Hobbies and Crafts

they aren't recording cameras Ann, just watching...





.I see that the Salisbury peregrines have flown...now waiting for the nottingham trent one to go....solitary survivor of four eggs...

Didn’t the cameras catch them going Bob? Sneaky weren’t they.

While I was away my friend who was looking afte the house, took a photo of a baby bird in the garden. I am sure it was a coal tit.

What a shame you didn’t see the going of them Bob :-(. Maybe next year.

well. my birds have flown!!! and I missed 'em
Great Tits.


this year I had two cameras, one inside and the other outside the box..
they raised 6 out of 7 eggs

yesterday, AM, I noticed that the feeding pattern had changed, they were feeding through the access hole, instead of going inside..
and in the afternoon the box was empty.....bon voyage..

Trouble is If they feel threatened there is no time to think, they can move very fast.bee found that visiting Abbotsbury swannery.nand also at Bowness on Windermere. They can be calm one minute but really aggressive if they are demanding food or protecting young or eggs

They ARE good parents, Ann.

I'm surprised that they choose to nest each year on the bank so close to a footpath. They are just about 2 feet away. Someone years ago erected a makeshift light fence, just to form some sort of barrier between nest and path and the adult swans don't seem to be at all perturbed by people or even dogs being close by, but one day when I was nearby, a lady walker stopped to take a photo and her sunglasses fell off. As she bent down to pick them up, she was obviously doing something out of normal and one of the swans gave a warning hiss.
We can be close..... but on their terms.

Let us hope they stay safe Gwyn. I am sure they are lovely to watch, they are always such good parents.

The adult swans have been taking the young ones to swim at quite some distance from their nest ,so a friend tells me ,so I hadn't seen them for a while, but they were back near the nest site this morning and being photographed yet again, by passing walkers.
There are 4 cygnets there now and they seem to be doing well. All have developed white downy covering on their breast plumage and all about the same size, so I hope these 4 survive.
The adults reared 4 fine young swans last year.

I am sure they are lovely to watch Gwyn On our local TV last night there were the two swans who live in Pitville Park in Cheltenham, they have 7 cygnets and the local people have a 'swan group' who monitor them day and night on a rosta to protect them as much as they can. The male swan a couple or three years ago was injured in his eye by a thug, he was in the animal hospital for quite a long time and his mate waited for him, it was lovely when they took him back to their lake to see the reunion. I have forgotten his name at the moment but he is well known here.

5 cygnets in the nest now and they seem to be doing well.
Another youngster hatched, but did not survive. I don't know if it got too cold? There was one which would keep coming out from underneath it's mother, even when there was a biting wind.
The female swan stayed sitting on the other 2 eggs for several more days, but they didn't hatch.
Yesterday, when I walked to see them early afternoon, it was was 'tidy up your feathers' time. The adults and all the babies were sitting in the nest area preening and fluffing their feathers. The babies looked so funny, as if they knew instinctively what to do and were lifting their wings, just like the adults, even though the wings are not much bigger than an inch or so.

Lovely to see the cygnets Gwyn, Have any more hatched yet. I hope the parents can keep them safe.

Pterodactyl - I haven't spotted any lately!

How lovely to see them newly hatched Gwyn. I hope all the hatchlings survive. Yesterday I saw a dead hatchling on our garden. It wasn’t close enough to any nests to have fallen out or been rejected by the parents so I can only guess that a bird such as a magpie took it from the nest and dropped it as it flew away. Such a shame :-(

Hatching day !

Two cygnets hatched today and I caught sight of another egg with a small peck hole in it and due to hatch.
There were 8 eggs in the nest yesterday, so hopefully some more will hatch before tomorrow.

Lovely to see that the swans are nesting in their usual place locally.
Yesterday, one was sitting on the nest, the other swimming not too far away.

I don't know what stage they are at with eggs, so I will have to include that path in some of my walks again.
Last year they raised 4 fine cygnets.

Wonderful news Pat, very cheering, thank you.

Hello from Cyprus.

Although it's been warming up here the wind hasn't been too kind. Usually from the south, early in the year it was cold and from the north. The past couple of weeks it's been either from the east or west.

Since Friday it's been from the south and on this morning's dog walk there in front of us, doing their wonderful acrobatic flight, were swallows. Spring is here, your swallows are on the way. :-D

We do quite often see a fox in our close Dermot heading for the golf course

Jude, great that you are still getting wildlife even if not as much as before but at least hopefully there is less chance of you being flooded there.

Vera, yes the birds have started to return, we have had the goldfinches back again. and still get the blue and great tits. also seems to be a resident blackbird again and I have seen the robin.

Last night, I spotted a youngish-looking fox trotting down our road.

When we lived in Monmouth we had 30-40 mallard ducks to feed every morning, hundreds of seagulls to contend with especially in the breeding season!! Longtailed tits, blue and great tits, sparrows, a pair of dunnocks, robins, a couple of pairs of black bird, thrush every now and then, buzzards flying over head, cormorants flying past then you see them on the river diving, then back again..:) Occasionally a pair of mandarins, woodpeckers lesser spotted l think....miss all that..:( Now we have a pond with aprox 30 ducks on and a few swans, and a heron pops in most days, loads of fish for the residents to fish, they all go back in the water. Loads of bull finches, sadly some have died from the bug they get from dirty feeding stations. A couple of green finches, only seen them once, a couple of pairs of black birds, a robin and a pair of dunnocks, one really clean feeder is right outside our window, so we get a good view.....Hedgehogs as well..xx ;-) ;-) <3