Hobbies and Crafts

kandj no sign of the white pheasant MOG said he hasn't seen them about either...I have only seen one but MOG says there are two around.

Not many birds about today apart from gulls...it must be rough on the coast:-S

Lesley x

I went yesterday into the village and bought some suet pellets with mealworm but I don't think the blackbird like this flavour....... I said we have fussy birds in Yorkshire.

I have put a fat ball into the window feeder thinking that we might get to see the birds feeding for longer but the starlings are ignoring it and rooting around for the few berry pellets in the bottom of the feeder.

It is dry here but a very strong wind is making it really chilly today. Roll on Springtime!

They should be right little porkers shouldn't they lol. I have just filled the Peanut ball.It seems to be just the Blue and Great Tits that feed on them.Collared Doves don't really come to us.I see an odd one or two now and then.
Many years ago we had a nesting pair on the top of the security light on the back of the house.They had 2 babies :-D.I leaned out of my bedroom window with the camera and managed to get a couple of photos as they were fledging.But for the life of me I have no idea what happened to them. (the pics)They were very ugly little things with humungous beaks.
The wind now is quite strong and making it feel colder than it really is.I think it is about 10 deg but it certainly doesn't feel like it.
I haven't seen Mr. Pheasant for a few days now.I wonder where he is.No doubt mooching around in someone else's garden :-D

Good gracious you need to put them on a diet. I think the collard doves are using us as their feeding station. they can empty a large seed feeder in two days and there are only 2 or 3 of them. :-S

Same here Ann ,and very blustery :-S.Not a lot of bird activity yet. I have just realised that the 6 kilos of pellets I bought when we were in Suffolk is almost gone !!!!!!!

Very grey this morning and only one collard dove to be seen. <3

Ann I did get a little video clip of a Long TT but will see if I can get a still pic for the blog.Hopefully now they seem to fee la bit more comfortable on the feeder I can hide behind the curtain again and snap one.Fingers crossed. :-D

Jane yes that is the one, we usually come home via Tewkesbury, it is not that far from that roundabout. It is a Blue Diamond garden centre but there is also a Leading Labels, a Romans, Pavers shoes and a farm shop there, a nice walk in the country park if you want too.

Yes, we pass the little museum. How sad for his plane to crash on landing. I am sure there must be some info there somewhere. That is about 5 minutes from Batsford.

You are lucky to have the long tailed tits. photos if you can.

Ann, it sounds like you have had a lovely day :-D Is the Garden Centre the one on that big roundabout on the Evesham Bypass?I always meant to visit there when we went to my Sister in Bishops Cleeve.But never did.Now she is in Tewkesbury we don't go that way.
My Mum's brother was killed at Moreton in Marsh in the 2nd WW.His plane crashed on landing .He was only just 21 :-(.There is a little Airforce Museum (or something like that ) there and I went a few years ago to see if they had any record of his death.But I didn't have enough info with me to be of much help.

I have 2 little Long Tailed Tits now using the window feeder.They are so sweet,and do seem to be staying a bit longer now.Lots of Gt Tits too.More than I have had before. I am getting a good variety of birds at the window.I think about 7 :-D including the Spotted Woodpecker.

Some photos of Batsford Arboretum on the photo blog.

We haven't seen the sparrow hawk again since December but, as we have seen it before several times I am pretty sure it is resident in the area somwhere so may have visited while we were out. We did have sparrows, Great Tits a blackbird and a couple of starlings this morning before we went out so not too bad. The starlings were squabbling over the coconut. I find them quite entertaining actually.

We have been out today driving across the Cotswolds in beautiful spring sunshine, the countryside looked glorious and where we were there didn't seem to be any flooding. We drove to Batsford Arboretum Just outside Moreton in Marsh, the only real traffic was around the main road outside both bourton on the Water and Stowe on the Wold.

At Batsford, which was very busy, after a coffee and a shared cake we meandered around, just going to the places that we knew the snowdrops would be, there were carpets of them, also lilac crocus, little cyclamen , Helebores and a few daffodils and primroses. In the grounds outside the arboretum were a herd of deer and above us several buzzards, It was a lovely walk and was not at all cold when the sun was out. There were some clouds but mostly it was sunny.

After we left there we drove to Evesham to the garden centre in the country park where we had lunch. OH had roast gammon, roast potatoes and veg and I had beef enchilladas with roast potatoes and veg, then we shared a huge sticky toffee pudding and custard.

As we got home it got more cloudy but it was a lovely day out.

Kandj,,No I'm not ill.I just woke ,went to the loo and then couldn't get back to sleep.So rather stay in bed tossing and turning and waking OH i thought best I just got up :-D
So it was quite a bonus really to see so much going on in the garden at that time.

As for the leak I think we are just about there.The tray needed lifting a bit .It was when one of us was standing in the shower that because it needed adjusting the seal was breaking each time.So one of the back feet under the tray has been tweaked .There might be just a little dribble still but as they will be back on Monday to deal with the leaking hot cylinder I will get them to have another look at the shower.Good job we kept the bottom "skirting' bit off .I don't know what you really call that bit.
Going to have a coffee and relax now until my Daughter arrives :-D

An early bird yourself Jane, hope you aren't ill? A bonus from being up so early is that you have seen the birds and squirrel very early on. Is your shower leak sorted?

I need to go and buy more berry pellets and bird seed this morning because I am almost out of stock. It is another bright, sunny morning here in Yorkshire but a chilly wind so will need to wrap up warm. All birds are missing for some reason just now?

Lesley, has the white pheasant been back again?

Ann, have you seen the hawk again. It took a while to get the birds back when this was seen in our garden.

Vera, the birds seem to have found your feeding station without having a long wait.

I have been up since 5 :-S. and have been watching all the activity in the garden since daylight.It's been so hectic out there.The sky full of all sorts of birds whizzing past including a Red Kite.Then the window feeder was open for business.As I sat here the Woodpecker came and fed there.But as soon as I leaned forward to pick my phone off the coffee table to take a pic it was gone !The Squirrel came to the coconut but turned back disappointed as it was empty.
I think I will have a shower and try and wake myself up a bit now.Daughter coming home today for a friends birthday meal out tonight .She will stay tonight and be gone again lunchtime tomorrow,but it will be nice to see her if only for a few hours :-D

Vera I haven't seen a hare for many years, we moved to the house we now live in 23 years ago come June and for a few years we often saw a handful of hares boxing in the field out the back, but not anymore:-( and I have seen a badger sett locally but never a live badger:-( muntjac and rabbits:-| :-| :-|

Lesley x

Vera I too would miss all the wildlife if we had to move.That may happen though sometime in the future.The size of the garden and house might get too much,plus there is a massive plan to build 55,000 houses,schools, etc around us.Eventually we will be looking over housing and not lovely open fields :-S
The feeder has been very busy this afternoon.It seemed as though when the wind picked up all the birds came for a feast :-D

Vera you were so lucky to have nature on your doorstep before, although you still have a variety of birds who have found you without having waited too long.
The starlings sound as if they have come from here in Yorkshire. They really are very greedy and aggressive birds, and not even pretty birds to look at.

It's a lovely day here, a bit nippy but dry and bright.

Just before it got dark yesterday a group of starlings arrived in the garden and appeared to be squabbling around the feeder. I was getting quite annoyed with one of them who was sitting on the seed feeder just throwing the seeds out. Evidently I didn't have any he fancied. They can't easily get into the ground feeder. It has a sort of cage over it that small birds can hop through but it keeps out large birds and cats etc.

This morning I've only seen a blue tit on the feeder but there was a robin and a blackbird sitting on the fence for a long while. They both occasionally hopped down into the garden, had a look around and flew back to the fence.

Where we were living before was very rural so there was plenty of wildlife. There were plenty of rabbits of course, but also muntjac, and hares at certain times of the year, and there was a badger sett nearby. Since we moved here four or five months ago I've hardly seen anything though there must be plenty of small mammals etc. around. I have no regrets because we made the right move at the right time but I do miss looking out of the kitchen window and being able to see so much.

Spring has sprung......... well I haven't been outside yet but from inside we are seeing a pale blue sky and fluffy white clouds. It certainly looks very promising so far.

The young blackbird came several times yesterday and at one time he poked his head around the feeder and looked at us two golden oldies watching his every move, then he flew off. It was SO funny that hubby and I both burst out laughing. He is getting brave and cheeky too lol.

This morning he has been back three times already but so have the starlings which I now shoo away as Ann advised earlier. I have filled the ground feeder this morning which has almost been emptied by a load of starlings. That needs to be filled again and I will put a separate one for our regular "guests" Mr and Mrs Blackbird and thrush who live in a shrubbery out of our view but are chased away by the aggressive starlings. They are my least favorite bird!

There has just been a rush on food from all the little birds.Proper battles going on too :-S.I think they have finished feeding now but there might one or two late visitors,usually the Robins.
It's pretty chilly now outside and it turned out to be not a bad day.We had no rain after the first bit we had this morning.