Hobbies and Crafts

waiting in anticipation :-D :-D.

Ok......point taken and thanks for the tips Ann and Jane. Tomorrow I will fill up with the berry suet pellets and wait and see who comes visiting. All so exciting now!

I agree Ann ,The suet is the favourite of the female Blackbird.I did put some seed in the feeder with the suet pellets .....The seed was the stuff that was left.

I think the Pheasants must have all come out of hiding as plus the 3 girls in my garden ,I came across 2 Male and 4 Females down the lane when I went to drop in on my friend.One of the Males just wouldn't get out of the way and It trotted along in front of my car looking as daft as a brush until I put the window down and shouted at it.It soon scarpered then lol

Kandj tell hubby he has to keep the paper very still if a bird lands or the movement will frighten them off, fingers crossed he comes back. I am not sure but our blackbirds are more attracted to the suet bits than seed and also dried mealy worms.

oooh!,fingers crossed then Kandj.Now it knows where to come,hopefully it'll be back and with a bit of luck bringing some friends too :-D :-D

BREAKING NEWS....... the young blackbird flew on to the gripper of the window feeder, looked in at hubby sat reading the newspaper....... and flew off again! Perhaps he doesn't like what's on the menu?? I had refilled it with wild bird seed earlier and have just sprinkled some of the berry suet pellets underneath the lounge window hoping to encourage another visit.......... fingers crossed! It is dry but bitterly cold wind today.

We have 3 Female Pheasants in the garden this morning !But still not the Male.I have only seen 1 female here before

Kandj ,I have told all my little Birds that there is someone else who would love to feed them,told them which direction to fly .But they have decided to stay put .I wish you could see them.They are all puffed up like little round balls this morning :-D

Kandj they are all tucked up in the warm somewhere.

Lesley was that in the 80s/90s before prices of accommodation rocketed there? Amarilla Golf has really spread since we first knew it, I suppose it is better because when they built that and the newer hotel complexes they opened more restaurants. When we first stayed that end of G del S we had to walk up to the centre for a decent meal.

All sounds lovely but back to a cold Yorkshire and NO young blackbird or any doves,starling, gulls, pigeons today........... what's going on here? Methinks they are all have flown over to Jane's garden and eating her out of house and home!

Ann it was me that wanted to come home when I found out I was pregnant, cranky hormones kicked in I guess, the first property we looked at was on Golf del Sur, MOG just shook his head and said if you think I'm paying those prices think again so we ended up with the show duplex on Amarilla Bay, that was before Amarilla Golf had even been started.

Lesley x

Hungry birds Jane.

We love Puerto De La Cruz in North Tenerife. Not quite so touristy and as thery get a bit more rain there are a lot of flowers.

Lesley ,you mention the end of the shooting for Pheasants,which has reminded me I haven't seen the Male Pheasant in the garden for a little while.I hope he wasn't 'got'.Maybe he knows it is safe now and has ventured out and about :-D.
I went to London yesterday for the day with OH and Son to meet my Daughter for the Theatre .I filled up the window feeder to the brim at 10am and when we got home just after 10pm it was totally empty.So I went in the dark and refilled ready for this morning .After a lie in I came downstairs about 10 and it was almost empty again !!!

I have never been to Tenerife.I don't know why but it is somewhere I have never thought of going.I know my neighbours love it there.I must have a google and find out about it.

No more sign of Ratty (thank goodness :-D).I am still very curious as to where that coconut has gone.There is no sign of it anywhere :-S

Why didn't you stay there Lesley? We love Tenerife although prefer the North. Hopefully going for 4 weeks in September. Usually go for 4 weeks in May as well but OH has begun to find it too difficult to cope with the garden after 4 weeks at that time of year. When we go to the south we usually stay in Golf del Sur.

kandj I would love to read that the young blackbird or any bird had found the food in your feeder :-D

Today the shooting season closed for partridge and pheasants :-D although not for duck and goose that's not until the 20th Feb :-(

Have lured your neighbours goldfinches into your garden yet Vera? ;-)

Ann we lived in Silencio for a short time before we had our girls (my first pregnancy was confirmed at Las Americas Hospital) and from our bedroom window we often use to see dolphins swimming in the ocean :-D :-D :-D

Lesley x

Now I will take more notice when the doves and pigeons come-a-courting! Thanks Ann.

Vera I hope you can soon get your feeding station in place and your garden birds will come there for a feast, but you do have to be patient though.

It has been raining hard here for most of the day with strong winds and it's bitterly cold. No sign of the young blackbird again and when I filled the ground feeding tray a load of starlings swooped within minutes and cleared the lot, they are greedy/aggressive birds.

Vera it is hard to leave a loved garden behind, especially as you had so many varieities of birds. But I hope as you get your new little garden established and whoo some birds into it that you will be able to enjoy your new garden without the stress of a larger patch.

Kandj, all pigeons and doves do that mating 'dance' We sit and watch them im Tenerife where there are a lot of pigeons. The males does the ducking up and down and then does a twhirl in front of the female who usually runs off so he chases her and repeats the performance.

I know what you mean about shooing the jays away Lesley. We used to have problems with the magpies as well.

My favourites to watch were the green woodpeckers. They are such beautiful colours and they would come up close to the house to peck the insects out of the lawn. Then something would startle them and they would fly off with a real ear-splitting screech.

I also loved the long-tailed tits. They never stayed for long but would arrive in a little flock and flutter about twittering for about half an hour and then disappear again.

I am sure you can understand why I miss my old garden, even though we are very happy in this house.

Never knew the mating ritual of the doves Jane, that is interesting. So perhaps my "lame" dove wasn't really lame and just doing a bit of courting..... now that is an
old-fashioned word (perhaps because I am old-fashioned too ha ha).

This morning hubby and I were sat in the lounge and we both were startled by a thud on the front window. We looked up to see the young blackbird balancing on the roof of the window feeder and then he flew away. Now we are wondering if he has spotted the food and not quite worked out where to land or was he being shooed away by our our regular Mrs Blackbird like last week and has flown into the windowpane in haste? Hmmmm, I have just put down a trail of suet pellets in the hope of encouraging the bird to come and dine.......... watch this space!!

Your feeding station sounds ideal Vera. Good Luck.

I think the jay is a beautiful bird to look at and I love the colour blue of their wing feathers but if I catch sight of them in my garden in spring or summer I shoo them off I don't want them taking my nestlings :-|

Lesley x

I had intended to set my feeding station up this afternoon but before I could get outside the wind was getting up and it was pouring again. But OH was outside earlier when there was still a bit of sun and he saw 2 goldfinches fly in to a neighbouring garden so at least I know there are some birds around. All I've seen in our garden in four months is one robin, two pigeons and a blackbird. I'm feeling a lot more optimistic now.