Hobbies and Crafts

A friend and I have just taken a short walk near a local water way.
The swans are nesting near the path again this year and one was sitting on the nest, the other swimming nearby.
Apparently there are about 9 eggs in the nest, so it will be interesting to see how many they manage to hatch.
If we are still allowed out and about, watching the swans will be a welcome distraction from all the serious news reports.

That’s great Pat. At least there are signs of summer with you so perhaps it won’t be too long before we see some signs too.

I wasted quite a while this morning watching a couple of goldfinches on a feeder. They had a good old feed. I’ve never seen more than two at a time so I don’t know if there are just two visiting or if there are several. They totally ignore the Niger seeds that I kept putting out to attract them but appeared once I started putting out sunflower hearts which they appear to love. I was pleased to see a thrush again today as well.

Pat, that's lovely.
Brighter days ahead then.

I remember when we lived in Cyprus, we had swifts nesting in the eaves. I loved to see them darting about collecting insects then swooping out over the wadi on their next hunt.

Saw my first swallows of the year this morning. Summer is on it's way :-D

Thursday and Friday, the birds were having a great time in our garden splashing in the bird bath. A starling spent ages in there, while a robin looked on longingly from a nearby tree.

Saturday the wind picked up and over the weekend I haven't had one bird in the garden.

That was a nice surprise Vera. Hope they remember where they are now and bring all their mates. Our goldfinches are here one day then we don't see them for a couple of days and then they come back. I think they are playing us off against another bird feeder somewhere up the road.

i haven’t put out wild bird seed for a while now as the birds weren’t taking it anymore. instead I’ve been putting out sunflower hearts, as well as my usual suet balls, peanuts, Niger seed and mealworms and the birds have gradually been coming back. Today I was cock-a-hoop to see 2 goldfinches on the sunflower seeds. They kept flying away and then coming back a bit later so I hope we are going to see more of them.

I once had that problem so I emailed the Lodge at Sandy and they sent me a form out in the post.

I stopped doing it when for some reason the site wouldn't accept my log in or password so I couldn't get the form etc. Lost interest after about 10 tries.

Today again while it was bright and dry I have had loads of visitors to the feeders. I have just entered my observations to the RSPB and will now wait for the online results to see how all our little friends are doing.

That was a great selection LG well done.
We have had a couple of LT Tits in a couple of days plus the few great and blue tits, a blackbird and several magpies and about 4 collard doves and two wood pigeons.

I did the bird watch first thing this morning and had a great selection in for breakfast. Robin, long tailed tit family, blue tits, blackbirds, sparrows, starlings, the Magpie, collared doves, wood pigeons, wrens and a surprise visit from a cock pheasant.

That is good Vera, not seen a thrush here for a couple of years, plenty of great tits and a few goldfinches but otherwise it is so dark and dull that it is hard to see what is out there.

LG no not doing it this year, I know they like to know what is not there as well as what is but with so few birds it is a terrible time waster. Good luck with yours.

Anyone doing the big garden birdwatch this weekend, I am as usual and wha'ts the betting most of the little beggars will go into hiding :-| :-D :-D. The garden has been full of all sorts of them today

I was pleased to see a thrush back in the garden today. There were a couple around all last summer, one of which looked a young bird. I think the one in the garden today might be that young one, though I can’t be sure.

I have seen more birds since I changed the feeders around and put out sunflower hearts. It's been mainly sparrows and bluetits plus one robin, but that's OK. It's more than I was seeing a little while ago. Ann, we used to get flocks of long-tailed tits from time to time but I haven't seen any for a long while. They're obviously all round yours ;-)

The Long tailed tits have been back a couple of times lately so it is good to know they are still in the area.

We had a flock of long tailed tits in the garden yesterday, they didn't stay long but they were there. Not many birds around again at the moment just a few bluetits and great tits, starlings, a blackbird and 2 magpies. Think they took off when we were away although we left feed for them.

I've decided to change things a little bit in the hope of attracting a few birds back. I am fed up with putting out seeds, throwing them away when they have got all wet and started to go a bit grotty and then putting out a fresh lot to do the same again next time, so I am giving up on seeds for the time being. I have left the suet balls where they are as they do go, albeit slowly, and I have moved the niger seeds to where the other seeds were. The peanuts are staying where they were and I have put out sunflower hearts where the niger seeds were. Everything has been thoroughly washed, disinfected in a mild solution of Dettol and well rinsed and dried. I am not sure what more I can do.

This afternoon we have had a couple of blackbirds and starlings, a few sparrows and a robin around the garden and both OH and I separately saw a bluetit fly in, grab a sunflower heart and fly off again, so I am very cautiously optimistic.

Now I need to work out why the frogs have left home too :-S

Yes Vera, I'd like to see birds too.

I put out a new solid block feeder on Thursday morning and most of it is still there.
Yesterday morning 2 jackdaws were jostling to keep each other off 'their' feeding territory, but they soon went away.
I've known days when a block only lasted about half an hour.
No small birds in the garden at all now.
Even the seagulls have deserted the roof tops, so where are they all.?