Inactivity

Very little been going on here these past few days - indoors anyway. My worst ever attack of gout has meant hours of boring time sat with my foot up watching the idiot lantern in the corner of the room.

Life is just as hectic as normal outside. Plenty of regular visitors to the feeders including the inevitable Jackdaw.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

Most of the juvenile Starlings are now having to feed themselves as they arrive with hardly an adult in sight. Life is at least becoming more peaceful in that direction. This morning a juvenile Blackbird chased off a juvenile Starling, actually catching up with it in the air and plucked out a feather. The juvenile Blackbird returned to the beam which supports the feeders and spat out one grey feather. I could almost see the look of disgust on its face.

The night before last I could hear a Tawny Owl out and about but didn't manage to spot it.

Henry and Honey visited the paved area at different times just before bedtime last night and Bobby was so pleased to see both of them when he went outside. He was wagging his tail like mad as he went for a closer look. The past few nights they had moved on by the time Bobby was allowed out and I could see he looked really disappointed when he couldn't hear them. This seems to have become the highlight of his night expeditions.

Now I'm impatiently waiting for the medication to bring my foot back to its normal size so I can get back to observing the goings on outdoors.

Black Velvet

During our, very slow, afternoon walk Bobby spotted what I first thought was a pile of jet black feathers. When he had finished investigating I could see it was the black velvet coat of a dead mole. It looked uninjured so it is a mystery as to what killed it. (Both photos were taken with the camera in my mobile phone)

Coal Tits, Jackdaws and Silence

I have been quite surprised to see that one of the recent constant visitors to the ground feeder has been a Coal Tit. Probably a pair as sometimes one arrives a few seconds after another has left. I never saw them feed on the lawn but they seem to like the feeding tray a lot. Coal Tits are easily recognised by their tiny size and that 'badger stripe' on the back of the head.



This one, caught as it left, seems to have a large thick beak but closer examination shows that it is making off with a black Sunflower seed. They never stay to eat, just fly in, collect what they want and leave for the safety of nearby bushes straight away.



Seen every day now will be one or more Jackdaws. They are extremely nervous birds, always on the lookout for danger. One quick glimpse of me with those white shiny eyes and they are away like a shot. To think it was January when I saw one in the garden for the first time. Now they are daily regulars, sometimes joining the Rooks on the lawn or trying to find a way to raid the fat ball feeders.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

They grab food so fast I am beginning to wonder whether the bulge under the beak is a place to store food in the same way as the Rooks. I have read that adults have been observed sharing food.



A piece of video of Jackdaws gathering seed from the lawn. There are two episodes and as they were taken on different days they are probably different individuals.



The second, close up, section shows off the leathery black legs of the Jackdaw. They really do dig deep to find the seeds, sometimes pulling up tufts of grass in the process. The sound on the second section is of those pesky Starlings again.

Silence is Golden

As we came back from the afternoon walk, instead of seeing the normal couple of dozen Starlings I was greeted with the sight of a couple of score all heading towards my tall leylandii. I though I was in for a very noisy late afternoon. Having dumped the bit of shopping I unlocked the back door to have a look. Not a bird moving and only the sound of one lone Sparrow. All the Starlings were very still in the tree. Even the youngsters were perfectly quiet!



Looking around the sky I spotted what appeared to be a Sparrow Hawk hovering high up about a quarter of a mile away. Needless to say by the time I fetched the camera it had vanished from sight but the beautiful silence continued for five to ten minutes more. Even the Sparrow had fallen silent. Every bird kept quite still in its resting place. Slowly the bravest flew from their perches. Some Starlings went on their way but the usual gang came down to feed and deafen me again. All was back to normal.

The Waiting Game and a Loud Snuffle

Yesterday was that day most motorists dread - MOT day! It was a question of dropping off the car at 8.30 a.m. for that and a full service and then staying within earshot of the phone, just in case..... I put the phone in the kitchen where I could hear it and spent some time in the garden. Another waiting game was by the pond waiting for anything interesting to appear as I had the camcorder on its tripod at the ready. Not a lot of activity all told but a few episodes made their way on to the DVD.

Three appearances of a Common Newt
A Giant Pond Snail
A Dunnock watching from a small tree just feet away from me
Some miniature bullrushes waving in the breeze
A bee visiting an Iris growing as a pond marginal.



A better view of the Iris which has opened so rapidly as it was just a bud two days before. This is the same Iris but different cameras record different shades of colour!



It was impossible to film a Waterboatman as they were darting about everywhere so I had to make do with a sill photo. You can clearly see the elongated legs it uses to scull across the water as it lives its life floating on its back.



For those who have been following the progress of the juvenile Blackbird - it continues to spend many hours in and around my garden. It has become my one ally in trying to keep the noisy Starlings at bay. This is especially so with the ground feeder. I have often seen this young bird chase adult Starlings away.



At long last I managed to get a sound recording of Henry doing his snuffling act. Last night both Hedgehogs appeared at the same time on the paved area. Honey spent a lot of her time moving backwards as Henry grabbed most of the mealworms and crushed peanuts I had scattered.

Later on when Bobby went out for his last tour of the gardens he had his usual careful listen round and then went over to the side fence near the conservatory. He had heard Henry who was the other side of the fence amongst the weeds. In fact both Hedgehogs were there and I could only see Honey but Henry could be heard quite clearly. Luckily I had the Sony mp3 recorder in my shirt pocket so I crouched down, with Bobby looking over my shoulder to see what I was up to, and managed to get the recording. I have added that sound to the bit of compilation video of them both last night.



More photos and video of hedgehogs can also be found on Shirl's Gardenwatch. Some lovely colour footage has just been added along with video of various young birds.

Oh, yes, the car did pass its MOT so that is over for another twelve months. I had thought briefly of trading in my eleven year old Mitsubishi Carisma for a new car but from what I have seen on various consumer programmes and what the garage owner was telling me about some of the new cars he looks after I am better off with my reliable, well built oldie. After all, it is only just broken in as it hasn't done 60,000 miles yet!

Hedgehogs

The two Hedgehogs continue to visit the garden each evening. Last night I only saw Honey. I can tell by her size and by the fact that she ran away at full speed when I went out to try to get some still photos of her. Henry normally stands his ground and waits until I go away so he can resume eating. Honey is having a fine time finding the dried mealworms I had scattered amongst the crushed peanuts.



I still haven't managed to record the loud snuffling which only seems to be made by Henry. I have tried several searches to find out what the sound indicates. It depends which site you read as to what the meaning is. Two places I found which tell of several sounds Hedgehogs make are here and here.

A very interesting blog I found is Hog Blog with many terrific pictures and videos of Hedgehog visitors to a garden. If you are interested in observing them then it is well worth a visit. There I saw activity similar to that seen here where Hedgehogs face each other nose to nose. You will see some quite aggressive behaviour where Hedgehogs charge and bulldoze others out of the way. Not the cuddly, if prickly, creatures we normally think of. There is definitely more to Hedgehog behaviour than meets the eye!

I am still debating whether I have a pair here or an older adult and one of the offspring I saw last year. The snuffling would suggest that it could be more a 'keep away from my territory' than a 'is it time to make babies' type of communication.

Those noisy Starlings

I must admit, much as I like to see the Starlings and their broods visit the garden there are two things about them which annoy me. One is the amount of food they waste. When they land on the feeders you can see seeds or pieces of fat ball raining down as they viciously peck away at everything. The other is the noise! The calls of the hungry young ones is never ending right through the daylight hours and when they are a few feet away from the back door it can get very wearing after an hour or so.

The new ground feeder has been accepted by most of the ground feeding birds as well as being taken over from time to time by the Starlings as can be seen in this short video I shot yesterday. Fortunately the back door was shut so the constant cries of 'feed me' are in the background. The video is straight from the camcorder without any processing here.



Even when they are scared off the feeders they only go as far as the 60ft tall Leylandii at the bottom of the garden and sit on the top branches waiting. Occasionally a parent will dive down, grab something and then speed back up to feed a youngster.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

A few of the older juveniles are beginning to feed themselves so the noise should lessen fairly soon and maybe they will start looking for food over a wider area.

Hedgehog Visits:

Honey and Henry continue to visit. I see Honey every night on Hoggy Cam. Last night when Bobby went in the back garden he found both of them together. A short while later when I went out to check they were still together and Henry was making very loud snuffling noises. As usual they were nose to nose but as soon as I got close enough to record the sound he stopped! I will manage to record it one of these nights.

In The Garden

Yesterday was absolutely glorious. We both spent hours lazing in the garden, enjoying the warmth from the Sun which was nicely moderated by a cooling breeze coming from the North Sea. My idea was to sit under the parasol with the cameras and see what turned up. It didn't take long for someone to decide that there was really only room for one in the shade from the large parasol:

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

So muggins here had to get out the old one and set it up elsewhere in the garden. This I duly did and chose a spot where I could watch the birds feeding ...



Ooo look I can see right down to your tail


... and any which came to bathe in the waterfall.



I could admire the various shapes which were being made by the few cloud formations. The first one looked to me like an enormous white feather in the sky.



From time to time I just pottered about seeing how the various plants were coming on and checked which of the potted plants needed watering.



I found the shell of a Giant Pond Snail on the lawn and after a quick photo put it back in the pond as it seemed to be alive. How it got where it had was a mystery.



I had bought a ground feeder and it was quite a while before any bird gathered enough courage to see what that was. In the end it was a Blackbird who made the first investigation.



There were not many different birds bathing which was disappointing as I had set the camcorder on a tripod next to me. I got a few bits of video but will try to add some more before I upload any.

As the afternoon wore on the breeze got steadily stronger and colder so I called it a day, bought some chunks of Halibut from the visiting Fresh Grimsby Fish van and ended a glorious day with a lovely meal which we both enjoyed.

Around My Pond

Enjoying the warmth after a lovely beef carvery at a local hostelry this lunchtime I browsed the pond in my garden. I spotted one of the Common Newts so I fetched the camcorder but didn't think I had time to set up the tripod. Needless to say as soon as I got the camcorder lined up it spotted me and disappeared into the sludge at the bottom of the pond. While I hung around I spied the first damsel of the season - one of the blues but it only stayed a few seconds this time.

I hung around and was rewarded by the newt coming back to the surface a few times so I managed, for the first time, to get some somewhat shaky hand held video. In the later part of the video you can see the large back feet and the spotted belly quite well.



Just as I decided that the newt was going to disappear and I might as well put things away again I saw something splashing about in the little waterfall at the opposite end of the pond. A Blue Tit was having a good old wash and brush up. I had only been thinking the other day that I had never seen a Blue Tit bathe and here one was. Again - hand held and I've cut out the worst shakes and slowed the action by a quarter to make it a little easier on the eyes. There are two visits to the waterfall in a short period of time but I'm not sure whether it is two birds or the same one.



The waterfall is very popular with the birds. This I can tell as there are always water splashes over everything near it! I keep promising myself that I will set up the camcorder, on a tripod, one day and see how many different birds use this facility.