Corvid Visitors

I sometimes see a Jackdaw pay a fleeting visit to the garden. A few days ago I spotted a couple of them on the lawn:



After a short while they were joined by a Rook.



Recently a Rook has been making early morning visits to the bird feeders.



It usually manages to extract a suet ball or suet log which it enjoys on the ground.



This morning I spotted a Rook which seemed to be self identifying as a Blue Tit as it clung on the feeders to get its share of what was on offer. Fortunately the camera which monitors the feeders caught the action:



I sometimes think they expend as much energy trying to feed as they get from what they manage to eat.

Jackdaw

Don't often see a Jackdaw in the garden. This one was recorded having a drink.



I was relieved to see that a trail camera had recorded a couple of visits by a hedgehog recently. Also there were a couple of visits by a fox.

Blackbird Family

Well, dad and two of the three kids. One moved away just as I started to take photographs.



Where can I find some more food:


I'll try here:


 

That wasn't much of a beak full, try again:


And so it went on for several minutes.

A short while later I spotted a Jackdaw in the same place:



Don't see those very often in my garden.
 

Friday at the Flicks

There has been little of interest going on this week. Plenty of dull days when photography has been virtually impossible. By my reckoning we have had just three days without some rain this month.  On top of that the PC has gradually been playing up more and more as it reaches the end of its useful working life.

Early yesterday morning I had a lone Jackdaw visit. It spent a good half hour hunting under the bird feeders and perusing the lawn. Tried several times to get a still shot but poor light levels gave a shutter speed of 1/4 second or longer. In desperation I tried video. Surprisingly that looked clear and bright. In fact the 70D made a very decent job of it though, as the camera was hand held, it was not as steady as I would have liked. Apart from compressing the video and adding a title this is as taken under conditions so poor it had difficulty focussing:



No sound as all you would have heard was the kettle boiling for the first cuppa of the day.
I get the impression from its general size and behaviour that it may have been a juvenile.

Where There's a Will There's a Way

A little thing like the size of wire mesh being too small for a Jackdaw to get on the bird table doesn't put off a resourceful corvid:

Wings on Wednesday - Bread

From time to time I put a slice of bread in one of the feeders.
As often as not a corvid will drag it out and drop it on the grass.

If you are a Jackdaw then you pull off beak sized pieces.
If you are a Blackbird you pull off beak sized pieces.
If you are a Starling you grab the lot and fly off with it:

Wings on Wednesday - Jackdaw, Starling, Blue-tailed Damselfly

It was nice to have a Jackdaw come close enough to get a decent head crop. They usually disappear as soon as I raise the camera.



Lots of Starlings visiting at the moment. The small birds usually wait patiently until there is a free space on the feeders but the Starlings just barge in and push all the other birds out of the way. This one was soaking up the Sunshine and looking very haughty.



Joining the Common Blue Damselflies was this, the first of the Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Wings on Wednesday

There are often light aircraft flying near or over the village, especially at weekends. A very distinctive one I have seen several times over the past few years is this Pitts S1-C amateur build biplane.



A very smart looking aeroplane designed for aerobatics. I see, from looking round the net, that at one stage it had been rebuilt as a seven year project and was on sale for £26,000

Back nearer earth sees the return of Jackdaws. They had been missing for a couple of months but are now back attacking the bread I put out for the corvids.



They don't stay for long when they notice anyone watching.

Hungry Juvenile Jackdaw

I'm here Ma and I'm hungry:





Oh well. If you won't feed me I'll see what this tastes like::





Photos were enhanced using the ReDynaMix plugin.

Early Morning Corvids, Great Tit Nest, Moth

Among the earliest visitors each morning are the corvids. Even though there are two or more visits from hedgehogs each night there is often some food left in the dish. This never goes to waste as there are plenty of feathered visitors up at the crack of dawn.



Mrs Great Tit spends most of her time sitting on her eggs with an occasional visit from her mate.



Yesterday as I was checking the pond for any emerging damsels I spotted a large moth resting on the half logs which surround the edge of the pond.  Probably quite a beauty but with my aversion to moths it sent a shiver down my spine. As yet I haven't got round to identifying it, just making sure there was no way it could find its way indoors.



My thanks to Jan of ShySongbird's Twittering for identifying the moth as Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa).

Friday at the Flicks - Corvids, Doves, Goldfinches

Apart from Wednesday which was gloriously sunny most of the day it has been dull and very cloudy - not the best of conditions for photography of any sort. Even more so early mornings when any of the corvid family visit the garden. In fact I have never seen a Carrion Crow actually in the garden and I was surprised to see a couple on the very top of my leylandii tree. I was interested to note the consideration one crow showed as it moved over to make room for another to join it.



Over the past week or so I have spotted a couple of Stock Doves visit daily which makes a change from the regular Collared Doves. It really needs brilliant sunshine to show off the metallic sheen on the Stock Doves' necks.



It doesn't seem that long ago when I could count up to thirty Goldfinches visiting the feeders but this year I am lucky to see three. Usuall there are only a couple.



 Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Checking some aurora sites this morning it would appear the jet of plasma emitted from the Sun slowed down as it approached the earth and didn't produce the effect initially expected.
Spaceweather.com looks to be an interesting site which has, at the moment, a marvellous photo of the Sun's surface activity taken in a UK backyard observatory. Also HERE on the site is a map showing recently uploaded photos from around the world. Click on a pin and then on the thumbnail image to see them larger.

Friday at the Flicks (Surrounded Pigeon, Hungry Young Jackdaws)

Just made it for Friday - combination of a busy day and a sieve for a memory.

These two clips were taken automatically on Thursday morning while I was still in the land of nod.

A Wood Pigeon was becoming surrounded by the early morning invasion of Jackdaws which seem to happen every morning since the youngsters fledged.



A while later the Jackdaws had the food to them selves and the youngsters were as demanding as ever.



When I went out a short while ago to top up the seed feeders I was surprised to find a dead Goldfinch on the ground. Other than being deceased it appeared in perfect condition, its feather in full bright plumage and no noticeable marks to show it may been attacked. Quite a puzzle.

More Prickly Encounters + Giveaway of the Day

Giveaway of the Day has Aiseesoft Total Video Converter available for about another 17 hours at the time of writing. I have installed it (Windozy XP) and it looks a very useful bit of software. In fact I used it to brighten up the following video which was taken at 10.30 p.m. last night. Then the video was completed using Ulead Video Studio, ATVC can crop, cut, merge and save video files in many formats.

Another three way prickly encounter.





These are a few photos I took the other day when the Jackdaw was feeding its young in the garden.

Friday at the Flicks (Jackdaw Feeding Juvenile, Clouds)

Hot off the press, camcorder anyway, this morning is some video of an adult Jackdaw feeding one of its youngsters. I first spotted one juvenile by itself under the Birdy Bistro but an adult near the end of the garden spotted me and flew over to fetch the young one away to safety. Fortunately they stayed under the far feeders while I set up the camcorder.

It's a slow job when you have to find each seed and strip the husk off before you can give it to your offspring. Plenty of noisy Sparrows nearby!



I had rebuilt my electronic gizmo which fires the 350D at fixed, chosen intervals and set the camera up in the garden last Tuesday to give it its final test run. Fascinating on a hot afternoon the way each cloud bubbles up and disappears and the way winds blow them in different directions at various levels.

956 photos (one taken every 6 seconds)  make up this video clip which was automatically produced using VideoMach.



 Have a great weekend observing the natural world around you.

Friday at the Flicks (Hungry Hedgehogs, Hungry Jackdaws)

In spite of the rain a couple of nights ago the juvenile Hedgehogs paid several visits to the feeding area. In this video the captures have been speeded up to show the full night's activity.



As often seems to happen there was one altercation during the night where Hooligan the Hedgehog charges at the other juvenile. The victim curls up in a ball and I can't quite make out whether it carries on eating or whether it is licking an injured foot. Rain on the camera makes the picture somewhat blurred.



 Last night there was a youngster crunching away at the dried mealworms when Bobby and I went out for a last look round the garden. The Hedgehog carried on eating for a short while before making a dash for the shelter of the Hedgehog House, returning to eat once we had gone back indoors.



This clip of Jackdaws was taken some while ago. It always makes me smile watching the one on the right. After it falls off it spends a while trying to puzzle out why the other Jackdaw can reach the food more easily that it can.


Have a great weekend observing the wildlife wherever you are.

Wet Hedgehogs, Jackdaw Juveniles, Fruit to Come

It was quite surprising to see how much Hedgehog activity there was on Saturday night as it rained on and off for hours, sometimes very heavily. I don't know where they were sheltering but every time the rain eased off there would be one visiting the feeding area.



I don't always check the recorded activity  once it has started to get light but had noticed for a while now that the Jackdaws were very early visitors. On closer examination of the video captures I could see that they were bringing their young ones to feed. It was interested to see how the adults mainly fed from the ground while the juveniles were allowed to feed from the dish of seeds.



I had a look round yesterday to see whether the heavy rain had knocked any fruit from my patio fruit trees. No. My one pear, the first the tree has produced, and several plums were still growing nicely - again the first that tree has produced.

       

There are lots of blackcurrants on the bushes which are swelling nicely and the raspberry flowers were being pollinated by a host of bees.



Just about ready for tasting is the first of my strawberries to ripen in the greenhouse.



Unfortunately the plants haven't produced much fruit but I have no doubt I will enjoy it none the less.

Hungry Corvids

It has become a regular event to see four or five Jackdaws in the garden along with three or four Rooks eating the left over seed I scatter on the lawn. They have quite different eating habits. The Rooks gather and store seed in the pouch under their beaks whereas the Jackdaws eat there and then.

Yesterday there was one Rook among three Jackdaws. It was getting quite annoyed as they encroached on its feeding area and kept trying to chase them off but it was no match for a group.







In the end it waddled away to a different part of the garden leaving the spoils to the Jackdaws.





I usually put a slice of bread in one of the feeders which helps to fill up the larger birds. Yesterday a Rook had managed to pull out quite a large piece and was sat for a while with it in its beak as if it was working out what was the best way to deal with its prize.



There is never a dull moment watching the larger birds as I can often see them stand and look carefully from various positions as they work out how to approach a problem.

Quite a surprise this morning when we got back from an earlier than usual early morning walk as there was a tight group of eleven Rooks feeding on the lawn. Still too dark to photograph unfortunately.

Blackbirds and Jackdaws

I am still getting anything up to 18 Blackbirds visiting each day, especially at daybreak. This female was waiting patiently for the squabblers to move out of the way so she could nip down for a quick meal.



I wonder how long it will be before the winter visitors return to their native land.

Also becoming regular are short visits by up to 6 Jackdaws. They are very cautious and disappear rapidly when they spot me looking through the kitchen window. This individual is easy to pick out as it has an unusual amount of white feathers showing amongst the normal dark grey and black. I wonder if it is the same one I photographed last February.



Weather is a mixture of short sunny intervals combined with long dull cloudy periods coupled with drizzle and the occasional snow shower. Next task, a quick visit to the local Focus store for another large bag of high energy no mess bird seed. The birds are getting through seed even faster than they did in the colder weather. The small feeder was half empty by 8.30 this morning. By now the supply of hedgerow berries must be pretty well depleted and with the constant damp, cold days insects must also be in short supply.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

Taking a one hour snapshot of the bird visitors to the garden usually brings up some surprises. As I observe from day to day there is hardly a time when there isn't one or more of the tit families at the feeders. During the count I though there would be none right up to the last few minutes and no Coal Tits appeared though they had been frequent visitors for weeks. Normally I spot the odd Jackdaw from time to time so it was quite a surprise when four landed at the same time. Also there are usually quite a few Chaffinches but only three turned up in that hour.

The final results were:



Of course I had the camera to hand, just in case.

Not now dear, I've got a headache ....


I wonder what Blackbird tastes like ...


It had been a beautiful sunny day, though cold, and the sky stayed clear into the night which gave me a chance to try to capture the full Moon.



A few days ago I mentioned that the Wood Pigeon on the feeder looked as though it needed pince nez to focus on the food. Well, Glo from Porcelain Rose took that as a challenge and the result can be seen here:

http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae351/les_0277/dove-pince-nez.gif

A great piece of animation from Glo. Brilliant.

Plenty of Garden Visitors

Nothing out of the ordinary but plenty of bird visitors to the garden today. Maybe the early sunshine has brought them out. It doesn't take much to get the Collared Doves in the mood for raising a family. This male, on the left, spent a while billing and cooing with much head bobbing but the female wasn't having any of that nonsence at this time of year.



An easily recognised regular amongst the dozen or more Blackbirds which start visiting just as day breaks is this one which has minimal or maybe no tail feathers. I remember one last year without a tail but I don't think this is the same character.



It isn't just the Rooks which are attracted to the fat balls. This Jackdaw was doing an equally good job of feeding itself and the ground feeders milling around underneath.



During most of the really bad weather the Greenfinches spent most of the time feeding from a seed feeder near the bottom of the garden but today there were more of them about so some came to the feeders near the kitchen.



I tried for ages to get some film of a Dunnock which kept visiting the bird table, and failed. All I managed was a shot of it near the bottom of the garden searching round a plant pot which had cracked during frozen weather.



Also in larger numbers than recently were the Chaffinches.



One short piece of action I would loved to have got on film was when a male Chaffinch attacked a Starling. The Starling was sat on a branch minding its own business when the Chaffinch flew straight at it and chased after it as it flew away. Also missed about a week ago was a stranger which visited the fat balls. By the shape it was something like a Nuthatch or Goldcrest but it disappeared almost as soon as I spotted it so identification was impossible. I have seen a Goldcrest visit once in the past.

Another piece of action I failed to get on record was a further visit to the nest box yesterday by a Blue Tit which spent a while investigating every corner. They really are fussy house hunters - everything has to be just right.