Hobbies and Crafts

It is certainly strange Vera. We are only getting one or two goldfinches at the moment, I think because of the cold weather a lot more people put food out. the starlings do polish off the mealy worms if they get the chance, even though the plate is on the table right by the lounge window.

Ann have you got any snow yet? I think it is working its way up from the SWest now.
If we get it ,it will be overnight.
I will have a look at your pics. I have filled the window feeder twice today and defrosted the bird bath 3 times. No sign of the Squirrel today :-D. We never have any Sparrows here.Maybe just once or twice a year,and then they don't hang around .

Vera ,,it does seem strange that you haven't had many visitors especially being a 5* Hotel for the birds :-D.They must be incredibly fussy :-S

No snow here yet Jane. Maybe it will miss us who knows?

Have you got much snow yet Ann? I know it was supposed to be pretty bad in the West of the country. We have had more overnight but it’s not very deep. It’s fallen on top of yesterday’s snow which had iced over so it’s very slippery. I won’t be going out shopping today.

Got to go and defrost the birdbath now. Brrr....

Stay safe and warm everyone.

we have some Vera but not a lot, it has laid and the road looks a bit nasty but we have no plans to go out. I think we may have more to come.

Glad you haven’t got too much snow Ann. Ours seems to be melting a bit now.

As the birds don’t seem to be taking any seeds from the hanging feeder I put some on the ground feeder and within minutes I counted 9 starlings there. They seem to come from nowhere.

I was glad I defrosted the birdbath earlier as we have just watched a robin having a wash. The water must have been so cold but he seemed to be enjoying it.

Hope Gill is OK. She’s usually a regular poster on here and she hasn’t been around for a week or so.

EDIT. Just realised Gill has been on other threads :-)

I'm here :-D

We haven't had many birds around either Vera. The Starlings though are just like yours, fly down grab the meal worms then fly away until more has been put out, but there hasn't been many of those lately either. I'm surprised we haven't had many birds these past few days as it's been really cold, but maybe it's like Ann said and there are more people putting food out so the birds can go anywhere for a feed.

How lovely to see the Robin having a wash Vera, we are still getting birds washing in our new water feature, except for the past few days as it's frozen solid. I did notice the ice that was forming in an overhang on our window sills is finally melting, so it must be getting a bit warmer now the sun is out.

Love the pictures on your blog Ann. Good idea to stay in doors if you have slippy roads, it's not worth taking the risk is it? A lot of the hail and snow we're had this past week has now frozen on the paths and roads, so we're staying in to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ waves to Gill

We had a chunk of fruit cake left that was getting a bit dry but had lots of fruit in it so I crumbled it all up and put it in a dish on the patio table. Guess who found it first? Yep, the starlings. They are so greedy :-|. There was still some left when they had flown away and I was pleased to see a couple of blackbirds come and have a feed.

I feel happier now I’ve seen a few birds back in the garden :-D

They will be waiting for more cake tomorrow Vera :-( I just try and think to myself that starlings have to eat as well. I think they seem greedy because there are so many of them.

Pleased to see you have a few birds in your garden now Vera. Like Ann said they'll be back for more cake now. At least you know they're still around. I hope you see more tomorrow.

I've started with a terrible sore throat and earache, so I'm going to have an early night, maybe some sleep might help. I hope it's not the start of a bug :-(

Hope you feel better this morning Gill, sounds like you could be hatching a cold. So many around this time of year and generous people will ing to share. <3 <3

I'm starting to feel a bit better now Ann, still a bit achy for some reason, a bit like flu OH thinks it's the cold, but at least the sore throat has gone along with the earache so that's good.

The workmen weren't here today and according to one workman he said yesterday that there won't be anyone around for the next week, so hopefully the birds will come back. We only had a few various small birds today, but not many. The sun has been out so all the frozen hail and snow is finally starting to melt. The food didn't look as if it was frozen today so hopefully more birds will arrive soon.

Yay, the birds are coming back :-D

I looked out of the window first thing this morning and there were sparrows on the fat balls and one on the seed feeder, a bluetit on the peanuts, a blackbird eating the mealworms and several other blackbirds, a robin and a thrush hopping round the patio.

I’m particularly pleased about the thrush as we don’t see many of them and he has been around on and off for several days now. I hope he/she manages to find a mate this spring. I could do with a few thrushes in the garden to get rid of some of my snails.

Hope you are feeling better now Gill

Ooh the word has been sent out .....'food at Vera's'.... Great, long may it continue Vera.

We were out this morning but the mealy worms all disappeared by the time we got back. The smallest blackbird was pecking at the mealy worms 'dish' ignoring me in the conservatory next to him so I opened the door and went out to the dish, he flew to the apple tree and sat watching me while I added mealy worms to the dish. I came back indoors and he flew immediately back to the dish to eat. :-D

I knew the birds would come home Vera :-D :-D.. Do you fancy having 4 of my visitors?
4 HUGE Magpies :-| :-| . I don't want them :-D They are a blooming nuisance .

How lovely having all those birds in your garden Vera after so long not seeing anything.

I did smile when you told us about the Blackbird Ann. He must of been very hungry to hang around waiting for you to fill the food up.

We bought a new feeder yesterday to put more seeds into, we're going to hang it where the fat ball are as they have gone mouldy with the birds not bothering with them. The various tits love the seeds so having two feeders with seeds in should make it easier for them to feed off. Having said that, the weather is so wet and windy today we haven't seen any birds venture out. Mind you there are more workmen mulling around next door so that's probably putting them off too.

So you're giving your Magpies away Jane? I'm not keen on them either, they are bullies and the other birds don't get a look in.

Going to watch call the midwife now, I put the TV on an hour ago but there was a programme OH wanted to watch, so I've had to wait.

No takers for the solid suet block I have hanging in the garden.
Whether this is because of the weather or they do not like the fruit base, I don't know.

I have lived in this area for many years and today saw a bird I've never seen locally. It was a little egret. It was plodding around in a reeded drainage channel and didn't seem at all bothered by me standing watching it.

Strange Gwyn, OH was playing golf last week and two white egrets flew overhead.

The birds seem to like our fat cake but it is on a ground feeder, it has mealy worms in it.

I don't think there would be any chance of seeing Egrets here. Are they Water Birds?
Still have the Big Black and White horrors :-S. They can be so intimidating .They are like Giants compared to the normal little garden birds. I think the awful weather has kept many of the birds in hiding today.It's been a really dreadful day with all the wind and driving rain.

We haven't seen many birds lately, but did see a few blue tits on our new bird seed feeder. We had to get rid of the fat balls as they had gone mouldy, the birds didn't seem that interested in them from the start, so they've been replaced with more seed which the blue tits love. It's quite funny to see them bobbing from the Red Robin to the feeder then back again, they are quite quick to. The birds didn't like the fat balls but do like the fat cake, strange I thought, as I'm sure they're both the same.....maybe they're not and they just prefer the taste of the fat cake instead.

I find the birds, especially the Starling love meal worms Ann, it sounds like they've got the best of both worlds at yours with having meal worms in the fat cakes, I've not seen those before, mine are just plain ones. They still eat it though, so it must taste okay.

I'm the same as you Jane and think the Magpies are just bullies, the little birds don't come near when they're around. The Starlings seem to like the meal worms and have a good old fight between themselves to get to the food, it can be quite amusing to watch. It also tickles me when the Blackbirds go underneath the feeder and eat the food that's dropped on the floor rather than take their chances on the feeder with the Starlings.....they're not daft are they?

We saw an Heron fly over the other week Gwyn which is similar to an Egret, do your neighbours have a pond, maybe that's why you saw one as they are water birds. We don't see the Heron very often so was surprised to see it, OH thinks it's because we'd just put a water feature in and the Heron could possibly hear it. Maybe that's what's happened with the Egret. They're lovely birds though and nice to see aren't they?