Wednesday 23 June 2010

Hang on to Your Food if You Can

From time to time birds find food elsewhere and bring it to my garden to eat. Most often it is large lumps of bread. This juvenile Starling had found something but I can't make out whether it is an apple core or a chunk of cake. The young birds can find food but are not yet fully garden wise in the ways of keeping it. Who will end up with a free meal?



Did you guess which bird would end up with it?

I am sure one Hedgehog has learned the sounds which mean it is safe to come for its early night feast. Once Bobby has had his last tour of the garden I bolt the back door and I am sure the squeak the bolts make is one of the signals the hog listens for as it usually arrives a few minutes later.

Hedgehog

While I was pottering about down the bottom of the garden I had noticed the occasional bee leaving one compost bin. I kept watch and sure enough there was a constant stream of red tailed bumblebees in and out of the bin which is partly open at the front.



Most of them made a quick detour on the way in to see what I was up to but then carried on with the job in hand. I had always thought of bumblebees as being fairly solitary but apparently there can be up to 200 red tails in a nest.

8 comments:

  1. Love that first clip John. Had me chuckling here as he landed, and took that bread lol

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  2. Hi John, hope you and Bobby are OK. We liked your hedgie piccy. Yes, I think you are right in that they learn the sounds when it is safe.I sat near our ATM for an hour yesterday and no hedgie appeared. I gave up and as soon as I had reached the back door, stool in hand, I heard shuffling in the alley and one appeared at the ATM and started munching.
    We found your recent hedgie mating captures quite fascinating to watch also.

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  3. Lovely videos. I knew composts were environmentally friendly and a good thing but it's great to have the additional bonus of providing a home for bees to!! - and it gives the compost even longer to - compost! ;)

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  4. Nice video with the juvenile Starlings, John. That is one thing about Starlings, they may be rowdy but they are always entertaining!

    The bolts on the back door are better than a dinner gong then :)

    Lovely photos of the juvenile Blue Tit on the previous post and you would have thought that tin was much too hot for the Starling. The Blackbirds were sunbathing in my garden a few days ago in exactly the same spot they always do!

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  5. Hello Keith. Yes. The arrival of the Jackdaw was like a bolt out of the blue - they don't miss much even when we don't even see them around.

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  6. Hello Twosie. Yes. We are fine thank you. Most nights, no matter what time I lock up the hog appears soon after. Having read about the mating behaviour it was fascinating to see some of it in real life.

    I have looked at you new camera position videos, great, just a bit behind leaving comments at the moment.

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  7. Hello Tricia. I am pleased I spotted the bees as that was where the next pile of grass cuttings would have gone. Now I will have to leave that heap for a while.

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  8. Hello Jan. Yes. Starlings are always entertaining in their own brash, bossy, noisy way.

    I winder why birds choose the hottest places. Probably to with trying to get rid of mites. Have often seen birds with wings spread on pavements and road surfaces.

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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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