the house as both cats are big hunters and like to bring their 'kill ' in through the cat flap.It is not unusual for my friend to find ,Rabbits.Squirrels, Pheasant,and a range of small birds (or the remains of) dragged and leaving inners all over the place :-S :-S.How the heck can a cat mange to get a Pheasant through a cat flap?????.
My Son has obviously fed the birds well....the 3 pouches of pellets were all gone( in 5 days).The only thing was, he hadn't filled the bird bath ,it was as dry as a bone.
I must remind him about that next month when we are away again.

Jude I just googled the elephant hawk moth...what a beauty.

The nestlings we have at the front of the house are defiantly chaffinches mum and dad are in and out all day and have become very protective.

Ann as much as I love birds I wouldn't have felt comfortable in your daughters situation...scary...kandj <3 we would be taking cover together:-D

Lesley x

Morning everyone:)

Thought it was time l popped on here... ;-)

Last night l was so excited......we had a Elephant Hawk moth in the bedroom, managed to catch it in a jar and took photo's, let it go asap:) l have never seen one before, beautiful, l was so chuffed. We had the caterpillars at the old house,but never saw the moth.l will try to remember to get an email off to you Ann along with the ducks and rabbit.
Vic is often greeted in the morning by aprox a doz ducks. Their young are as big as them now.
Often feeding together at the bird table are squirrels, rats, ducks,pigeons and a variety of birds. The baby squirrels chase the rats off, l saw the rat grooming itself furiously after so maybe it got bitten or scratched. A magpie will sometimes try and feed there too.
The seagulls are numerous (big word) and are going to be a right pain when the young fledge july/aug. Vics car is often covered with you-no-what and our walls/windows..........oooops we have a thunder storm :-0 :-0 :-0 :-0, its chucking it down and very black, l've got to go out soon too :-P :-P..........

They nest on a factory roof that we can see from our house.
the neighbours have warned us about the gulls as once the young start to fledge we will be bombarded :-P :-P :-P :-P

oooo eck more thunder....!!!!

One of the site cats caught a baby rabbit yesterday, l saw it running along the path, the cat belongs to someone near our site, but its almost feral.

We don't have chimneys as such, some of the homes have flews (sp), so presumably no birds nesting.
See yeh

jude

That's odd Ann, I have been watching Crows today.

Weather improved this afternoon so I went out to tidy the patio.

I could hear Crows cawing above me and looked up to see two sitting on next doors aerial, one then disappeared head first into the chimney and I could hear babies. They still caw but in a baby like way !!

The adults have been in and out all afternoon. You would think next door must be able to hear them but they seem totally unaware.

If we have a bird on our aerial it sounds like it is in the room, we had so many fall down the chimney we had to have a cap out on.

I found the remains of the Christmas cake tucked away at the back of the cupboard, neither of us eat it so it went out for the birds. That was under an hour ago. It has all gone.

M.. :-)

Daughter told me they had a Hitchcock moment yesterday. The cat was outside when daughter and Grandson saw about 20 crows circling overhead and swooping down on the cat which ran off into the bushes with a baby crow. Grandson managed to get the cat out from the bush which took ages, they didn't know if the birds had got him as they all had their claws pointing down. Daughter says he seemed ok. the couldn't find the bird. They thought that would have deterred him but first thing this morning he was out looking to see if there were any babies around. Daughter thinks the bird must have come out of the nest and been unable to fly. Nature, but poor bird, not nice.

I suppose that is nature but they are horrible birds. Wonder if they know how much they are disliked? :-D :-D

The Collared Doves have now abandoned the apple tree, having had their egg stolen by a Magpie last week and the Wood Pigeons are back in residence.

They are constantly in and out of the tree with bits of grass and twigs. A Magpie is sitting in the top of the tree chattering with anticipation of the thought, most likely, of his next treat.

I am rather glad I won't be here over he weekend , to hear the battles.

My husband has been wanting to take the tree down for a long time, after the last few years, I am starting to agree with him. This year has been particularly bad with the Magpies, I don't know if I can put up with it every year. If they aren't after the Pigeons and Doves in our apple tree then they are after the Sparrows in the Thug's Blackthorn, not that we can do much about that.

How can such beautiful birds be so horrible ?

M. :-(

Had a blackcap on the feeders yesterday which was a change from Starlings. Although the blackbirds have been in the garden a lot, they come in for their bath!! This morning there were a large family of sparrows with the young ones being fed as well as feeding themselves. Yesterday I watched a young sparrow take ages to work out how to approach one of the feeders, it was as if he stopped to think about how his mum told him to do it. But he managed in the end, he was so tiny.

A busy garden them
N Lesley, lots of mouths to feed.

Thank you Ann, I must say that isn't my hand in the picture...mine are much worse;-)

In between the showers yesterday I was weeding the drive and noticed a blackbird going in and out of the garrya, when mum was out I had a peek and sure enough there was a nest full of baby blackbirds:-D

Lesley x

Mainly starlings and blue and great tits feeding their young in our garden, too quick to catch on camera though. :-)

Kandj hope all is going ok, maybe see you back on here sometime soon, we miss you. <3