Hobbies and Crafts

Ann ,I just love that Chaffinch .It is the only one that looks like he is wearing 'shades' lol.
Well if Sparrows use window feeders then I reckon now one has found mine I will probably get more :-D.I just had the Woodpecker on it a few minutes ago :-D :-D

Love the chaffinch- he looks so puffed up with his own importance.

All I've seen the last couple of days are the usual crowd of starlings, always with one little sparrow in their midst, and a couple of blackbirds.

I haven't seen anything on the nyger seeds but they do seem to have gone down a little bit in the feeder; unless I am just trying to convince myself.

I've just topped up all the feeders and cleaned the open mesh feeder and the water bowl that are on my pole with the hanging feeders. The water bowl wasn't too bad but the mesh feeder........Ugh! I have seen pigeons sitting in it and I think all the neighbourhood birds are using it as a public convenience. What we go through just to have a few birds in the garden. I think we must be mad.

Ah Vera but the garden is too quiet when there aren't any birds. :-)

Oh Vera ,the big Wood Pidgeons seem to use their Birdbath as a loo.They don't half make a mess (especially being big birds :-S )
The night before last I heard a bird I hadn't heard before.It was about 8pm.So I managed to get a recording of it and asked a friend to have a listen .She says it is a Nightingale :-D :-D.I have had a good listen to several tracks of Nightingale Song on line and I am sure that is what it was.How excited was I :-D :-D.
I do hope it comes back again.

How lovely Jane. Near where we used to live were some woods that had nightingales and every year there were a couple of organised walks to hear them, but we never managed to go. Always regretted that.

There were two chaffinches on the seeds this morning. I had seen one outside the front of the house but this is the first time I have seen them come into the garden so I am pleased about that.

Jane, lucky you, I don't think there are so many around these days, I am not sure that I have ever heard one, although I probably did when young and wouldn't think anything of it. I gree up a stones throw from fields whichw ere our playground.

Very slowly slowly catchee monkey (or in your case, chaffinch :-D)

kandj I am sorry to read that your OH is poorly, as with others I am thinking of and praying for you to have strength to cope with each day.<3

Lesley x

Hi Lesley, good to see you back on here, I missed your postings. Hope all is ok with you. :-)

Oh Lesley ,I wondered what had become of you.Are you busy on that big garden? it must be like a full time job.
I have a very funny Chaffinch here.It has taken to walking up and down the windowsill under the feeder.I just keep seeing it's head going back and forth lol.But it is making rather a mess of the sill :-S.In fact I think I will go and clean it off now .
It has been a nasty drizzly day here ,but finally it seems to be brightening up.Bit late in the day really :-|
I saw in our paper about a Red Kite that some nasty evil so and so shot .It was transferred to somewhere in Norfolk ,but sadly had to be put down :-( :-(

I hope they catch the person who shot the Kite Jane, some gamekeeper somewhere maybe.

I have just put a photo of some young doves on the photo blog, in our garden yesterday. :-)

Ann it was peppered with pellets .Im guessing it was someone taking pot shots :-S.I doubt very much they will find the culprit .It showed a pic of the Xray with the pellets in its wing.
Gosh it is pretty miserable here now .The drizzle is back and it is so dark.I have just turned the heating up a bit.
Will have a look at your Doves now :-D

very drizzly here now too. Just looked out of my 'office' window and one of the young doves is back on the bird feeder tray, It is one of those that hangs from the multi feeder pole and close to the house, it does look sad, all puffed up and wet and probably cold too. No mum around this time

Oh, Mum has just arrived to feed it, baby is almost the same size as Mum

That is a lovely pic Ann.They look very comfy on that feeder lol.
The Male Blackbird and a Chaffinch have been at loggerheads on the feeder.They keep trying to knock each other off :-S

Just seen my first Swift :-D :-D

Don't see them here in the garden but OH sees them over the golf club five minutes away :-)

I have been fascinated watching the Squirrel on the Peanut ball getting rid of all the skin on the nuts before eating them.The ground underneath is like a carpet of discarded skins :-S.It has been a busy day bird wise.Lots flying here and there with beaks full of 'stuff'.One of my Robins on the window feeder filled its beak with pellets before taking off.It looked quite tatty so I guess it must be feeding babies.

So here we are again at the end of the B/H weekend and just a few weeks before the next one :-D

Still thinking of Kandj and hoping her OH is improving <3

I saw a young deer this morning. It was lying in the grass in the middle of a field. But the grass was very short (it still hasn't grown back fully since the flood earlier in the year). So I saw it poking it's head up. It was probably looking for its mum. The doe usually go off to feed themselves away from their young so as not to draw attention to them. :-)

Shortly after that I saw a rat. It was very slow. I think it was on its way out. :-(

Lovely to see the deer Graham, not so sure about the rat :-(

Have been to the Isle of Wight for a couple of days and saw several buzzards flying, though I didn't see any perched.

Got back home and found the suet cake and the fat balls practically gone and the seed feeder empty, though the peanuts don't seem to be going down much.

The starlings have been out in force again today and I think they are the ones eating most of the food, though I have seen a blue tit and a great tit on the fat balls a couple of times.. I have also discovered that I didn't imagine the nyger seeds are going down but sadly I don't seem to have tempted the goldfinches in. It's the sparrows. When they have picked out all the seeds they fancy from the seed feeder, they move on to the nyger seeds. I spent a good few minutes watching a couple of them through the window today.

Still thinking of Kandj and her OH and hoping things are improving for them.