Hobbies and Crafts

I spent much of yesterday afternoon on the beach in Hampshire...... a place called Hillhead, which is on the Solent not far from the entrance to Southampton Water.

We met for a family bring-and-share picnic. There were many of us, so a lot of food out on plates and in open packs, but not once were we bothered by seagulls. My 3 children were there and commented that we would not have been able to display food like that in our home area. We would be plagued by gulls.

A neighbour of mine here was cooking on a small barbecue in her garden, turned to reach a plate and a gull swooped and took a sausage right off the barbecue coals and proceeded to eat it on her garage roof.

Have we got particularly aggressive gulls in south Kent?

Just put photos on the photo blog of Alcazares (Spain), Hidcote Gardens, Kifsgate gardens and our garden,

We have been watering all the pots and hanging baskets for our neighbour this week and have seen no sign of Ratty :-D Maybe it has moved on elsewhere (as long as it is not our garden ).I think there are enough of them living here but out of sight unless the cat gets one.I think he is more interested in the number of baby rabbits around at the moment. We have lost count of the number he has had in just the last few days.
Cat food is totally ignored !!!!

A rat?????? I think I would leave home if I saw one in our garden...... ughhhhhh.
I would do the same Jem but miss the birds like you will or perhaps get Jane's cat.

I usually only top the window and ground feeder up once Jane. We don't have so
many birds as you do and this is normally enough to keep our birds fed and happy.

Ann you are so right about there being plenty of natural food for the birds now. I have just been a soft touch and probably made them lazy .My Window feeder has just been a bit like a drive thru takeaway LOL. The feeder is still as busy but with the mix now of the Sunflower Hearts and the suet pellets it is lasting so much longer :-D. And my purse is feeling the benefit :-D :-D.

That is a shame Jem but wise to stop the bird feeding for now at least.
Jane I expect it takes longer to eat the seeds so a good idea. I would only fill the feeder once a day as well as there is plenty of natural food around.

Jem , my neighbour has also stopped feeding the birds as she had a rat that was climbing up the pole to the feeding platform. Our cat has caught a few rats recently. Maybe it is Rat Season :-S :-S

Vera I have changed food in the window feeder. I still use the Suet Pellets but now put a load of Sunflower Hearts in with them.I was spending a fortune . Now the food lasts a lot longer :-D.I just fill the tray once a day now rather than 2 or 3 times !!!!.

We have Goldfinch ,but I only ever see them on the Aerial on the roof or in the top of the trees.
Ah Kandj I am like you and need to see 2 Magpies LOL Saying that I would rather not see any Magpies .They are a pain in the backside .

I'm very sad!
I have had to stop feeding the birds :-(

The pretty little mouse that may well have been a pretty little mouse that used to dart in and out of my privet hedge has a neighbour ... a brown rat! :-(
.

I think they've been squatting in next doors tip of a garden and decided the food was better in mine!
Not sure how to deal with it, but hoping it will just look for another free meal establishment! Haven't seen it since I dismantled the feeder.

I do hope the birds will find someone else to feed them.
It's so quiet in my garden now:-(

At long last we have actually seen two Magpies in the garden after months of
only ever seeing one flying around. So pleased now I can stop thinking of the
little rhyme that begins... One for sorrow.... now we have two for joy... woohoo!!

We suddenly had an influx of Great tits, four all on and around one feeder, then I realised that two were young ones and still being fed, really cute. we still have three goldfinches visiting regularly, a few blue tits as well as the great tits, a coal tit, loads of starlings, a lot of young ones, quite a lot of sparrows, a couple of collard doves and a couple of blackbirds.

I was out yesterday so the feeders didn't get refilled. I just went and put out a few suet balls and a home-made fat cake and within 30 seconds that bit of the garden was full of starlings of various ages. There must have been at least 2 dozen and the stuff I put out has already half gone. HELP! They are bankrupting me. At this rate OH and I will be on bread and water so that I can afford to feed the birds.

Still lots of Woodpecker noise here.But I can't work out where the young one is. I can hear it so it must be in one of the big trees around us.. Not a lot of change birdwise . Still lots of birdsong about 4am !! :-D

Glad to have you back from your travels safely Ann.

Gwyn I am liking the story about your daughters rabbit and the cold water bottle.

Jane, that is a good idea filling the HW bottle to put in the fridge. Might try that.
We had a young thrush here this morning. It was amazing to see the speckles.

Vera, I would have been the same as you when the young bird flew past you.
I am also a wuss with fur (mice) and feathers of any bird flapping around me too.

Had the fright of my life a short while ago. I have a number of tomato plants in pots down the side of the garage. They are quite leafy and I bent down to feel the earth in one of the pots to see if they needed water. As I did so something moved and a young blackbird flew out from his shelter under the plant, right in front of my nose .

I am a complete wuss when it comes to birds flapping round me. My pulse has only just stopped racing :-0

Cold Hot Water Bottle BRILLIANT :-D :-D I recommend it :-D.

The rabbit knew what to do then with it's lovely cold bottle :-D :-D..That would have been me :-D.
I think we might have a baby Woodpecker in one of the trees.Haven't seen it ,but I can hear it and see an adult flying back and forth and making lots of noise :-D
There is also a young looking Thrush that appears on our lawn every night about the same time looking for worms ,bugs .It is really speckly :-D

Did the cold hot water bottles work Jane?

Not many birds here, a couple of sparrows a collard dove, a blackbird, one goldfinch and the smallest skinniest robin I have ever seen are all we have had in the garden today.

Lol Jane, I expect the saleslady will pass on your tip to other people too.

My adult daughter has a rabbit.
Each day during this hot spell, she gives him a plastic bottle of water, which she'd frozen.
She came home to see him draped over the length of it today, trying to keep cool.

A few minutes ago, I went outside to cool down in the slight breeze which has got up.
In the darkness, I made out the shape of 3 slugs on the concrete driveway.
I was amazed to then see, a few feet away, that a frog was sitting nearby.
I haven't seen one around here for ages and certainly didn't expect that on one of the hottest days of the year.

I hope he enjoys his supper !

I don't think any of us has any energy to do anything at the moment other than to water the garden later . You must miss the aircon Ann

It doesn't take long for the birds to come back does it Vera once they spot the feeders full again. But I do think it is even too hot for them at the moment.The feeder has been fairly quiet all day but it now is looking busy.

I bought 2 hot water bottles today and have filled them and put them in the freezer ready to put in the bed to cool the sheet.The lady behind me at the till thought I was barking mad LOL but I explained the reason and she said what a good idea .She was going to dig out her Hot Water Bottle and do the same :-D

I was up at 4 this morning to let Thomas out .I then got an icelolly out of the freezer :-D
It was lovely :-D :-D

Welcome back Ann. I must admit I am finding the heat a bit trying - it's hard to find the energy to do much.

The birds ignored us for a few days but are now back, though it is mostly sparrows and squabbling starlings. We did have a couple of long tailed tits yesterday but I haven't seen anything else.

We came home yesterday and yes it was very hot, not nice last night and no Air con to keep us cool. Very hot again today so even OH has been persuaded not to go out gardening. Our bird feeders need filling.