2017

My New Buddy

For a couple of weeks a female Blackbird has usually flown in to greet us when we returned from our mid afternoon walks. She usually lands on top of the fence a couple of feet away, watches and follows me knowing that I will be putting some food out for her.



She has gradually become bolder and will now feed a few feet away from me. For this bit of video I crouched down about three feet (1m) away. She watched me for a short while and then tucked in to some mini suet sticks:



I try to get a bit closer each day and hope she may end up taking food from my hand.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunrise Christmas Day 2016

Best Wishes

Wordless Wednesday

The Blackbird and the Robin

I'm always trying to find ways of making some of the bird food available only to smaller birds. I have this wire cage in which one is supposed to hang a feeder but in practice it is very inconvenient and quite a faff when the inner feeder needs topping up. I decided to just plonk it over a feeder tray and see what happened. Some of the larger birds can get their heads through but at least it slows them down. The smaller birds can hop inside and help themselves. I can get interesting, and amusing at times, when different sizes arrive together:

Clear Sky at Last

I've lost count of how many overcast, dull days we have had recently. This morning started partially cloudy but soon cleared to give a welcome blue sky and brilliant Sunshine. Around breakfast time I noticed the Moon was visible so took advantage to take a photo:



And a bit later one of the Sun to see if there were any Sunspots:



No. None that I could see anyway.

Squirrel Nut Feeder

I have been enthralled reading Shirley's accounts of Red Squirrels visiting her garden. See Shirl's Gardenwatch.  It was interesting to see a simple suggestion of using a clothes peg to hold up the lid on a nut feeder until the squirrel got used to lifting the lid itself. Of course I had to try out the idea myself. Unfortunately we do not have the attractive native Red Squirrels in my part of the country. I have to make do with the imported Grey Squirrel.

First job, find the nut feeder I though I had. Long search, nothing. Then I remembered the one I had was plastic, well squirrel chewed and had a fixed lid. So, make one or look for something to convert. Another long search eventually turned up an old wooden nest box which I set about converting:



Now I have to wait for a squirrel to visit and find the new food stash and see what happens.

Wordless Wednesday

Friday at the Flicks - Blue Tits

This was just a bit of practice with the free Mac video editor - MovieMator
As MovieMator crashed ever time I tried to add any titles I had to finish the video in iMovie:

We Belong Together

Looking at this photo you might think the Robin was keeping an eye out for any predator:



Actually I had been watching a pair of Robins for a while. It was a fair bet that two Robins close together in the same garden meant a possible breeding pair. This pair kept moving from place to place. Whenever the female rested the male would start displaying, bowing down and then lifting his head to show the full effect of his red breast. When this photo was taken the female was perched on a wire above his head.

I was hoping to catch the moment when the male offers food to the female. I have seen it once in the past but if it happened this time it was out of sight.

Wordless Wednesday

The Grey Acrobat

Earlier in the year I took down the pole which was holding the seed feeders and replaced it with a rope. The Grey Squirrel had been finding it too easy to get at the bird food and was eating a disproportionate amount. This way I hoped to slow it down somewhat. It took a few goes for the squirrel to work out the best way to approach the new set up but it soon became adept at balancing:







This morning I managed to grab a short piece of video before it disappeared:

Sunset Wednesday