ed fournier Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 I love watching the starlings and their boisterous ways. They can’t get enough of the mealworms I’ve been fattening them up with since the winter. They now have a load of chicks in tow when they arrive on the feeder. The chicks are bigger than the parents and still demand to be fed - even when they are standing right next to the food. Plenty of poor parenting going on. The jackdaws also make an appearance with us, but I just try to chase the buggers off. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc.fixit Posted June 2, 2021 Author Share Posted June 2, 2021 The corvids are very clever and sneaked into our garden before we got up hence the big bird proof feeders which I must report are working great. The little birds are coming back in the old numbers......great! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 No dip in numbers around here. The woodpecker is a busy bird, how it doesn't have a massive headache at the end of the day... Saw a Magpie with a small, live Wren in its beak, didn't have them down as active predators, nest-robbers they may be but it looked like it'd just snatched the Wren. My fat cat is taking a toll also. It had a Blue Tit t'other day, torturing it, tossing it in the air, clawing the feathers off it. When it was virtually featherless she ate every bit of it! Legs, beak, everything. Good on the Rats though, fearless and vicious. Nature, red in tooth and claw. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
display name Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 26 minutes ago, quilp said: Saw a Magpie with a small, live Wren in its beak, didn't have them down as active predators, nest-robbers they may be but it looked like it'd just snatched the Wren. That's Magpies for you,very much predatory. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Layman Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 3 hours ago, ed fournier said: I love watching the starlings and their boisterous ways. They can’t get enough of the mealworms I’ve been fattening them up with since the winter. They now have a load of chicks in tow when they arrive on the feeder. The chicks are bigger than the parents and still demand to be fed - even when they are standing right next to the food. Plenty of poor parenting going on. The jackdaws also make an appearance with us, but I just try to chase the buggers off. We had hundreds last year in the tree behind our house. It was brilliant watching the parents following the fledglings learning to fly. This year they haven’t returned which is a great pity 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Layman Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 A colleague of mine recommends these 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 Got a nest box being fitted out by a Little Tit, a busy bird it is. Would it be male or female? Can't tell. The feeders are full all day, except when a couple of ringed doves arrive and bully the little birds till they've had their fill. All varieties of birds, and a couple of cock Robins vying for territory, a younger, slimmer usurper getting the upper hand on the older bird. The biggest pheasant I've ever seen (and I've shot and eaten many, though not in decades) frequents the garden early morning, noisy bugger. And Bats. So many around the back of mine. Walked across the patio in the dark t'other night without putting the lights on and I swear one flew within feet of me, could feel the air move above my head. Sat with a torch, switching it on and off and was amazed at the numbers. Best of all is the albino Bumblebee. Never seen one before, but encountered it twice now, both times didn't have a camera or the phone so wasn't quick enough to catch an image but the example below is pretty much how it was. Quite a rarity... 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc.fixit Posted June 27, 2021 Author Share Posted June 27, 2021 Quilp that's brill. I have a few more about now the maggies and the jackdaw have been proofed against. I also built a couple of bee hotels last year which were well used and was really interested to watch them nibbling their way out in the spring, no albinos though. We have a 30ft beech which absolutely hums with bees when I open up the poly tunnel each morning. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTeapot Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 1 hour ago, quilp said: And Bats. So many around the back of mine. Walked across the patio in the dark t'other night without putting the lights on and I swear one flew within feet of me, could feel the air move above my head. Sat with a torch, switching it on and off and was amazed at the numbers. Yeah, me and the boy were out watching the bats last night, perfect weather for it. Loads of them. By the looks of things there must be a few living in the castle. I've also never seen so many seagull chicks as I have this year. Last week or so, on so many chimneys around town are little fluffy squeakers. I know people hate them, but they are incredible birds really. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, doc.fixit said: Quilp that's brill. I have a few more about now the maggies and the jackdaw have been proofed against. I also built a couple of bee hotels last year which were well used and was really interested to watch them nibbling their way out in the spring, no albinos though. We have a 30ft beech which absolutely hums with bees when I open up the poly tunnel each morning. Nice. There's a 150 year-old retaining wall in my garden, the lime mortar has fallen away in places leaving holes which have now become nests for solitary bees, loads of them. This year was designed around the pollinators with plenty of bloomers planted and the whole garden positively hums. I'm delighted but Mrs Q. hates them. So I was thinking of creating 2 hives with the prospect of home-produced honey so went online to get some hints. Then I learned about 'mad honey' and its uses through the millenia. I'll find the vid... Here you go, very interesting... Some ancient armies waged war with sweet stuff! Edited June 27, 2021 by quilp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellanvannin2010 Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 On 6/27/2021 at 8:30 PM, quilp said: Got a nest box being fitted out by a Little Tit, a busy bird it is. Would it be male or female? Can't tell. The feeders are full all day, except when a couple of ringed doves arrive and bully the little birds till they've had their fill. All varieties of birds, and a couple of cock Robins vying for territory, a younger, slimmer usurper getting the upper hand on the older bird. The biggest pheasant I've ever seen (and I've shot and eaten many, though not in decades) frequents the garden early morning, noisy bugger. And Bats. So many around the back of mine. Walked across the patio in the dark t'other night without putting the lights on and I swear one flew within feet of me, could feel the air move above my head. Sat with a torch, switching it on and off and was amazed at the numbers. Best of all is the albino Bumblebee. Never seen one before, but encountered it twice now, both times didn't have a camera or the phone so wasn't quick enough to catch an image but the example below is pretty much how it was. Quite a rarity... If you do book of face post the picture on the UK Bees, wasps and ants group. They are good to id it for you and you could then record it on irecord. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 Thanks for the advice. Difficult to capture an image of it, both times the phone and camera weren't to hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellanvannin2010 Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 On 6/2/2021 at 7:40 PM, doc.fixit said: The corvids are very clever and sneaked into our garden before we got up hence the big bird proof feeders which I must report are working great. The little birds are coming back in the old numbers......great! For about the last two weeks I have been getting big flocks of sparrows, chaffinches, greenfinches and goldfinches. Having to fill the bird feeders two or three times a day so they must have had a good breeding season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 It's the same around here, plenty of fledglings on the patio, exhausted after a crash-landing. Makes them vulnerable. I posted a while back about being surprised at seeing a Magpie with fully grown and alive small tit in its beak; saw it twice more in recent weeks. And then there's our cat, gifting us. 4 times already this last week, and some she just eats whole so we don't see them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted October 3, 2021 Share Posted October 3, 2021 Another regular visitor is the biggest Pheasant I've ever seen. Handsome bugger. Our cat, usually a voracious predator won't go anywhere near, hardly surprising given the size of its claws. It spends the night high up in the trees at the back of the house and comes down early morning to fill its crop on the spillage from the feeders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.