Hobbies and Crafts

Crazy aren't we Ann :-D... But we love our birds.

LolJane what we do for our birds. One year the blackbirds nested and fledged in our garden, there was just one baby and OH was so worried about it he constructed a perch across the patch of garden it was 'living' in and it used it. :-D

Love the pic Jemima :-D....We seem to have a fair number of little Sparrows here all hopping around the patio and picking up the bits dropped over the edge from the window feeder. I don't think we have any Collared Doves.We used to have several .
One year they nested on the top of the security light at the back of the house .I could lean out of the bathroom window and watch the progress of the little ones when they hatched.I even managed to see one of the baby teeter on the edge of the nest and take its first flight :-D..I was so worried when the 2 babies were tiny that they might have fallen out of the nest and so I put down the cushion from a sun lounger underneath.Thankfully it wasn't needed :-D

Hi Everyone :-)

Ann reminded me of the Bird and Wildlife thread.

I have a privet hedge, which has been full of House Sparrows for years.
I came across feeders for small birds in our town's £1 shop, so I bought one with seeds and another with 3 fat balls.

I then made a "make-shift" feeding station using an old clothes line prop and a branch of a tree.
I forced the thinner end of the tree branch through the hook at the top of the prop, then pushed the line prop into the garden near the hedge, secured by some larger stones.
I then hooked the feeders, one each side of the pole onto the branch, secured tightly with shoe laces. Then I firmly pushed the thicker end of the branch into the hedge.

Well, it's been a huge success!
Having read on a website that the sparrow population is down by 80%, I am pleased to be helping them through the winter months.

So far, not only the sparrows have been feeding, but we now have a pair of Great Tits taking up residence, a visiting Robin, endless Starlings, a Collared Dove and the naughty Jackdaws who are still managing to get some of the feed.
The Jackdaws look so funny trying to hold on to the fat ball feeder while looking like they are swimming with one wing flapping :-D

The Collared Dove and some House Sparrows
http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/keepsafe/asset/details/42461190


Sending love to Kandj <3 <3 <3

It always amazes me how these tiny little birds can hang on to feeders in high wind.They must have very strong little feet LOL
I have just noticed that the window feeder is almost empty,so it must have been a busy day.
There are still a lot of Magpies about .I hadn't really realised how big they are.The Wood pigeons seem to have vanished for now.I don't think I have seen any in the garden for a little while.

The hedgehog must have gone to hibernate now as there has been no mess on the patio for about a week.So I have stopped putting out the food now as it will be just the mice eating it.

Apart from a blackbird or pigeon now and then, it is still mainly sparrows here. We usually see 5 or 6 at a time and they empty the seed feeder at a rate of knots. They seem to like the fat balls as well.

It's been very cold here for a few days and yesterday there was a bitter, very strong, wind. I watched 2 sparrows on the feeder trying to eat as the wind was blowing them around. They were probably fed up but they did look funny - just as though they were on a fairground swing boat. As one went up, the other came down. Eventually they gave up and flew away.

Thinking of Kandj <3

<3 <3 <3 <3 Kandj

There seemed to be more birds around today Jane. We had a lot of blackbirds as well.

It is all a bit quiet here bird wise. Lots of Blackbirds on the lawn at times getting worms.I think I counted 8 the other morning. The window feeder is mainly Chaffinch and Gt Tits. Chaffinch still being a bully :-S

I heard from Kandj and she is still not going to be posting on this thread for a while as her days are so busy looking after her OH. Thinking of you Kandj <3

Cold cold night again here .We had the first frozen Birdbath this morning and scraping of the windscreens on the cars.

Maybe there is sufficient natural food in your area, although we have food up the road. or maybe we have lazy birds. We don't get so many in the summer but still get blue and great tits and goldfinches and sparrows. :-)

I stopped feeding, when the birds stopped visiting after their young had flown. The food was out for weeks, so I thought I'd start again when the weather changed, which I did.

If RSPB recommend feeding all year, I'm happy to do so next summer.

Birds of all sizes like to use the birdbath all year for bathing or drinking.......seagulls to sparrows, which is why I was surprised when they stopped taking from the feeder.

Hi Gwyn the birds seem to be feeding more now that it has turned colder. We feed all year round as advised by RSPB.

One would think that they could have kept him in a raised bed or similar, which had some sort of protective netting.

I thought it was a shame they killed him.

No birds seen visiting my block feeders yet.
I don't feed during the summer, but starlings especially eat me out of house and home, at times.
I guess they'll come back, when they are ready..........

aaw but how sad that they had to kill him. Still I suppose he would have made a tasty meal for a large bird. He almost looks like a slow worm.

Intriguing, isn't it?

If only we could be like Dr Dolittle at times............

Just saw this on the news link.......
A very big earthworm !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37861928

Jane I can't find anything to suggest they have more than one nest. But I did find that they chip away at the entrance to the nesting box.

I am not sure Jane. I wonder if they make 'pretend' nests to keep predators away from the real one? Not sure why the hole was made larger though. Life is full of these little mysteries.

Can anyone explain this please. I thought I had two blue tits nesting in one of our boxes. The two birds kept flying in and out of the box, so I thought they had built a nest in there. They kept on doing this for weeks so I thought they must be feeding the babies. Then one day I noticed the entrance hole had been made a lot bigger so I thought The woodpeckers had got them and the babies. I was quite upset. All the activity around the box had stopped so I assumed that was the end of them.

Well the other day my husband went to empty the box and there was nothing in it just a couple of twigs. So what were the blue tits using it for. It appears they never made a nest in there and they didn't have any babies.

Jane

I have a very nasty Chaffinch that is a real bully on the window feeder.It attacks any other bird that tries to land on it :-S.I have not seen one quite as aggressive as this one.

Vera fingers crossed that the young goldfinch will spread the word!! Jane birds can be very noisy and squabbly!! :-D

Well our bird population was a bit more interesting this morning when we had a visit from a coal tit and two greenfinches. :-) :-)

Glad to see you are having plenty of bird activity Vera :-D I haven't seen a Goldfinch for a couple of months now.
This morning there was a right racket going on in the big tree out the front.It was a big fisty cuffs between Magpies and Crows(or Rooks).The noise was dreadful.It it had been humans I would have been calling the Police !!!. In the end I opened the big window upstairs and yelled and flapped my arms..That sorted it out :-D :-D

Will have a look at your pics Ann :-)

Kandj ,you know I am thinking of you <3