Hobbies and Crafts

I need to get some Fat Balls .At he moment I feed the birds Berry Flavoured Fat Sticks,and the hanging Coconuts.Fat sticks go like they are going out of fashion at the moment.Ann I don't count how much I spend of Bird Food especially through the winter.I would give myself a heck of a big shock lol.They cost a bomb don't they :-0

I might just go and have a look tomorrow Diamonds too.I had thought there weren't any still around .I do know one of our Squirrels has been busy in the garden .It looks so funny running along with a great Conker in it's mouth :-D

Just stocked up the bird feed. We usually put out ordinary seed in two feeders and sunflower hearts (no mess) in one that has a squirrel guard so that the pigeons and doves can't access it, plus a thistle feeder and a fat ball holder. Just stocked up with fat balls and ordinary seed, £23 pounds worth. I hope they appreciate it!!! :-)

That is what I have read too Ann.

Lesley x

The bite is not as poisonous as the true black widow. However some people may be allergic if they are allergic to bee stings and I believe a few (possible very few) people may have died.

In one of our local papers today there is a two page piece on the False Black Widow

This is the heading
Spider crisis? Or just a lot of bad PR for useful beast?

Some of the facts and figures given are,

The steatoda nobilis is thought to arrived in south-west England in the 1870s, with the first sighting in Torquay in 1879, there are only 12 out of the 640 species of spiders in the UK have been known to bite humans :-) :-(

It might be late Jane but I'm going out tomorrow to collect some conkers:-D this spider likes warm dark places so I am going to put conkers in my airing cupboard too :-D

If your sister has the local paper Jane she will know. We are about 20 minutes from Tewkesbury, we went through there yesterdsy,mwell round the bye pass on our war back from Evesham

I had Conkers in the corners of all my rooms last year .(I actually think they might have had an effect).But I was too late this year to collect any.I have spiders and webs all over the darned place :-S :-S :-S
Must tell my sister to look out for those False Black Widows ....she lives in Tewkesbury ,Glos.
I have had a few killings in the garden over the years by Sparrow Hawks,and it is horrible to see :-( :-(.
My little birds are still feeding like mad and there is a fair bit of fisty cuffs going on with the Robins and Chaffinches. :-S.They seem to dive bomb each other on the widow feeder.

Won't be happy if they come to Yorkshire Ann. I have just remembered reading somewhere that to get rid of spiders in the home you are meant to put a conker in each corner of the room...... don't ask me how that works, but it's worth a try especially as the horse chestnut trees are full with conkers right now. I will be out "conkering" very soon lol.

I believe they are all over the south of England and slowly moving further north according to a newspaper report.

I am so glad that the small birds escaped from the Sparrowhawk Ann
and I would not be happy for our home to be invaded by false black widow spiders..... keep them in Gloucester please!

And in our local paper, a house in Gloucester is invaded by False black Widow spiders. I hope they don't find their way here. Ugh!!! :-)

O-Oh, we had a visit from a Sparrow Hawk this morning, I was sitting in the lounge watching the birds feeding from the feeders that hang in the apple tree, a couple of Colard doves, a few sparrows and a couple of Great Tits when all of a sudden they all took off in a panic. As I was saying 'What spooked the birds?' A large (probably female) Sparrow Hawk flew into the tree but luckily missed all the birds :-) We haven't seen any birds since :-(

Could be because our feeders hang in the apple tree. I suppose they have to eat too.

No earwigs here in Yorkshire Ann. Haven't seen these for ages.
Plenty blackbirds, sparrows, thrushes, doves today.... all very hungry!

No Earwigs seen here Ann.I don't like them either.
The birds have feeding like crazy today.I have filled the window feeder twice !!.I think a trip to get more fat sticks is on the cards for tomorrow.

Anyone else found earwigs in bird feeders? Twice recently when topping up feeders I have had earwigs crawling out of them. Ugh!! :-(

Well, first thing there was no break in our clouds and it was very dull dark and drizzly. Yesterday we had quite strong winds, and Thursday too. At the moment the sun has broken through so I will now go and fill the bird feeders. The Collard doves were looking very puzzled and grumpy this morning because there was no seed.

Jane, it sounds a job well done by the tree surgeons and I'm sure your neighbours wouldn't mind the noise when they could see what was happening. Good that your birds have returned so soon, they probably were watching all the activity lol.

Lesley, don't know if I would like a covey of partridge in my garden. I am a real wuss, although I love seeing the birds I don't like them flapping their wings and flying off near me, it freaks me out, (I admit to being a wuss lol).

It is a very wet grey day here in Yorkshire with a cold strong wind today. The clouds are low and it looks as if the rain is set in for the day, no break in the clouds. The birds must be sheltering because there are non to be seen, but I'll keep watching and waiting.

You are right Jane pheasant shooting has started, the season is from 1st October to 1st February although many people don't start until nearer the end of October.

Duck, goose and partridge start 1st September.

I love it on shoot days when the game birds take cover my garden :-D :-D :-D this year for the first time ever we have a covey of grey leg partridge hiding up:-D we normally only see red leg partridge in my area:-(

Lesley x

kandj, the birds are back and have found their normal feeding places :-D. I bet they were watching lol
The tree surgeons have done a brilliant job.It took them 2 and a half days.They discovered that our Yew hedge at the end was about 20 foot deep :-0 :-0.We thought the deepest part was about 10.So it took them more time and they got an extra person in for the last day . They have reduced the height of the hedge,reduced the height of what should be a Dwarf Fir (it was about 30 ft) by 25% and shaped it up a bit,taken down 2 dead trees and also thinned out and taken a bit off a big Ash Tree.
The noise of all the Chain saws and shredding machine was horrendous ,but now it is so quiet.It's heaven :-DI felt sorry for my neighbours ,but it was a job that needed to be done.
I have heard a Pheasant .Is it coming up Pheasant shooting time?