Busy Birdy Bistro

It was definitely a bit on the nippy side at 7 a.m. when we went for our morning  walkies. According to my outdoor thermometer it was -5.6C and I don't think it was far from the mark. A couple of inches of overnight snow added to yesterday's inch made for fairly easy walking until we reached the main street. There, as usual, the scattered salt from the council lorries had melted the snow before the temperature dropped and the road and pavement were covered in patches of ice. In these conditions scattering salt on pavements makes them more dangerous than doing nothing.

Yesterday the Starlings hung around the feeders all day instead of making their usual three short visits. In fact the Birdy Bistro was packed all day with the usual vistors and the chef had to work hard to keep up the supply of seed.

Photos are grainy. I think I should have lowered the ISO but lighting conditions were very variable.
I am always fascinated by the wide open beak method used by Starlings to gather seeds.



This meant that a lot of the time they ended up with a ring of snow round the beak which they had to keep shaking or brushing off.



Every time the birds moved around there would be snow flying about, as with this Chaffinch walking along the top of the bird table.



Some of the smaller birds, as with this Robin, kept out of the way of the Starlings and were very hard to photograph as they kept moving - like this one which took off just as I pressed the shutter.



Between meals the birds found what comfort they could. Here a Collared Dove found a branch in full sunlight and settled down to warm up in the -2C temperature.



This House Sparrow and Robin found a sunlit spot amongst the old brambles.



A Jackdaw found that one of my aerials made a great vantage spot to survey the garden.



A dog has to do what a dog has to do so every now and then Bobby ventured to the bottom of the garden after stretching his weary legs. After all it IS exhausting being curled up in you favourite chair most of the day.

Friday at the Flicks (Merry Christmas, Snowy Weather)

A Christmastime greeting from Bobby (and yours truly) in the way of a slide show of him with a short video clip at the end.



The soundtrack this time is a short section from DJXMAS, a Protracker .mod file written by 'Death Jester' in 1992 and released on the acme bbs in Huston. Ah, memories of the time when the Amiga ruled when it came to music production on a home computer. Psycle was used to convert the mod file to an mp3 which can be heard in full (DJX.mp3 about 9.5 minutes) on my eSnips account. I think it can also be downloaded from there. Anyone wanting the original mod file can find it on the ModMecca site.


Yesterday brought the first snow of the Winter to this part of Lincolnshire. The day was a mixture of sunny periods with occasional blustery snow showers - but - birds still have to eat and a bit of snow and wind wasn't going to put any of the regulars off their food.



Another missed photo shoot opportunity. While I was concentrating on filming the activity at the Birdy Bistro I saw the Heron take off from my garden. A quick glance at the ripples in the pond showed what that was after!

We hope the weather is kind so you can enjoy observing the wildlife around you. Only a very small dusting of snow in this part of Lincolnshire so far this morning though more is forecast.

A Little Excitement

As we came back from the afternoon walk I head a loud squawk from the back of a nearby house and up flew a Grey Heron. It settled on an adjacent rooftop so I raced Bobby to the front door so I could grab the camera and try for a few shots. Luckily it was still there when I rushed out again with camera in hand. I should think the bird was a good 300 feet away so it was a fairly small section of the frame and with the dull conditions doesn't stand much enlargement.



It was still standing there when I had finished taking a few shots so I decided to set up the camcorder and managed some video of it. Dull conditions but at least the 70x zoom let me get a lot closer.



I should think it was there for over ten minutes just surveying the area. No doubt working out which fish pond to try next. The soundtrack I call 'Moody' and was something I threw together this morning while I was experimenting with a program called Acoustica and some Ejay Dance wav files.

Just as I was taking the camera in there was a sudden flash of movement as a Sparrow Hawk dived in the centre of one of my small trees not 12 feet from me and grabbed a Sparrow. When it saw me it took off with its prey. Flying very low it was just missed by a passing car and then only as the driver braked. As usual - no photo but another rare bit of excitement for this sleepy village..

A touch of Colour on a Dreary Day

The sky has been overcast for several days but just occasionally the early morning Sun manages to brighten things up for a few minutes.

A Collared Dove waiting for breakfast.


The other day when I was reading Tricia's Tales and saw the photo of a Mahonia in flower it reminded me I hadn't really looked at mine for a while as it is in an area of the front garden I seldom visit.





It is not a plant I get very close to unless needed as those pointed leaves seem to be able to penetrate almost any clothing but it nice to see some colour in the Winter.

At the Feeders

Thick cloud and rain all through yesterday but the bird visitors still need their food.



House Sparrows and Goldfinch
Male Blackbird, Goldfinches, Chaffinch
Male Blackbird with Robin and House Sparrows
Starling, Jackdaw

Do Rooks Hate Wheelie Bins?

These photos were taken in 2005 before this area went over to wheelie bins for refuse collection.



Back then, especially in the spring time, hoards of Rooks would descend on refuse collection days and examine every black sack they could reach for any morsels of food. A flimsy plastic sack was no match for their powerful beaks and often it would end up with plastic bags, stale bread and meat bones being scattered down the lane.

Geminid Meteor Shower
I wonder if any of you managed to spot the Geminid Meteor Shower last night. I had a look a couple of time but 100 percent thick cloud cover made any observations impossible. Last night was forecast to be the peak though it can continue until the 17th December. Some information can be seen on the Space Fellowship site.

All Change

Yesterdays change of ISP went very smoothly. Switched on at 7.30 a.m. as usual to find the Tiscali connection was rejected. I hadn't expected things to be swapped over that early. Plugged in the new router and within a couple of minutes I was back on the net. So now I am with a company, Zen, which is at the top of the Which? best buy list of ISPs instead of one which has dropped into their Don't Buys. I had to wait until today before I could set up my new email addresses, which was a doddle. Can't say the same when it came to changing the personal information on some sites that I deal with though.

All change in the bird world.
A Coal Tit waits its turn as the Blue Tit makes off with a sunflower seed heart.



Pity about the glare from the kitchen window.