Hobbies and Crafts

Jane just seen the news the flood plains in Tewkesbury are under a lot of water.

There has been a lot of rain Jane, the river Severn has been flooding onto the A48 and closing it, also flooding on the road through Maisemore. No mention so far of Tewesbury. It has been blowing a gale and raining off and on most of the day but not really heavy rain, it is just that the fields and ditches and streams are all saturated.

Ann I love to see the Thrush.I'm not sure I have seen one for a little while though.
The birds have been hanging on the the feeder and coconut for grim death today.Poor things.You would think they would just blow away in all this wind.But they seem to be tough little creatures.
Is it really bad your way?

Strange things birds, suddenly we have more feeding yet it is blowing a gale out there. We have had chaffinches, goldfinches and sparrows, and a thrush.

What is strange is that we rarely see a thrush, in fact this is only the third occasion in the past few years that we have seen one and it is always round about now, I know because I always remark that it waited until after the winter bird count. We just blew back in from town and there it was, eating some bread crumbs on the lawn. :-D

Lesley ,It's me .I think I am all confused with my woodpeckers.I think it is a Great Spotted that was on the feeder not the Lesser !!!!!!!.
I will have to have a proper look at some pictures of the 2 different ones..I know what the Green Woodpecker looks like lol :-D
Just dashing off to the Cinema now so will check it out later.
It is horrible here so just the right kind of day to go to the pictures :-D

APOLOGY

I must apologies for my above statement MOG said I am wrong, he said it is only the greater spotted woodpecker that is an omnivore and not the lesser spotted. Sorry:-(

Lesley x

Still grinning like cheshire cats here Lesley and both sooooo excited. It doesn't take much to please us two golden oldies ha ha.

I was in the kitchen earlier but hubby shouted that the blackbird had landed on the feeder but he had eaten and flown off before I came into the lounge....... next time perhaps!!

I do hope that Jane's pretty looking woodpecker won't eat her other birds, perish the thought Lesley.

Blowing and dry but mega cold here this morning. Hope my washing doesn't end up next door???

kandj have you and your OH stopped smiling yet? I wonder if the smaller birds will follow the blackbird and start using the feeder.....I wouldn't be surprised if they did:-D

I've been out and about driving on country roads this afternoon and the only birds/wildlife I saw were pigeons, most unusual:-S

No washing out on the line here, we've had a few heavy short sharp showers:-(

I don't like to burst your bubble Jane but I'm pretty sure that the very pretty to look at spotted woodpecker is an omnivore:-|

Lesley x

Many thanks for all the support. Finally our patience has been rewarded and so it's good to share this with you all.

Just had the first Long Tailed Tit on the feeder.I haven't seen them for a while.But it obviously hasn't worked out how to get to the food as it keeps standing on top of the feeder and looking down through the plastic roof ! Silly Billy.

Oh well done Kandj, so pleased that your patience has been rewarded, I hope Master blackbird pays you many more visits. And that bully thrush learns to accept him. :-)

Jane I had my washing dry on the line by 12.30, makes such a difference to how fresh it smells doesn't it?

Just popping in to say I am so pleased for you kandj :-D :-D :-D

Must get MOGs lunch on the go he will be home any minute now.

Lesley x

Jane, Yes the thrush and Mr and Mrs Blackbird have been regulars in our front garden border shrubbery for many years and won't take kindly to this cheeky young blackbird. We had expected the window feeder to attract the tiny tits, finches , siskins, sparrows and the like but both have been surprised with the blackbird........NOT that we are complaining at all. Here's hoping that he returns many times and brings others too.

Sorry Jane, we posted almost at the same time. That was a lovely Xmas gift from your daughter so all the family could enjoy relaxing together. How awful that the Apollo theatre ceiling came down and what a shock for all the people at that performance. I remember reading in the newspaper about that incident.

The blackbird has been back AGAIN........ aww, so exciting after such a long wait.

This time hubby and I were entertained because the blackbird flew at the wrong angle but corrected himself and landed firmly on the rubber gripper. He then popped his head inside and ate about 7-8 pellets before flying off.........amazing or what??!! Two VERY smiley faces here in Yorkshire today.

I need to Google Spotted Woodpecker now as I haven't seen one before. This is a really interesting site and a proper learning curve for me......... thanks to you all.

FANTASTIC :-D :-D :-D.I wonder if it is in the Thrushes territory .The lady I was talking to at that Nature Reserve was saying this is the time they start all that nonsense lol

I bet you are going to be glued to the window now for the rest of the day :-D

FINALLY, A RESULT!!!

A little while ago I hubby spotted the young blackbird on the wall (great!). It seemed to be sizing the surroundings and then flew down on the the ground feeder tray and quick as lightening the thrush who lives in our shurbbery shot out and chased the blackbird around the front lawn until it flew across the road and disappeared into our neighbours huge conifer.... with the thrush following but landing on the neighbours fence.

What a disappointment, and what a bully the thrush is when there is enough ground food around for plenty birds!

Well, we thought that was the last of the blackbird for today, BUT
whilst we were sat chatting we heard a bump on the windowpane and saw that the blackbird was back and had landed on the gripper. He popped his head into the feeder and took a suet pellet and flew away. What a daring blackbird he is.
Here's hoping he will be back more frequently and bring others along too. YIPPEE!!!

Morning :-D
Well I am shocked.My son has seen the Spotted Woodpecker on the window feeder 3 times this morning (before I came downstairs).He did manage to get a pic but it is not great as the window was filthy .So i have given it a quick clean ,filled up the tray with food and now hope woody will return.The only thing now is that because it has found the food there it will be scoffing the lot !!!!

Kandj we went to the Old Vic and saw a play called Fortunes Fool.My Daughter had bought tickets for all of us for Xmas to actually see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night at the Apollo.But that was the theatre where the ceiling fell down and it is still shut ,so she got a refund and we saw this one instead.

Come on little Blackbird,visit Kandj.She is waiting patiently with lots of nice food :-D

No sign of MR.Pheasant :-S,and no girls so far this morning.

It's a lovely morning so far but very breezy.I think I will make the most of it and actually chance putting some washing out.

No young blackbird as yet Ann..... we are still ever hopeful though.

I have filled the feeder with the berry suet pellets this morning and also added a little dried mealy worms Lesley will they do?

Jane what play did you see in London with your family? Have you spotted the male pheasant around yet? I do hope he hasn't been shot when he is a regular at yours!!

Hoping to be back later to announce the young blackbird has tasted his "feast"

Lesley we first went to Golf del Sol in about 1997 staying a week in a timeshare the Amarillo end after a week in Chayofa, then we had several holidays down the other end at various places, timeshares usually on exchange with our own. Some better than others. These days when we go we opt for Santa Barbara or Aquamarine hotels. We prefer not to have a car when we stay in Tenerife these days as the driving is horrific, especially down South and the hotels run buses into Los Cristianos.. But we do still go for 4 weeks at a time to above Puerto de la Cruz in a small studio apartment.


Kandj..... any luck.

Jane the pheasants had probably heard that there is food to be had at yours and were gathering for a party. :-D

Ann we were first in Silencio in the mid 80s before the house price boom and sold late 90s.

kandj you could always send your OH into the garden to dig up a few worms for the blackbird:-D

Cock pheasants have more than one partner Jane;-) ooh la la :-D :-D :-D

Lesley x