Hobbies and Crafts

I hope all the Mothers have enjoyed this special Mothers Day as I have today?
Jane, I hope your son cooked you a delicious dinner (you're sure to have taught him well) Is "Glamping" a glamorous form of camping, what did your daughter and her friends sleep in?

Lesley, I hope baby Millie was taught to write a special card for Mummy this year?
I can't recall the meaning of seeing Jays...... at first I thought of the rhyme one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girls and four for a boy but I think that relates to magpies
and not to Jays?

Shaun I do chop up apples and pears that have gone past their best and the birds love them but I have never thought to put a peeled apple into a net. Would the birds not harm their feet/claws if they got caught in a net?

I did appreciate having the extra hour of daylight this evening.... a real tonic I think.

Happy Mothers day everyone :-D
My son is cooking !!!!! I keep getting shoved out of the kitchen lol but I need to keep an eye on things :-D.It is a nice big roast.
Daughter is sat on the settee recovering from a Glamping Hen do last night.She is then back off to London on the 4 o'clock train.

Yes the feet marks have come off fine Lesley.They were like streaks as it must have slid down to get to the ground.

I don't think I have heard of the meaning of seeing Jays.Does it mean if you just see them in a Churchyard?
The feeder seems very quiet today.In fact there don't seem to many birds about at all at the moment.

The sun is desperately trying to break through.I think it might just about get there :-D

Today MOG and I tidied our family graves, in the churchyard of MOG's family we lost count of how many jay's we saw, we all know what that means :-(

kandj I am so pleased your greedy starlings have left your garden :-D

I hope you have been able to remove the tree rat sorry squirrels marks from your window Jane :-D

Shaun I have to admit I have never seen a redstart, I think that's another bird that doesn't like Essex :-S

Posh pigeons...I love that saying Vera :-D

Thanks for putting the new photographs on your blog Ann :-)

This is the result of one bird watch in our village (not mine) 10 goldfinches, 2 robins,2 dunnocks, 2 collared doves, 1 wood pigeon, 2 great tits, 2 coal tits, 4 blue tits,6 blackbirds, 6 chaffinches,1 song thrush, 1 great spotted wood pecker and 12 greenfinches.

The lady that wrote this in our village magazine also said that the large number of greenfinches were attracted by the black sunflower seeds she puts in her feeder-definitely their favourite food. The added bonus of black sunflower seeds is that they are one of the cheapest bird food available but they do make rather a mess under the bird table and if not cleared away can produce several unwanted seedlings later in the year.

Lesley x

Good Morning Everyone :-)
Spring as Spung this morning, lovely blue skies in Radnorshire after having a very misty start to the day.

Birds singing there little hearts out.

Kandi, glad the food mix as encouraged your birds, also another good idea is to peel a apple and put it in a net that the peanuts come in.
I also have a net stuffed full of sheep wool which was collected from barbed-wire in the field. It' so funny to see the tits tugging at the wool.

That's it folks.
you all have a lovely day.

Shaun

This is more like it.I have all my doors and windows open :-D.The birds are singing ,OH digging down the garden,and me ? well I think it is going to be weeding the gravel out the front :-S :-S
It will be lunch on the patio for sure today :-D :-D

That sounds like an amazing sight Jane.

A bright sunny morning here after a foggy start to the morning. Nothing much has changed we just have the starlings fighting over who will land on the window feeder and it's just bread they are fighting for now.

Lesley I have taken your advice and stopped putting food on the ground tray so the lock of starlings that came here morning and afternoon has ceased.

I am continuing to treat my Mr and Mrs Blackbird and thrush with suet pellets and water. They pop in and out of the shrubbery from time to time.
Only the Magpies, collard doves and pigeons seem to be flying around the road today, nothing else though.

I wish I had had a video camera earlier.There was a Red Kite flying so low over the field at the front .It is the horses field.One of the horses just stood and had its head raised watching the bird fly over it.I could see the head moving around following the bird.It was quite lovely to watch :-D
I must wash my window tomorrow...it is covered in Squirrel foot marks :-S :-S

I have plenty of bird food in the cupboard at the moment but once it starts to run low I shall be trying your recipe Shaun.

Having almost completely demolished their first nest, the collared doves have rebuilt it and there is one sitting on it now looking very smug. It would have been nice if something a bit more exotic had chosen to nest in the garden but an upmarket pigeon has got to be better than nothing.

My male and female sparrow have been back together this morning. Mr Sparrow flits between the seeds and the fat balls and Mrs follows him wherever he goes

:-D

Interesting link Jude, thanks. No need to wonder where all the starling have gone to. They are here in Yorkshire in our garden and eating everything in sight! No wonder other varieties of birds are few and far between. Not a happy bunny me.

Yes Shaun, I have made up your bird cake recipe several times now and it is so easy and much less expensive than the shop bought ones... so thanks for sharing that.

On the photo blog is a photo and description of how to make Shaun's bird feeder from a plastic bottle.

Morning everyone:)

Here's the link to rspb re Garden Birdwatch in January:)

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

hope it works:)

jude xx

Shaun ,the Owls here are too a Hooting and Tooting .I was just standing outside the back door listening to them.I just can't work out where exactly they are.

Hello Girls,
How are you all , much going on in your garden?

Here is a more detailed bird recipe of mine, they go mad over it.
4kg Porridge Oats,cost £3.40, 3kg Kibbled Peanuts,cost £3.99, 2kg Sunflower Hearts,cost £4.00,1kg Currants, cost £3.80 and four large packs of Lard.

This quantity will make 8 x 5 litre water containers, I will send a photo to Ann's blog to show you what I mean.
Kandi~~ did you make any of this mix, I think you said you were going to give it a try.

We have a pair of Red-Starts, several Chiff-Chaffs, Siskins, Linett's and I think I mentioned the Black-Caps in a earlier post.
BlackBirds and Thrushes are busy building also got a wren tarting up the nest she nicked from the Swallows last year in the front porch.
Owls are making a right racket during the night and early hours.
Badgers yet again are causing havoc digging up bulbs.

That's it folks.
You all take care
Shaun

Hopefully they are moving house Vera :-D.I remember some years ago now(I think I may have already said this) but we had a pair of Collared Doves nesting on top of the Security light at the back of our house just along from my bedroom.They had 2 chicks and we waited and watched them grow(had to lean out of the window to see ) and then finally saw them take their first wobbly flight :-D..They were proper little ugly things with these massive beaks lol.It was quite scary seeing them tottering at the edge of the nest.I even put an old sun lounger cushion underneath in case they fell.
OH thought once again I was a right old daft bat :-S

I've now seen exactly where the nest is and it is on the arm supporting a small satellite dish left by the previous occupants of the house and unused by us. But we now think the doves are dismantling it as the path is again covered in little bits of twig etc. and the nest now has plenty of holes appearing. I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Vera, they are daft birds they seem to nest anywhere without any thought as to if it is safe. I wonder if it will affect your TV reception?

We will wait and see if the birds like the new seed then, :-)

Well, I've been to the market this morning and bought some seeds at about a third of the normal cost. The stall had lots of different sorts and I bought a wheat free variety. When the birds have finished what's in the feeder now I'll clean it and put this new stuff in and see what happens.

OH has been moaning for a couple of days about the mess on the path past our back door. He sweeps up and next day it is messy again. Today he looked up and found the cause. A pair of collared doves are nesting on the TV aerial!

Raining for most of the morning but dry now, still cold though. Don't forget to alter the clocks this weekend ladies... "Spring forward Fall backwards" comes to mind ha ha.

I have put just bread into the feeder for last couple of days and the starlings have still come fighting for a place on the gripper and emptied the lot. What I have done though is throw the suet pellets into the shrubbery so that my regulars are fed well.

It's years since we were in Cambridge Jane. I hope you had a good day yesterday.

Morning :-D
Vera ,good luck with trying the different seed.I have stopped buying seeds now and am just sticking to the pellets and the coconut ,oh and the peanut ball.

I had a day in Cambridge yesterday and it was dark when I got home so don't know what had been happening bird wise.
I see more feet marks o the window this morning :-| :-|

Ah Lesley I used to get upset taking my 2 for injections.Even though it has to be done it is the thought of causing your baby a bit of pain even though it is just for a second.
I bet little M is growing fast now :-D

Vera I suppose all you can do is buy the smallest pack and try it.