Friday at the Flicks - Rook, Long Tailed Tit, Hedgehog

Once again the Rooks invaded the bird feeders. They particularly like the suet food and this one was having a great time attacking one feeder. Not shown are two other Rooks which were on the ground grabbing all the bits which were falling down. (No sound track)



A rare, fleeting visitor to my garden is the Long Tailed Tit. Though they normally move around in groups only one or two occasionally visit my feeders.



Once again the Hedgehog visited last night. Though this is about the time for them to wake from their Winter hibernation the weather this year is against them. Where the temperature would normally be in double figures, recently it has rarely reached 5C and this week it is struggling to get much above 0C and is likely to stay that way until next month. It will be difficult for them to find enough of their natural food which includes slugs and beetles.



I am putting out crushed, unsalted peanuts as a source of protein. The hogs need to find a reasonable amount of food quickly to make up for the weight lost while they were hibernating. Also available is a saucer of water - no milk as that is bad for Hedgehogs. I could put out tinned cat or dog food but that gets stolen by the roaming cats which are prowling around every night. I am not in to feeding other people's cats which kill birds, dig up my flowers and leave their mess for me to find when I am weeding. I might try putting a bit of tinned meat in the Hedgehog house where cats can't get at it.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you and do give it a helping hand when needed.

First Hedgehog of Spring

In spite of the unseasonal low temperatures I had a feeling there had been a Hedgehog around for a few nights as Penny kept investigating the areas where they enter my garden. Sure enough, last night there was one when Penny went out about 9 p.m.. It disappeared before I could get a camera. I broke up some unsalted peanuts and put them out in case it should make a return visit. Sure enough it did and was caught briefly on the surveillance camera.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Yes, Adrian, Jan and TexWisGirl, last week's Guess What was that easy so you all gain a virtual gold star for identifying the strawberry.








Produce of Morocco; large, reasonably tasty but hard and crunchy rather than succulent. You just can't beat home grown but this time of year I take whatever is available.


On to this week's macro photo.
Guess What:



I think this may be a lot harder.

Clue: Gives me plenty of nicotine without the carbon monoxide, cyanide, etc..

No prizes - just for fun.

The Case of the Disappearing Suet

The half coconuts I have which are filled with suet had been lasting for weeks as the birds gradually helped themselves. Occasionally the filling would fall out of one after it had shrunk during a particularly cold night. A couple of mornings ago I found two were empty where they had been half full the previous day. No sign of any fallen fillings on the ground. When I replaced them with a full coconut half I soon found out what was happening.

It doesn't take long for a large Rook beak to gobble it all up in a very short time:



An old coconut I have reused is one with only a quarter opening which was originally filled with suet. Now it is empty it is useful as a container for seed and suet treats:



Sometimes birds will spend a while trying to work out how to get at the food:



All in all Birdy Bistro Mk2 is very popular, especially with the cold temperatures hereabouts.

Frustrating Week and a Sleepy Pooch

There are times during this week when I seem to have spent half my life on the phone chasing things up. I am in the process of changing my power supplier. Last time I changed everything went smoothly but moving from Scottish Power is a different ball game. Sometimes I get a strong feeling they are deliberately obstructive and dragging their feet.

On the Summer House front things have moved on, slightly. After a call from Laura at GardenBuildingsDirect the greenhouse parts were collected yesterday morning. This morning, the first reasonable one weather wise for quite a while, I decided to assemble the base of the summer house and make sure the floor fitted OK. Fine in theory and would have been fine in practice if they had delivered all of the floor but I only had half! Another call to Laura - the missing part should be delivered tomorrow morning. That means a delay of several more days as the weather forecast indicates heavy rain for at least three days. I hope this is going to be worth all the trials and tribulations.

Of course I had a four legged supervisor helping this morning, but peace reigns tonight as she sleeps off a busy day followed by a hearty tea.

Awwwww:


Penny showing her sparkling white teeth after her visit to the vet last month.

Today I found out that this area is on the list for receiving a faster broadband service - up to 24Mb/s - but not until 2016 as we are in phase 6.

Summerhouse or Greenhouse?

Well, my order for a small summerhouse from Gardenbuildingsdirect arrived on Monday as requested. Not the best of weather with blustery snow showers and a wind chill down to -10C. Mine was the final load on the lorry and all was eventually stacked on the drive. Then I lugged each piece into the back of the garage to protect it from the weather. While I was doing this I thought there were a lot of sections.

Over the past couple of days I have been checking through trying to match the pieces with the shipping list. There were some large sections which didn't look correct and didn't match anything on the photo on their site:

Photo from Gardenbuildingsdirect site:


So - what are these large items?


Three tall items each with two tall windows. Nope - nothing like that on their illustration.
Ah, what are these I found?



Packing list, hardware and instructions for a greenhouse.
Now it was slowly dawning on my remaining grey cell that I had several pieces of someone elses order for a greenhouse. By the time I had finished a few sessions of checking I found three wide and two narrow sections, two doors, four gable end pieces - all belonging to the greenhouse. I guess there is another Gardenbuildingsdirect customer who is just as annoyed as I was feeling.

Needless to say I have been in touch with Gardenbuildingsdirect and am waiting for them to sort things out. Apart from checking the glazing for my summerhouse the rest seem to be present and correct though the experience so far has been very aggravating to say the least. Especially as all the parts which have nothing to do with my order are now cluttering up my shed.



I will be expecting adequate compensation for my time and trouble sorting out someone elses incompetence in not being able to deliver the right items to the correct address. So far the idea of installing a small summer house cannot be said to have been a pleasant experience. It will all depend on the final outcome. I will keep you informed.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Congratulations and virtual gold stars to Adrian. TexWisGirl and Wilma who correctly identified last week's Guess What as a piece of rock salt. There has been plenty of that scattered on our roads during this long period of low temperatures.


 

 


This week's macro is part of a rather crunchy but tasty treat from Morocco.
Guess What:

 

No prizes, just for fun.


I don't seem to have picked a very good day for my little summer house to be delivered. The temperature is below freezing and the weather is a mixture of alternating sunny, blue sky and blustery, heavy snow showers.