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.

How Many Starlings fit in a Dog Bowl?

Yesterday was a non-day. I was so tired I joined Bobby most of the time in sleeping the day away. Don't know why I get days like that. It just happens from time to time even though I haven't been missing night time sleep or doing anything energetic. I didn't even get the cameras out.

I am not in the best of moods as it has taken over an hour to get a connection to Tiscali this morning - not for the first time. Anyway here's hoping that the connection stays open long enough to upload a couple of videos.

First one of Honey taken a couple of nights ago.



Secondly - While I was watching the invasion of Starlings and their broods this morning I spotted these youngsters who had decided that a small dog bowl of water I put down for the Hedgehogs would make a fine bath. Now I know why the water was so filthy yesterday when I changed it.

Poem and Pictures

When Glo from Porcelain Rose visited the other day she kindly left me a poem. I am so pleased with it I have printed it here. It was written the day I installed the new Hoggy Cam and named my visiting Hedgehogs Henry and Honey. Also there were videos of a Hedgehog and a Magpie.

When Henry met Honey at night,
They thought they were hidden from sight!
What they didn’t know:
They were stars in a show,
Entertaining us all with delight!

Now Maggie is seen clear and bright
With colour cam set up just right,
But her basic hue
Is not red or blue ~
The fact is she’s just black and white!

Thank you again Glo for that lovely apt poem.

............................

A few portraits from yesterday:

Female Chaffinch:


Male Chaffinch:

He was only six feet or so away from me and I had to move the camera into position very slowly in case I scared him away.

Bobby, awake for once, and listening intently:


The past few days the Starlings haven't been the only ones creating a racket. From time to time there have been some very noisy altercations amongst the Sparrows. This is a few shots of one such set to which occurred on the lawn not far from me:

After much noise and fluttering each Sparrow flew off in a different direction.

Missed Opportunity:

If it hadn't been raining for the afternoon walk I would have had the video camera with me. As it was I missed being able to video a Blackbird courtship. To set the scene: Imagine a wide brick gatepost with a flat slab on the top.
Mrs B. was on the slab and Mr B. was on the gravel underneath look up at her. He spread his tail feathers and performed a little dance going round in circles a few times at the same time uttering a few quite sounds. Then he flew up to the slab and repeated the performance. By then Mrs B. had flown away - I did feel sorry for him but she may have already produced one brood and thought enough is enough for now!

Food and Flight

The hoards have arrived - the invasion of the Starlings and their offspring. So started the day at about 6.30 a.m. with the raucous sound of young, hungry Starlings. Fortunately the bit of video is silent!

This youngster was hungry but didn't seem to approve of what was being offered:


This sort of thing continued on and off all day with various offspring coming to the birdy Bistro.

A Starling finally managing to get some food in the right place:


Later in the day a young Blackbird was brought to be fed:


While yet another Starling was going frantic collecting food:


Even amongst all this activity the usual visitors were helping themselves whenever the opportunity arose:


Every so often some youngster would seem to be forgotten or maybe the parents were taking a well earned breather.

Ma! I'm Hungry!!


As it was a very pleasant sunny day I spent the time pottering about at home - far from the madding crowds. Made a new latch for the gate. Planted some Sunflower seeds - beautiful flowers to admire later in the year and food for the birds in the Autumn. During the afternoon I sat out for a couple of hours, mp3 player and headphones, cup of tea or three and camera within easy reach. I had some practice trying to photo some of the birds flying about. Mainly miserable failures but here are three I kept.

A Starling launching from a branch:


A Blackbird dropping down to the feeders:


A passing Jackdaw:


Writing of Jackdaws - they appear to have become very regular visitors.
A piece of video to finish with:


Phew - it's warm indoors so I'm going back out with a nice cool glass of amber nectar!

Oh - nearly forgot. No wonder there always seems to be a juvenile Blackbird around. While I was enjoying the Sun I spotted these two resting on the garden seat and at the same time another was picking up scraps from under the feeders.

Flowers, Bathing, New Hoggy Cam

Regulars may recall that near the beginning of the month I had a wild flower growing in the edge of the lawn. Greenfingers and ShySongbird identified it for me as Cardamine pratense - Lady's Smock.



Greenfingers told me how to propagate it as I wanted to grow it in a more suitable place. Detach a leaf or two and lay them on damp potting compost and cover with a plastic bag. This I did and now, 20 days later, there are new shoots which I hope will give me some plants to plant out when they are big enough.




One of my favourite flowers in the garden is a succulent, unknown, which is very drought tolerant. You have only to look at the fleshy leaves to see why. In wet weather they swell and then gradually shrink as the plants uses up the moisture. They can go months without watering. It is at its best in a container where, given time, it will tumble over the sides and grow longer and longer. Just now it is coming in to flower with a mass of bright yellow blooms each about three quarters of an inch across.

Addendum: I finally found out this plant is Delosperma nubigenum (Ice Plant)



While I was photographing this plant I could hear a lot of splashing behind me. I turned round to see a Blackbird having a good bath in the pond waterfall. First it looked at me and then decided to carry on only stopping for a brief moment each time the mirror clattered in the camera.

Splash it all over:


Have a good wash all over and then a decent scratch:


Make sure the ears are nice and clean - Bottoms Up!


Yesterday I received and installed a brand new video camera for Hoggy.
Over the past few days I have been thinking I need to name the Hedgehogs as I can't keep calling them smaller and larger. After some thought, assuming the larger one is the male, I came up with:
Henry for the bigger one - means ruler of home and estate, because he seems a bossy boots.
Honey for the smaller one - means sweet one.

Night time viewing - one Hedgehog:


Day time vewing - a Magpie: what a long tail they have.


Sorry - this turned out longer than I intended when I started.