Hobbies and Crafts

When I got out of my car earlier coming home from work a Raven flew overhead.

They make a funny noise a sort of " kronk, kronk, kronk ". They are quite a big bird and look very distinctive from below.

We often have them fly over so they must " live " nearby. The odd thing is, that as they like to live in remote rocky places and are not at all common, that they are in semi rural Surrey / Hampshire and not on wild and windy Exmoor although we do see them there as well.

There have been lots of other birds in the garden this week, they all like the new bird table, I put out some cheese and it was all gone in half an hour. Not sure who demolished that but it went very quickly.

The Sparrows are still busy in the Thug's Blackthorne. There are always at least ten of them chattering and squabbling. There was a disturbance a couple of days ago when our daughter's Dog was chasing something around the patio. I couldn't see what it was and thought it might be a baby bird as the adults were all hopping about chirping loudly but I can't see that they would have hatched an egg so soon. It is only a week or so since they finished the nest. I think it was more likely to be a frog.

I sent Himself out to investigate but he couldn't find anything.

Still no sign of the Swifts in Surrey yet, I keep looking.

Back home now in Somerset and life is getting back to its usual rhythm for the first time since Christmas what with the weather and repairs, which apart from the patio, are all done now. Had a busy week at work, lots of changes for the new term. Thanks to OFSTED.

M.

Just had the local starling population in for their evening meal. I counted 28 on the small patch of grass I could see from the kitchen window. I think there were as many again on the bit I couldn't see. With them was one solitary sparrow. Help! They are eating me out of house and home. How can I discourage them while still putting food out for the other birds?

Edit: Also thinking of Kandj and hoping things will improve for her soon

We have just been sitting out on the patio and it was busy busy busy with all sorts of birds flitting to and fro .Some of the Chaffinch seem to be getting quite 'tame' pottering around on the ground near our feet.I saw a baby being fed on one of the branches of the tree near the window feeder but couldn't see what bird it was.I must keep my eyes peeled now :-D

Still thinking of our Kandj <3

All we have are sparrows :-D

Ahh, I just had a Chaffinch,a Blue Tit and a Robin all on the window feeder at the same time. :-D.The Chaffinch was eating and the other 2 were sat on the gripper giving each other dirty looks lol

I don't think a robin will be scared off by the starlings Vera. They obviously like your hotel.

I think we must have the greediest starlings in the country. They eat ANYTHING. They like the suet cake and the fat balls, love the berry flavoured suet nibbles, and eat any scraps of bread etc that I put out, BUT they also go for the seeds on the ground feeder that is caged to keep the bigger birds out. They are slim enough to get through. Then one will swing on the hanging feeder till some seeds drop to the ground and all his mates wait underneath to pick them up.

I don't mind them but the number in our garden is increasing daily. I feel a bit as though I am feeding the five thousand!

I am also a bit concerned that they are scaring off some of the smaller birds. I haven't seen the robin for a few days or the bluetits for a couple of days.

Normally the starlings will eat fat balls, scraps etc and leave the seed feeders to smaller birds. Blackbirds will be worm hunting after the rain if you have had any.

I haven't seen them but the neighbour tells me that the starlings are roosting in a nearby tree. I think they are then spending half the day with us - there must have been 30 on our little lawn this morning. Trouble is we are not seeing much else. There's been a sparrow on the seeds this morning and a couple of blackbirds and that's about it. Very disappointing. :-(

That diving into your hedge Jane is how the flock of starlings goes to roost. Before that they will have met up in a murmuration in the sky making those weird and wonderful shapes you see in pictures. :-)

LOL Vera.Hang your head in shame :-D.We had those 2 starlings the other week ,but I haven't seen them since.Only once did we have a huge flock of starlings .They just stayed here in our hedge over night and then would fly off during the day.They would arrive back in the evening in several groupsThey almost dive bombed into the hedge ,and then there was a lot of chattering and fussing until they all settled down for the night :-D
Tonight I have been watching 6 Blackbirds pulling lovely juicy worms out of the lawn :-D.Yummy :-D

Reed Buntings are the same size as Sparrows or maybe a wee bit bigger, but very distinctive with the black head:)

jude x

We had a heavy shower late afternoon. I just got the washing in before it got soaked.

I was chatting outside to a neighbour this morning and there was a chaffinch hopping around so we got talking birds. She told me very firmly that they never used to get starlings around our Close. Whoops! I think I am getting blamed for bringing them with me.

Our patio was under water and for the first time ever the top of our cul de sac was flooded

Not a spot here today Ann although I think we were forecast some rain this afternoon.
I need to fill our bird bath as it does seem to be being used quite a lot at the moment.I love to watch the birds doing their ablutions :-D

The blackbird lmost managed to empty the bird bath with his exuberant bath routine this afternoon. The we had a tremendous thunderstorm that filled it up again. And during the torrential rain the wood pigeon was nonchalantly padding around on the lawn :-D

Well I never .I imagined those Buntings to be large birds lol..I had in my head they were some kind of water bird :-S :-S

Ann your garden is looking just lovely :-D and so colourful.I have to wait for lots of colour here as OH plants everything from either seed or those plug things.His veg look as though they are coming along nicely though :-D

I had to shut all my windows this afternoon because of the pong of the Rape.OH says he can't smell it........I think he must have something wrong with his snout :-S :-S

Jude's reed buntings on the photo blog

I saw in the paper that it is called oil seed rape syndrome Jane. the stuff makes me sneeze and my eyes itch.

It is a much nicer day today but the smell of the Oil Seed Rape that surrounds us is smelling so strong :-S,I don't think I shall be outside much.
I'm wondering if the lack of Blue Tits at the moment is because they are all busy collecting the caterpillars for their babies :-D