Sunday 7 June 2009

Honey Visits the Pond + Garden Birds Feeding

Last night Honey visited the paved area by herself. She didn't stay there for very long - about a minute during all the time I was watching.



About twenty minutes after that I let Bobby out in the back garden for his last look round. He had hardly stepped out of the door before he was making a beeline for the pond waterfall and climbed up on the raised flower bed next to it. From about forty feet away he had heard the faint sounds of a Hedgehog. I went over to have a look and there was Honey on the side of the waterfall looking at the water. I have never seen her use the bowl of water I put out and had wondered where she went to drink. Now I know. Henry always drinks from the bowl. Honey would have had to climb to get where she was as there is no slope up to that raised bed. I have heard that Hedgehogs are good climbers. Unfortunately I hadn't taken a camera with me and for once she didn't run away.

This morning, for the first time for quite a few days, I set the camcorder up in the kitchen to see what was going on. Here is a compilation of some of the usual visitors tucking in to whatever was on offer:

Female Blackbird
Juvenile finch - but not sure which
Male Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Adult Starling
Fledgling Starlings
Magpie



I am always fascinated at the way the finches strip the outer shell from Sunflower seeds without losing the kernel.

The most difficult to capture was the Magpie. It came many times but as soon as I just raised my hand to start the video it flew away but I finally managed to catch it unawares.

12 comments:

  1. Nice video clip John. Looks quite windy too; and isn't that Blackbird a messy eater, the way he chucks it around. lol

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  2. Great video of the birds feeding John. I've noticed here that the Magpies and Jackdaws are more skittish than the smaller birds which I find strange.

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  3. Thanks Keith. Yes it has been very windy from time to time. At last we have had some much needed rain but it all came down in half an hour along with a loud thundery accompaniment. A lot of different birds throw the seeds about - probably sorting out their favourites from the mix.

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  4. Thanks Paul. it seems to me that the more intelligent the bird, the more they are aware of possible danger. Another possibility is that they have been victimised for so many generations it is in their nature to beware of humans now.

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  5. The hedgehog videos are turning out well, John. Those fledgling starlings resemble a school dinner queue. Your ground feeder's proving popular - must be a full-time job keeping all those birds fed!

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  6. I really enjoyed the video footage John, your ground feeder is a big success. I have some but they are mainly used by the larger birds. The bird you are unsure of is a Chaffinch.

    I spotted a Magpie on the birdbath the other day and crept out with the camera but of course off it went!

    We had extremely heavy rain again Saturday night which somehow (and I really cannot fathom how) got into one of the bins I keep bird seed in, I think I have about &20 worth of ruined seed!

    I do hope you are feeling a lot better now.

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  7. I always enjoy your videos. The one of the birds was especially interesting this time - I could see the birds picking up little seeds and then spitting out something - I assume it was the shells. btw up until now the videos have always come down in a stop and go fashion. The YouTube ones this time played straight through. Perfect!

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  8. Thanks for the kind comment Rob. Almost as much squabbling as a modern dinner queue as well :)
    All the feeders get topped up first thing and it normally lasts a day.

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  9. Thank you Jan. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of birds which use the ground feeder.

    The fledgeling fooled me as I though I could see a stripe of yellow in the wing which made me have some doubts.

    Better luck next time with the Magpie.

    Sorry to hear about the soaked birdseed, not a cheap item really - lots of microwaving?? They would probably explode when soaked. There was a time when I used to microwave the seed as it is supposed to stop it from growing if it falls on the ground. That was OK when I had just the one feeder. Now I would be at it all day ready for the next morning. Lots of heavy rain here for a change. Needed some.

    Slowly improving, thank you. Still very sore but reducing in size. The worst problem at the moment is the join in socks which runs across the toes is rubbing on a sore big toe. Been right through my sock drawer but can't find any without that join. Are there such things?

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  10. Thank you Mick. I like to get the camera zoomed in as close as possible. It is then possible to see what they are really doing. I find it fascinating the way the finches manipulate a seed to get rid of the husk.

    Thanks for letting me know about the improved playing of the videos. Originally I didn't bother with YouTube as their compression used to make videos blurry but they have improved a lot. It would appear that Flickr messes mine up when they process them.

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  11. Hi John
    Many years ago I lived in North Devon and my garden was surrounded by an eight foot high concrete block wall
    I was awaken in the dead of night by a strange noise and feared burglars
    I sat at my open bed room window and peered out
    I saw where the noise was coming from.
    It was a hedgehog climbing the wall from my neighbour's side into mine
    The noise was caused by the hedgehog's spines scraping on the roughcast rendering as it scaled the heights.
    Once it had reached the top, it rolled itself into a ball and fell into my garden.

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  12. Hi Prof. A B Y. I have read that Hedgehogs are good climbers but I didn't expect that they would be that adept. The ways of wild creatures never ceases to amaze me.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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