One Day to Go

Friday at the Flicks - Hungry Starlings

About a week ago I dug out the home made log feeders which have peanut butter in holes for birds to dig out. The intention being to try attracting more visits from a Great Spotted Woodpecker. It took most of the week before anything was bold enough to try them out and then it was the Starlings which have started visiting in larger, greedy, squabbling numbers.




Remember - if you are going to put out some peanut butter use an unsalted variety. Most of that made for human consumption has added salt which is bad for the birds.



These are the two varieties I have used.

Merry Christmas

Let's Face It

Today I received a couple more wood carvings. This time faces which have been sculpted in bamboo roots. I used them to break up the plain wooden walls of the summerhouse and my shed:

   

I love the facial expressions and will probably invest in a couple more in the New Year.

Friday at the Flicks - Greenfinch

Was it a Bird? Was it a Kite?

On our first walk of the day on Wednesday, nearing the spot where the tree was blown down a short while ago, something moving behind a house caught my attention:



Very first thought was it looked like a large bird, about the size of a heron. Observing for a bit longer I could see what appeared to be a string attached to whatever it was. Second thought was someone was up early kite flying as the wind was blustery and the object was above the edge of the field behind the house:




It was bitterly cold so I decided to continue on our way home. At lunch time we took a different route but the last walk of the day took us back to the same spot. The object was still bobbing and weaving in the gusts which were stronger and colder that they had been in the morning. This time I decided we would investigate so detoured to amble down the track next to the field. Once the thing came in to sight the penny dropped. A bird scarer designed to resemble a raptor, sometimes hovering, sometimes diving. It consisted of a pole 4 to 5m high with the flying object connected with a springy length of wire.

Silent video:



It really was very effective and there weren't any pigeons or gulls anywhere near that end of the field.



Much better than the very noisy gas cannons which can make the area sound like WW3 has broken out. They could still be heard from time to time but appeared to be further away from the housing than they have been in recent years.

Greenfinch

There was a time when I had quite a few Greenfinches as regular visitors but several years of finch disease has reduced their numbers drastically.