Today I decided to have a rest!! However whilst lounging on the sofa, having breakfasted on toast and Waitrose's awesome Organic thick cut Marmalade a Greenfinch landed on the feeders, now our feeders later have tended to be dominated by Sparrows, Starlings with the odd raid by a pair of Blue Tits, although things have pick up lately with a Siskin a couple of weeks ago and a Goldfinch in the week!! So quick as a flash the camera was set up and I managed a couple of shots, I decided to sit at the open door and see what else turned up!!
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| The Greenfinch, typically sat behind a twig so sharpness suffered a little! |
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| Greenfinch still not sharpe😢 |
Typically the Greenfinch buggered off after a couple of minutes, but the entertainment continued with the Garden Regulars and even a Herring Gull dropped in to mop up the old Fatballs I'd emptied on to the grass. (they'd been ignored by most of the birds despite being the expensive RSPB ones so I replaced them with the ones I won from Upcountry, which are much more popular) Margie was concerned about rats, which is why we only feed in feeders, but the Starlings, Pigeons. Jackdaws and the Herring Gull hoovered them up in under an hour!!
My watch also confirmed having a source of water in the garden is vitally important with regular visits to our small pond both to drink and bathe by pretty much all the visitors, so despite the Frog failing to perform, we are still sadly lacking in Frogspawn, the birds at least are benefitting from our efforts!!
A few pics below of the regulars with notes on the pics!
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| Starling, very fond of Mealworms and Fatballs noisy buggers nest in our roof but can't help like em!! |
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| Not sure of the species but a rare sight at the moment! |
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| Female House Sparrow,not a big fan of Feeder shots but liked the pose on this one |
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| Female House Sparrow in a more natural pose, loads in Hurst which is excellent |
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| Male House Sparrow in our Hawthorn we planted it as a small (2ft) Twig a few years ago has now grown to Sparrow Central, where they meet to Gossip, Fight, Shag, Preen and Chill, putting a large bush in your garden gives the birds cover to get on with their lives! It's like Emmerdale on steroids some days!! |
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| Male House Sparrow |
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| Starling having a bath |
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| Now we know why we are always having to refill it!! |
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| Post bath shakedown |
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| Male House Sparrow |
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| Male House Sparrow |
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| Smart Male Blackbird checking out the pond |
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| Having a drink |
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| Nice pose, with the ground drying up fast and little rain in the forecast I fear they will struggle to find the worms they need this year! |
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| Blue Tit in the pond, told you it was popular! |
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| Blue Tit |
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| And again |
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| Well they are cute |
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| Note if you are going to dig a pond and want to take pictures of birds bathing in it, position it better than I did duh!! |
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| Female Blackbird |
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| Male House Sparrow again |
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| Yes I know but there are a lot of em and they are quite photogenic!! |
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| Woodpigeon |
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| Dunnock |
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| Jackdaw |
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| Jackdaw |
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| Herring Gull, looking washed out in the harsh sunlight! |
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| Herring Gull, this is the first one i've seen actually land in the Garden which is a little enclosed, the lure of the fat ball bonanza overcome it's fear!! |
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| Woodpigeon nearly snapping a branch of our Rowan, the fat so n so! The Rowan another success story planted as a 2ft whip now 20 ft and growing, produces quite a few berries in the autumn, which I'm hoping will be there when the next Waxwing irruption occurs although the Blackbirds have usually eaten em all by the end of September so not much hope😢 |
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| A couple of Collared Doves appeared, I christened them Margie and Paul, as they are inseparable and very much in love💘💓💕 and also she seemed to ignore everything he said!! (Margie said something about it being the other way round, least I think that's what she said I wasn't really listening........😂) |
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| Collared Dove |
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| Collared Dove, look at those blood red eyes!!! |
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| Right after that wash n brush up I'm ready for my solo!! |
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| The colours on a Starling at this time of year in the right light are pretty stunning!! |
It's not just Birds in the Garden the many flowers in the "lawn" and the pink flowers of some kind of Heather that we have in a corner attracted a few insects as well, a couple of Blue Butterflies which didn't settle long enough for me to get a pic, a massive Bee and several Hoverflies seen as well a few pics below
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| Bee |
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| Impressed myself to even get this in the view finder!! |
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| One of our plants nicely lit |
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| Hoverfly? plenty of Daisies in the Lawn already |
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| Our new Bird Cherry (Prunus Padus) tree that we planted to replace that hacked down by the vandals at BT Open Reach, happy that it's already producing flowers thought it would be at least a year so happy days!! |
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| Hoverfly on Fence |
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| Hoverfly in flight, not to brag but it's almost in focus😃 |
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| This may also be a Hoverfly or a Bee on the pink heather flowers |
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| Another posy insect |
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| The Moon from the Garden |
So quite a nice couple of hours, amazing how busy the garden is when you sit and watch properly for a few hours, from a wildlife point of view they need cover, food and water, provide that, whether through planting or feeders or like us a mixture of both and you will be surprised how much you can attract to your garden no matter how small it is!!!
In between stakeouts I also cooked a cake, a delicious Organic Fruit Cake with Black Treacle and Dark Muscovado Sugar!!
And despite what Margie implied, 2 slices wasn't enough for anyone!!!😲😲😂 especially not me!!
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| Ready for the oven |
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| Out of the Oven |
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| The finished cake shortly before the incident and subsequent mysterious disappearance😁 |
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