The thrush is not a particularly conspicuous visitor – it never comes down to the lawn to feed, but it will occasionally have a bath and strut its beautiful speckled breast about in the sunshine. Going through the garden, particularly around the steps, I regularly see empty snail shells, however today was the first time… Continue reading The thrush at work…
Author: baebell
More-or-less retired academic in the lively arts.
There comes a limit…
We’re beginning to expect to see the woodpeckers as regular visitors and I believe that I’ve identified two pairs, one large and one smaller, although the same type of birds. The larger individuals come from the West, over the school roof, whereas the smaller birds are arriving from the North, over the other gardens down… Continue reading There comes a limit…
If there’s a rustle in the hedgerow…
The snow-in-summer has grown both outwards, so that it’s curving about the closest roses, and upwards with longer stalks holding the delicate white daisylike flowers. However, now the foraging sparrows really are invisible, bar a thrashing and waving of the foliage, until they emerge abruptly at the edge of the clump and fall down to… Continue reading If there’s a rustle in the hedgerow…
What’s mine is mine…and what’s yours is mine too
This morning I added a handful of dried mealworms to the three-quarter coconut, scattered a few amongst the usual seed mix and was intrigued by the response of the various birds. A jackdaw given half a chance would hoover up anything within reach, whilst a blackbird appeared to collect a mixture of the dried worms… Continue reading What’s mine is mine…and what’s yours is mine too
Dumpling takes a bath…
Some of the fledglings are venturing into the small water tray for a bath, but it is a technique that needs refining. You would think that the little birds whose fledgling behaviour entails following closely on their parents fluttering their wings would find it easier to translate that movement into the bathing technique, but they… Continue reading Dumpling takes a bath…
A moment of opportunity…
The fat block was the main source of attraction today. I’ll need to see if the butcher has some suet. Three woodpeckers came, at one time or another, tucking their tails up to steady the wireblock. They are beautiful, but one valuable thing has been the little gaps between the bigger birds, when a bluetit… Continue reading A moment of opportunity…
The right to eat…
With the storm having died away the garden is once again alive with birds, although it has taken some of them a while to find the relocated cone feeder. I put a handful of seed into the three-quarter coconut and two male chaffinches discovered it early on, going back-and-forth to take beakfuls of seed away.… Continue reading The right to eat…
Stormy weather…
The wind is finally dying down, just as the light is fading. I’ve moved a couple of the feeders. The three-quarter coconut was scoured clean inside, so I put peanuts and some fat and seed crumbs from another fat block into it. I’ll try it as a seed container, with no more than a handful… Continue reading Stormy weather…
A close run thing…
A near disaster averted today…I almost stood on the dumpling blackbird, reeling down the side path carrying a ladder in a howling gale, it shot out from beneath my feet and across into the fruit bushes protesting loudly. The wind has been gusting angrily since the early hours of the morning, the lawn beneath the… Continue reading A close run thing…
The second time as farce…
There are a number of memes and cartoons currently on the go which purport to show the disintegration of parents wrestling with home-schooling and the sense of their normal selves being overwhelmed. This morning I saw a starling busily collecting nesting materials, going from the rosebed to the base of the retaining wall, until it… Continue reading The second time as farce…
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 