I'm going to have to spend a little time and effort to learn to use Adobe photo shop. I had cropped it (so you couldn't see the huts and greenhouse as they look rather a mess just now), but it wouldn't save the bit I wanted. I'll have to do a course on it. My son tried to show me last time he was home, but I found using the layers quite confusing.
BIRDS IN THE GARDEN
I have the Dell one, Jasc Paint Shop, didn't pay for the upgrade as AOL9 has a good photo shop on the Picture Finder which does me. It''s very simple, if you crop then all you do is close the X at the top, it asks you if you want to save, that simple! if you want to keep the original, then click 'Save' at the top menu, it will just put a no. (2) etc next to the original title, and click 'save' then close the page and you have both.
We've had some lovely birds in the garden this week with all the snow. It is a bit warmer today so the snow has gone and the frogs are in full swing. There are hundreds of them in the big pond and it is just like frog spawn soup round the edges.
Here is a photo of a greater spotted woodpecker I took this morning. I'm actually sitting in bed with my cup of tea - can't get much more civilized birdwatching.
Great to have it so close! I have noiticed a lot of activity amongst the birds the last few days, they can't wait for spring!
I captured a blackbird having a bath in our beck, there was also a blue tit nearby. I have niticed they come at the same time for a bath as the blackbirds, or vice versa. Strange, if it was the first option I would think they were using them as cover against hawks. I got some of the blue tit having a bath just after the blackbird, but further along but it was too small to get a good pic., I need a bigger zoom lens.
pic 1 shaking itself
pic2
pic3 with bluetit on leaves to the right
pic4 with bluetit on dead stem and blackbird having a shake again
pic5 blackbird throwing a fountain
There were doves around, a pair on the tree, then one was left preening its tail feathers. I took it on the zoom and then cropped it, surpisingly crisp but a grey day so dark.
I like the splashing blackbird and the photo of the dove is very unusual.
We've had a pair of collared doves regularly for the past few weeks, but unfortunately Izzy the cat from across the road caught and ate the female yesterday. There were feathers everywhere and the male kept coming back to look for her. I felt very sad, but it is nature, and today a pair of long tailed tits were busy collecting the fluffy feathers for their nest, so some good came out of it.
I've taken steps to keep Izzy away from the feeders. I have sprayed the smelly tar stuff that you put on the chickens to stop them feather pecking all over the hiding place in the hedge that she uses, but I'll bet she just finds another place.
There was a pair of bullfinches in the garden this morning the male was busy eating the food I had put on the bird table, and the female was equally busy eating all the flower buds on the plum tree - typical.
I loved the photo of the blackbird doing his ablutions....
We have one here that in the summer, when I've been sat on my patio, it comes down onto the gravel patio which is just up a couple of steps from this one, and it seems to sunbathe ,it spreads its wings right out, and crouches down on the ground, motionless.
I always wondered if it did that because it felt safe near a human ..daft as it may sound..but i have had quite a few hawk attacks here, so maybe they think it won't attack when a humans near.
My remaining cat is too old to chase birds now, poor old thing has a job to walk, let alone build up any speed!!...or jump..thankfully (for the birds)
I had to chuckle at the vision of you sitting in bed watching the birds...comfy viewing!!...I did try putting up a feeder on the eaves, but nothing seemed to want to visit it, and after spending 3 weeks constantly tapping on my window in the breeze (much to his annoyance..) it finally fell down in a gale.
When the roses grow in the summer, I get a bit more foliage around the window then, sometimes I can see s few little birds on it, but not many.
Jazzy, my daughters bedroom is on the north side of the house, and our back wall is smothered in climbers, roses, clematis, etc, and right outside her bedroom the sparrows roost, the noise from them is incredible some mornings..
We put a feeder up in her window, and they flock to that one, bit like a take away on your door step I suppose.
A little mouse used to go on there at night too, so Jazzy put a little mouse box in the foliage outside her window, don't know if anythings inthere.
The feeders that I've got out are being emptied at a rate of knots at the moment, I seem to be refilling them every couple of days.
When hubby did my sunlounge out, the lovely comfy ,battered sofas went, and in came a nice new metal dining set...lovely to eat from in the summer, but not very condusive to curling up in , snuggly and warm, and just watching the birds.and with this cold weather, it hasn't really been warm enough to sit outside at all yet.1/2 hour of sitting on one of the chairs and your bums numb!!...must persuede him that we need just a little sofa in there...even a wicker one would do.
I blame Ikea, the metal may look smart, but bring back the chintz!
sue your wall sounds lovely, I bet there are birds nesting amongst all that growth. I have Virginia creeper on the west wall on one side of the window, a climbing rose Guinee on the other with a clematis Jackmanii, but it gets a bit dry there and moles dig around, the rose has been slow but after about 5 years looks like doing something, and jackmanii got mildew but is alive. Virginia creeper is robust!
On the south wall I have a passiflora caurulea which goes to the roof, I cut some back each year as it gets dead ends and needs to be controlled, last autumn there was a small nest in it. There is also a tit nest box on the wall just around the corner from our back (east) door which I thought wasn't in use, but I have seen a bird flit very quickly to it, and have heard the tapping when they are 'preparing' it. The tit box on the oak tree is always in use, a neighbour took out a tree that had a box on it, I suppose they are short of boxes! Must make more available.
The mouse must have thought it a friendly place, bed and breakfast all in one place!
It could be right about the blackbirds, ours are quite tame as they grow up with us, one female used to follow me along the border as I cleaned the edges about 2 feet away waiting for worms. They feed their young on leftover cat food from near the back wall, one recently was waiting for me to go so it could feed! I had noticed them in 2004 sunning themselves on the lawn, it was actually hot for a while. The Mallard ducks do the same, for a short spell they sun themselves on the bank of the beck.
Well I'm back from holiday and it's nice to see some sunshine here too. Didn't see many unusual birds in Cyprus. The best ones were a Hoopoe and then two Lesser kestrels which were mobbing an ordinary kestrel while it was having a dust bath.
I had a good bird watching session yesterday morning - 20 species of birds came to the feeders in front of my bedroom window in about 45 minutes. We usually only get so many in really bad weather and when it improves there are usually about 12 regulars at any one time.
The greater spotted woodpeckers have started coming quite often for the fat blocks and the long tailed tits like the fat too. I'm trying to see where they are nesting as they are collecting feathers, but haven't spotted it yet.
We have a kamikazi blackbird in the garden. It is a young female and I'm pretty sure it is the one that the mother bird trained to grab worms while I was digging last year. It is even bolder than its mum and dives under the spade if it sees a worm. Very dangerous, but amusing.
Pat was it warm? Wouldn't they let you stay? We've only just started getting sunshine, it has to warm up sometime!
The mind boggles at that many species of birds, can you list them? I had a blackbird female that used to wait near me for worms, only one year though. They are a bit too brave! There was a male squashed on the road not long ago, just opposite, they nest in the hedge across the road. I saw the female come over for a drink, she will have a nest of young ones to feed on her own. I felt sorry for her, it's a risky business nesting one side, drinking the other.
I saw my regular wagtail a few days ago, the female was also there. I don't think I have seen the female before, the male darts around the 'lawn' after insects quite often. I got some pics, but it was dull and I had the camera on zoom, it was trying to focus on the bank in front of me I think. I got 2 pics with both in the frame, in one they were about a foot apart but it was blurred. The other they are at either edge.
I saw a bird on the electricity cable, another flying in, they looked unusual and it was the wagtails. A wood pidgeon keeping guard too!
A shot of the male
I did an image search for the wagtail, and the mystery birds I saw could have been the white wagtail, an immigrant from Europe. The wings were light brown with some white/black pattern but not much, and the head had a black cap, it seems to match. The size would be right too
http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/image?query=wagtail
I like the wagtail pics. and glad you've identified your mystery bird.
We sometimes get grey wagtails around the pond but I've not seen the pied wagtail in the garden for a couple of years although we do see them nearby.
My bird list for the 4th had our first summer migrant - the chiffchaff. There were three of them calling to each other from different trees across the garden. Sorry to be boring but here is the list:
House sparrow
Rook
Starling
Blackbird
Robin
Dunnock
Wren
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Siskin
Redpoll
Bluetit
Great tit
Woodpigeon
Greater spotted woodpecker - female
Long tailed tit
Collared dove
Chiffchaff
Bullfinch
Magpie
Most of these were pairs with large numbers of siskins, chaffinches and goldfinches. I've just counted again and it is 21 not 20. The only regular I didn't see was the coal tit and I'm not too pleased with the bullfinches as they have taken a fancy to the blossom buds on one of the plum trees.
Izzy the neighbours cat has set up a new hiding place behind the pear tree and so I've had to take steps to put her off. I've already sabotaged her previous hiding place inside the hedge by putting holly branches in it and also spraying it with the smelly tar spray you put on chickens to stop them feather picking. So I've also sprayed around the base of the pear tree where she sits and put down rose prunings and a few gooseberry twigs. I just hope my cat doesn't prick her paws on them.
Patt you have a good range of birds there. The Redpoll is a rare bird isn't it? I remember years ago that it was, I had a husband who knew all the birds and their sounds, and there was one nesting at the top of a railway bank in a bush.
I haven't seen some of these, but if I fed them I might. Do you have open country around you? The long tailed tits, chaffinch, siskins I haven't seen either. Some might be difficult to spot unless close.
Talking about cheeky blackbirds, and cats, there was a male blackbird trying to elbow in on the cat food today as our straypuss was eating. It always notices when the food is out and hangs around, but today it was funny to watch as it went from one side to the other, up on a pot, behind the cat, trying to work out how to pinch some.
I have seen a pair of birds lately that I don't know. The size of a sparrow, the male has broad white bands on its breast and wings. The female has the colouring of a Dunnock, but the size of a sparrow. They were out the back on a rhododendron, the male went on the coal bunker so I got a pic from upstairs through the window. The female sat on top of the rhodo with a feather in her mouth and I snapped her too.
The female
Spot the camouflaged bird
Janet, your pictures haven't come on. Don't know if it is my computer or not.
The redpoll is quite rare, it is more of a moorland bird round here and we rarely see it in the garden. But they must have been short of food and having a bit of a struggle with the bad winter and come into the garden more than usual this year.
Your blackbird likes living dangerously. They do seem to like cat food don't they?
Two of my hens, the Lavender Araucana, also like cat food. Yesterday I didn't close the kitchen door properly when I went up the garden to feed the hens and when I came back the Araucana had gone in the kitchen and eaten all the cat's breakfast. They ran outside again when they saw me, like naughty children.
Patt Dave is putting in a new server and has over a million to transfer, look at daves G forum. Yours are in the Daffs thread, mine all missing, none in PF either!
I have looked through the RSB site and found a Grasshopper Warbler that looks similar to the bird on the Rhododendron with a feather in it's mouth. That and the one on the coal bunker were in the rhodo together and I assumed they were a pair, now not so sure. The grasshopper Warbler's call could be what I heard not long ago, I was hearing it every day around 12 noon and it sounded as though it was in the conker tree, but couldn't see it. I have a feeling it was too long ago for this bird, it says from April. I came to the conclusion it must have been a woodpecker as it was a sort of rattle, but it didn't quite sound right . The G Warbler makes a cricket like trill, could this be it? It also states they move like a little mouse creeping through the foliage. The one on the bunker was creeping through the rhodo, it reminded me of a wren the way it darts around. You can't see the breast but it had possibly two broad bands of white going across it, or appeared to have, but the white was stark. There is no mention of male/female differences on the RSPB.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/g/grasshopperwarbler/index.asp
If you look to the left of the bird on the rhodo there is another a short distance away, I hadn't seen it until I cropped the picture. It doesn't quite look like a sparrow, there looks to be a greenish colour on the wing but isn't a good shot.
Blackbird and Straypuss
He makes a move to the other side
And back....
He went right up to the half barrel with the azalea in, and around the other side of it, hopped on a pot and onto the barrel, wondering how he could sneak in! Kept doing this for ages, Straypuss was SO slow eating.....
What's that dang bird doin'!
Still no photos Janet. You would know by the song if you had grasshopper warblers in the garden. It does sound like a cricket and sings its little heart out, usually at dusk. I haven't seen one but have heard them quite often where farmland joins woodland on the South side of Sheffield. The summer migrants have been arriving over the past couple of weeks, so it could be. Look forward to the pictures appearing for a bit of a clue.
Patt mine are showing up to the 'Spot the camougflaged bird', the bottom ones missing, though they were there last night. I did notice some others going missing later, as noted by several others in Daves thread.
The sound I heard if you think of a woodpecker tapping wood, or maraccas, a slighty duller sound than the tapping but continuous. It is a sound I hadn't heard before. Whatever it is they were building a nest with feathers!
The more I look at that bird with the feather in its mouth I think it's a sparrow! It does look to have slight differences though, there are so many little brown birds. The markings on its head, the beige stripe behind its eye and dark line under look much stronger, and wing pattern slightly different. I have a pic of female sparrows too.
You can just see the white on the other bird going around its neck, there was so much white it really stood out on its breast. Other than that it looks sparrow-like too! The other bird on the rhodo definitely is not a sparrow, I can see at least 3 different colours on its wing, the top greenish, a bit of whitish, brown, then blackish. It looks to have a finch beak too, shame I can't blow it up more but it loses too many pixels.
Sparrows
The photos have appeared. The blackbird is certainly living dangerously. The cat looks as though it is saying "who's creeping about behind my back?"
Yes, the other birds are sparrows, and your spot the bird is a Song Thrush. It is surprising how variable the markings are on birds of the same species if you look closely enough. We probably just don't take that much notice of sparrows. There is a very striking Chaffinch in our garden that stands out from all the others as he has much more white on his wing feathers and all his colours are bolder and brighter. He's obviously the top bird.
Even the ordinary birds are different, I've mentioned before one of the female blackbirds which looks as though it has a beige coloured necklace on so she is easy to pick out from all the others. There was even a white blackbird in the woods nearby for a couple of years, and when I was a little girl a blackbird with a white head lived in the garden for about 6 years.
The Thrush has been around a lot lately, must be nesting here again after the magpie got their young a couple of years ago. I haven't seen magpies this year as yet.
That bird on the bunker has such a bright white breast it's hard to imagine it being a sparrow, but the rest of it looks like one!
I can imagine an albino bird, but one with a white head seems very odd. I have seen albino pheasants, I don't suppose you would see if the blackbird had pink eyes!
Would you know it! I saw a magpie the next day alight in a tree for a quick gander!
I have had some chaffinches on the freshly cut moss-grass lately, coming every day, the female just plods around without a care. I haven't seen them regularly before, only a glimpse, that was the other bird on the rhododendron.
I have been taking pics on the zoom through the window, it comes quite close. It is so sweet, nick-named Orville due to that bottom. I think there are 2 different females, another I took from the front window looks less patterned on the wings. The male flitted onto a low branch over the water yesterday, saw him again today land on the grass with the female and got both in the same shot, not downloaded yet.
Mr beautiful!
Got a grub.
Chaffinches are lovely colourful little birds aren't they. Lots of birds are really attractive close up, even house sparrows, although they all look brown and boring from a distance.
I've heard the first cuckoo this week and the woodpecker has been drumming in the woods across the road all day. It quite often uses the nest boxes for resonance, but usually ends up pecking them to bits.
A pair of blue tits has finally decided which nest box to use in my garden. They have been going in and out of them all trying to make up their minds.
Yes, chaffinches are lovely birds. We're lucky to have tree sparrows here as well, so it's fun to look at sparrows more closely to see which they are
The hoopoes are back and I'm here with fingers tight crossed that they use the same hole in a lime tree that they did last year, very near the house.....
A nightingale is singing at a friend's house and the swallows are renovating their nests in the barn and sitting.
The redstarts are back and fighting over nest spots and I've heard the golden oriole for ages (but still haven't seen him in the 2 years I've been here)
I think there are great tits in the box the bluetits used last year - there was certainly a battle royal a couple of weeks ago.
Oh and I have 15 3-5 week old chcks just let into the run with the big hens and some more eggs just hatching. One of the hens has just gone broody, so I'm getting some eggs to hatch under her from a friend (the dad is one I hatched last year.
My blue tits were pecking the hole in their box on the oak tree in February, I saw them both so in a few days ago, you have to watch carefully when they are nesting they are secretive then. Of course there is more than one pair but some boxes elsewhere. I saw a starling hanging off the top of it this morning, trying to look in the hole, I suppose they would eat the young.
I heard the tapping sound in the conker tree again this morning, it does sound just like maraccas, a dull woody sound, and each time is only 5 rattles, it just doesn't sound like a woodpecker! Could be the type of wood, but do woodpeckers only do 5 taps at a time? I couldn't see anything.
The pair of chaffinches, not sure if it's the same couple, I think I have seen 2 different females. the male looks duller but it was probably a dull day.
All happening at your place wallaby1 :)
The nuthatches here sometimes make a noise a bit like your describing in your chestnut, so might be them?
Lovely chaffinches
It could be Nuthatches, not really sure what they look like, will have to do a search. There are often birds that I don't know hanging around in the trees, I'm sure I have a nightingale each year now. I saw it last year on the roof of the house, on the ridge, singing away but mostly it's difficult to see them in trees!
I am so pleased to see these chaffinches coming regularly, it pays off to keep a garden organic. Weedkillers can't do the wildlife any good.
philomel you should have your camera strapped to yourself just in case you see that golden oriole, it sounds like you have quite a bit happening there!
Pat I heard the first cuckoo on the 19th, last year they were 3 weeks early. Strange seeing it was so cold, it has always been on May 1st or the evening before.
Our pair of mallards had been on the grass at the front a couple of days not long ago, I have seen the 3 of them flying over. They were in front of the neighbours, I snuck behind my shrubs to get a pic but the camera has focussed on the the shrubs instead
