Friday at the Flicks - After the Rain + Woody Returns

Some birds were unsure how to proceed after last Monday's heavy rain shower. Some, like the Stock Dove went in for tentative paddling. Starlings, of course, took advantage of a giant bird bath and the Blackbirds collected the worms driven to the surface:



Fortunately with temperatures reaching the mid 20s C it didn't take long for the surface water to evaporate though the ground is still very soggy under foot.


Woody keeps making regular visits. I notice he doesn't seem to eat the peanuts but flies off with them so I guess he has a hungry brood not too far away.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Stock Doves

Every morning this week a pair of Stock Doves have visited the garden. They spend most of their time under the seed feeders feeding on any seeds scattered by the smaller birds:



Unfortunately I wasn't able to video the pair together but did manage a short clip of one:



Even without direct sunlight the metallic like neck feathers can be seen clearly and are an easy way to identify which type of dove it is.

Friday at the Flicks - Stock Doves

How the Stock Dove got its name:
From Wikipedia:
"The word "stock" in the common name of this species refers not to the stock of trade, but comes from the Old English "stocc" meaning "stump, post, stake, tree trunk, log,". Therefore, "Stock Dove" means roughly "a dove which lives in hollow trees"^. Such hollow trees near human settlements would often be taken and used as wood stock for firewood, hence the name."

As well as using hollows in trees they have been known to use rabbit burrows.

A short video of the pair which visited the garden a few days ago:



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Wings on Wednesday

It is a long time since I last had a Wings on Wednesday entry. Amazingly, for the time of year, there has been a dearth of birds visiting the garden this month. Every now and then there is a rush of House Sparrows or Starlings and the Great Tits and Coal Tits are pretty regular but the numbers are well down so far this Winter.

One fleeting visitor was a Stock Dove. I haven't seen one of those for months so this was a welcome sighting.



Not quite so welcome was an early morning visit from a Sparrowhawk. This one was sat on the back of an old wooden chair right next to the Birdy Bistro. What I particularly noticed was the way it had its darker back facing outwards which made it blend in better with the fence in the background.



As soon as it spotted me it flew away to hunt for breakfast elsewhere.

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Rain Gauge:

Only a little further with the rain gauge project. Added the ability to switch off the lCD readout in software. The collector is now outside and the electronics in the conservatory while I see how well it works. 3 mm rain recorded yesterday, 4 mm so far this morning.

The unit uses a 9V wall wart power supply but also automatically changes over to a battery during any power interruption - a far from unknown event in this area.

I have decided to change the Arduino Nano for a Mega as the Mega has internal memory I can use to store the results which looks easier to program than the SD card.

Wings on Wednesday

On and off I get visits from a Stock Dove. The past couple of days there have been two. Maybe a nesting pair not too far away.



Another visitor which is seen occasionally is the Goldfinch. Recently it has been rare to spot two on the feeder.



This is only the second time I have seen this particular bird. I guess it may be a female Blackbird though the feathers are grey rather than brown. This one is a lot more timid than the regular Blackbirds. It certainly looks like a member of the Thrush family. Any positive identification will be welcomed.



Mrs Great Tit roosted again in the nest box last night and has made a few visits to add softer material to the nest.

Wings on Wednesday - Stock Dove

Last year I used to have a few Stock Doves visiting the garden.  So far this year only one has been visiting, or at least only one at a time. I am always fascinated by the neck feathers which glint like coloured tin foil, especially in direct Sunlight.



That is what makes it so easy to distinguish them from other doves which visit the garden.



Most of the time Stock Doves don't build nests but may use hollows in trees and rock faces or even nest in rabbit burrows. There are no rock faces nearby. There may be a few trees with hollows but there are certainly plenty of rabbit burrows in the area.

Wing Exercises, Stock Dove, Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Now the Great Tit chicks are fifteen days old they are often seen preening their wing feathers and having a good flap in the nest as they prepare for the day when they leave the security of the nest box.



Regular visitors to the garden are several Stock Doves, easily recognised by the iridescent neck feathers which glint in the sunlight as though they were made of coloured foil.







During our afternoon stroll round the village I noticed that one field had been harvested and the remaining cut stalks were being made into those enormous round bales which can be seen stored in many fields in the county. This was the first time I had watched the machinery used to make the bales. The video is a bit noisy with the breezy conditions and a bit wobbly as the TZ7 was hand held on full zoom with the action taking place on the far side of the field.

Friday at the Flicks - Stock Dove, Singing Wren, Hedgehogs Sharing

I was beginning to think a new PC was going to be the next expense. It may be yet as it took a lot to get it started this morning. Also the USB hub is playing up and a new one I bought stops everything from working. Don't you just love computers.

Anyway - on with the show.

Every morning for quite a while now there has been a pair of stock doves feeding in the garden. I guess they are nesting fairly close by. I did manage a bit of video of one of them the other morning. Better sunlight would have made those neck feathers really glint.



I haven't seen any activity in the Wren nest since it was finished. This morning though, when I opened the shed door, I'm sure I saw both wrens fly from the roosting pouch so there may yet be some wrenlets later in the year. One is often singing from one of three vantage points around the garden and the other day I managed some video taken through a far from clean window.



I am going to have to buy, or make, a 'sprung' mount for the microphone as it picks up too much motor noise.

A few nights ago a couple of Hedgehogs were spotted feeding peacefully together which seems to be a rare event, here anyway.




Just as I was about to pack the camera away last night there were two hogs at the feeding station. This time I thought I was finally going to video them mating. The male nearly managed it and that piece of video will have to wait for another day.

Have a great holiday weekend observing the wildlife near you.

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 - Amorous Wood Pigeon, Pair of Stock Doves

There hardly seems to be any time of year when the Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves don't think about breeding.



On cold days recently there has often been a solitary Stock Dove and very occasionally a pair visiting the garden.



RSPB BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH
Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you and don't forget that this weekend is  RSPB  Big Garden Birdwatch time in the UK. Can you spare an hour any time over the weekend to count the bird visitors to your garden or other area? If so visit the  RSPB web site for details.

Friday at the Flicks - Great Tit, Stock Dove

The Great Tit continues to use the nest box every night, Yesterday morning I managed to get a bit of video from outside the box as it left.



It was quite a surprise yesterday to see a very nervous Stock Dove in the garden. It spent a lot of its time being chased around by the Wood Pigeons but did manage to find a few peaceful moments to eat some of the scattered seed.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Who Likes a Jam Sandwich?

I enjoy a jam sandwich



So would I if I could get near it



Don't fly away, I'm hungry too

Friday at the Flicks (Spring Clean, Bowing, Doves, Henry Returns?)

Many thanks again to all those who sent their birthday wishes. As well as enjoying my self bought present it was great to see some frenzied Spring cleaning going on in the Blue Tit box yesterday.   (Soundtrack - Delibes, Pizzicati from Sylvia found on Wikimedia Commons)




 Is Mr. Wood Pigeon bowing to try to please his lady love or is he just mooning at the camera? Either way she seems totally unimpressed.



 Here is the video clip I took earlier in the week when there was a group of five Stock Doves busy picking up the seeds scattered by the Starlings.



Finally another great birthday present - the re-appearance after his Winter hibernation of what appears to be Henry the Hedgehog.   (Soundtrack - Midnight Waltz found on Wikimedia Commons)



That is not a firefly getting in on the act but a spider which will insist on building its web in front of the camera lens.

100 yesterday. No not me, though I sometimes feel like it. I noticed today that my country flag counter had clocked up the 100th different country flag.

Showering in the Rain

I got up about a quarter of an hour earlier than usual and had a quick peek through the kitchen window. There was a tight group of five Stock Doves feeding on the spillage from the seed feeder near the bottom of the garden. Fortunately they stayed there long enough to get some video which I will save for Friday.

The morning started well at about +5C and with fairly clear skies and plenty of sunshine it climbed to +10.6C in the shade though with a cool breeze it didn't feel all that warm. Mid morning I made a trip to Focus (top up with bird seed) and then on to Wyevale Garden Centre (suet treats, dried mealworms and a couple of orchid plants).

Needless to say the fine weather didn't last all day as once it was near afternoon walkabout time the rain arrived. Fortunately we found a short lull and managed to stay fairly dry. When we returned the rain came down even harder but that didn't put off some hungry birds. For the first time I saw two Stock Doves on the lawn in the afternoon. Normally they only appear early morning and are usually gone soon after 7 a.m..



Their waterproofing must be good as the raid drops stood on top of their feathers. After a short while a Wood Pigeon slowly ambled across the lawn. If I hadn't seen it move normally I would have thought it was injured by what I saw it do next.



It slowly lifted and stretched first one wing then the other, leaning its body to expose the body feathers under the wings to the rain. It seemed to me it was obviously having a shower. After letting some rain fall on the feathers it would then give them a quick preen.



I managed a short piece of video through a window which was well and truly rain soaked.



Noises off are the local House Sparrows, rain and Bobby crunching his tea! I can't say I can remember ever seeing a bird take a shower in the rain before today. Even just watching the local wildlife in a back garden brings interesting and surprising behaviour.

Not One, Not Two, Now there are Six

I looked cautiously through the kitchen window first thing this morning in the hopes the pair of Stock Doves were there. Yes. There they were, but what's this I see. Another .. and another. In the end I counted six of them busily feeding on the lawn. I grabbed the camera and started to photograph them when two in particular caught my attention.









They spent a couple of minutes performing synchronised movements,  bowing, slow wing stretching and circling round each other before one decided it had had enough and flew away. Love is in the air. Spring is just around the corner.

Not One but Two

While I was getting Bobby ready for our morning walk, and I was still on auto-pilot at 7 a.m., I spotted not one but two Stock Doves on the lawn. Needless to say the camera wasn't handy at that time and by the time I had fetched it they had both flown away.



The photo is from the batch I took the first time I saw one. My main program for processing photos is PaintShopPro X2 and I have only recently found out that plugins designed for PhotoShop are also suitable for use in PSP so I have been gathering a few free ones to experiment with. For the above photo I emphasised the lighter and darkened the darker parts and added a border.

Another program I have found is a free version of  PanoramaPlus by Serif.  The new header was made using that. (The text being added later in PSP) The original photos were taken years ago. I forget which camera I used and it is not recorded in the photo files. I know it was a very low quality camera I used to put in my shirt pocket. The free version of PanoramaPlus has a fixed, fairly low size for the finished panorama which it produces very quickly and even works out the right order to stitch the photos. v2 of the program, which I now have, has more facilities and a choice of size for the final panorama which can take a while to produce if a large size is chosen and there are many individual photos to join together. The few times I have taken shots for panoramas I have worked hand held and PP soon sorts out any differences in horizon position or tilts in camera angle.

Four Pigeons and a Stock Dove

There have been anything up to six Wood Pigeons in the garden each morning picking up the spilt seed. Especially since the local farmers activated their gas 'cannons' to scare them off the crops. This morning it was a plasant surprise to see the Stock Dove timidly joining them.



There are still a good number of Blackbirds visiting each day. It was amusing to watch a confrontation between a pigeon and a Blackbird. Neither was going to give way. The Blackbird crouched down, beak open and the Wood Pigeon was gently flapping its wings together in front of it as if to try to box the Blackbird's ears. In the end it was the pigeon which had to retreat.

When I first looked out of the window there were six Jackdaws on the lawn which scattered as soon as they spotted me. At the same time a lone Rook sat in a tree checking whether it was safe to join the others for breakfast.



But as soon as it spotted me watching it took off.



This has been our third sunny morning in a row and a certain hairy monster misses no opportunity to soak up the warmth. Bobby grabs a suitable morsel and rushes outdoors to find the right place to enjoy breakfast.



Yesterday we went for an amble through the only wild area left in the centre of the village. There were lots of birds about, Wood Pigeons, Magpies, Great Tits and several I couldn't identify so it looks a good place to go by myself and spend an hour or two with camera in hand. The only things which would stay still long enough to be photographed were a few Rabbits in a meadow.



As usual there were a few House Sparrows sat in my thorn hedge soaking up the warmth from the sunlight.



The Blue Tits continue to make occasional brief visits to the nestbox so there is still hope they may eventually make up their minds and choose my box this year.

Regarding the mystery bird song my thanks to those who suggested Mistle or Song Thrush as being a possible contender. I  found a couple of reports, from 2008 on the Manchester Birding Forum, of Mistle Thrushes singing in flight so I may be getting nearer to a solution.

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=96752&p=3&topicID=15192795

One refers to it being mentioned in BWP which I take to be Birds of the Western Palearctic. (outside my price range) One description I saw likened the Mistle Thrush flight song to the sound made by the sort of rattle people used to (still do?) take to football matches. That seems to be a fairly reasonable interpretation of the sound I hear quite frequently round the village.

Friday at the Flicks (Doves)

These two lovey doveys spent quite a while sat on the imitation wagon wheel preening each other.



It was a very pleasant surprise when this Stock Dove paid a visit.  At first it was very nervous and nearly left a couple of times when it spotted me looking through the kitchen window, Once it had joined the waddling Wood Pigeons it concentrated on collecting as much seed as it could find. I was entranced with the way the neck feathers looked as they shimmered different colours in the Winter sunlight. Of course the Starlings had to make their presence felt, if only on the sound track.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

A New Dove Visits the Garden

I had never heard of the Stock Dove until I saw a photo of one on ShySongbird's Twitterings so you could have knocked me down with a feather when one joined the Wood Pigeons on the lawn yesterday scavenging for scattered seed.





What had caught my eye was the glow from the neck feathers which looked like a piece of shiny sweet wrapper changing colour as it caught the sunlight from different directions. Often a metallic green and sometimes an iridescent pink. The bird started near the bottom of the garden and was obviously very nervous so I had to move about slowly in the kitchen as I took some photographs. Gradually it came closer and stayed long enough for me to get some video which should be available tomorrow and shows much better the colourful glow from those neck feathers.