Hobbies and Crafts

Hi Jude, yes we have plenty of snow. Had enough of it now,pretty as it looks!! The Hurrans is the one in Churchdown where I have been able to meet with several GR friends, it has gone into administration, but so have all the others as far as I know.

Hello Jeannie, good to see you. Have you had your holiday? Can't remember when you were going.

Ann
Glos in L Dist.

Hi Liz,
Small birds love using nesting boxes as cosy roosting shelters. You can also get twine/raffia woven things called roosting pockets, to hang up in trees.

Bird highlight of the year so far: I had a cracking view of a hawfinch yesterday. Not in my Shropshire garden sadly, but in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire. Also five very spruce looking bramblings and two green woodpeckers.

yes ann had our holiday we went to lanzorote for xmas for 2 weeks it was lovely didn't want to come home

oops nearly choked on my glass of wine...lol
Did you say Forest of Dean,?? where in the Forest of Dean??

l wonder if that means that the Birds of Prey Centre will go aswell then at Hurrans, and the other bird shop they have:o((((( l do hope not our grandson loves the birds of prey, he really gets upset if we move away from the owls,bless him!!

jude :o)

The birds love the waterfall on our pond as it is the only certain water around when it freezes, unless they take a trip to the Monnow. Road outside is covered again though it was salted earlier by the council, who also salted the front steps and pavement of the bungalows. Never done it before, much appreciated by us oldies.

Jude,
The hawfinch, bless it, was extremely accommodating and was visiting the feeders at New Fancy View car park, along with the bramblings, nuthatches, blue, great and coal tits, chaffinch, greenfinch etc. Someone has been putting food down regularly. We visited this site last month and thought we'd seen a hawfinch near the feeders but it flew off before we could get a 'scope on it.
New Fancy View (OS Grid Reference: SO 628095) is one of the best UK sites to see goshawks. We didn't see any yesterday but to be honest, I didn't care because of the hawfinch. (For anyone not sure what the fuss is about, I know bird watchers with 20 years experience who have yet to see one of these reclusive elusive birds).
As an added bonus, we also saw 20 mandarin ducks on a large lake nearby.

Many thanks Dormouse,l have made a note of that. Not heard of that car park and had'nt realised the Hawfinch are so elusive.We're not far from there so willpersuade hubby to take a drive out:o))
l used to work in the Forest and we visited various car parks and forestry sites maybe New Fancy View was one of them!!


jude:o)

Jude,
I may have got the name slightly wrong: it may be New Fancy Viewpoint or just plain New Fancy, but I'm sure you'll find it ok. They have wild boar there too; we stopped and chatted to a man yesterday who showed us a photo he'd taken earlier of three young wild boar following him and his dogs along a track.

DM x

Hi Ladies, my feeder was pretty quiet today, dispite the bad weather. Had 4 or 5 inches of snow here overnight in Chelmsford & a couple more during the day. The feeder only had some of usual visitor.
Cleared a patch of snow & put out some extra feed for the birds in the morning. Had to clear another couple of inches or so from the same area in the afternoon. Only to find most of the feed I'd put out earlier still there. Only a collared dove & odd sparrow & dunnock visited that when I was watching.

Steve.

Hi, this morning I put out some food for the birds.

Within a few minutes, it was completely covered in snow. Doh.

Then, hubby had an idea: he cleared the plastic patio table outside, brought the parasol out of hibernation, and hey presto! He'd made a little shelter for the birds, making sure the parasol was quite low. He then took part of our small dismantled shed (the door's been taken off), and put that on the ground, thereby making another little shelter for them. Yours truly put out the catering supplies, and hey! They now have two winter diners in our back patio. And, would you believe, they've quickly realised what's there. I tell you, we don't give them enough credit!
Have a white - er, good - day.
x

Jude I think it is called New Fancy View or viewpoint and I am almost sure it is near Soudely.

Ann

Jude I think it is called New Fancy View or viewpoint and I am almost sure it is near Soudely.

Ann

Morning:o))

No more snow here, but we still have the 3" from yesterday:o))

Vic's been out and cleared some area's and fed the birds, changed the water (they now have one of my baking tins!!)

Glenys....what a brilliant idea, usually they take a while to suss things out,bit wary, your lot either know you well or are very hungry!?

Thanks Ann....was hopeing to go there this week but Vic has a ceiling to cover with PVA then 2 coats of paint and family are here on Fri:o)) we'll hopefully take a drive next wk now. We're going to Cwmbran farm at the weekend,weather permitting of course, its great there and the babes will love it (so will l ;~))))

jude :o)
Off out in a mo to get vics paper...l'll have you know l'll be walking too..lol

l deleted cause it posted twice!!

Hi everyone,
Six inches of snow in South Shropshire and still snowing...........
A neighbour has had 3 waxwings in her garden but all we've got is the resident crowd of house sparrows, blackbirds, dunnocks, collared doves and a brief visit from a male great spotted woodpecker to the peanut feeder at about 7.30 this morning. Also 3 pairs of ravens over the wood behind our house.

Jude, New Fancy is near Parkend.
Directions from website:
From the B4226 Coleford to Cinderford road, turn south onto the minor road at the Speech House. New Fancy is two miles along the road to the west side just before a T junction. OS Grid Reference: SO 628095
DM x

Thanks Dormouse:o)

l did me walk to the shops, on the way l had to call at a house for vic.....whilst out walking the dog earlier he met a girl who'd lost her dog and he wanted me to check if it was found......YESSS she's back,apparently she's always sniffing out the rabbits!!

Quite a few prs of chaffinches now, but don't think theres much left, blackbirds are hogging everything....l'llprobably put more out in a mo...he's busy painting:o))

jude :o)

Thanks Dormouse, got confused with another viewpoint. OH now knows where it is, long time since we meandered around the Forest, close as we live we tend not to go that way now but did when we lived in Lydney.

Thanks Jude. I think it's more of a case of "beggars can't be choosers"!

They're still a bit iffy about the table and parasol, but they can see the food on the table from the top of the upturned shed. A couple of wagtails were there earlier.
x

Well I hope that you are all OK and not had to much trouble with this bad weather, We have had to great days not a bit of snow just brilliant sunshine. place is a live with birds now got 8 pairs of Yellowhammers, blue tits have moved into the nest boxes Robins not to sure at the moment as its only been there a day. Woodpecker has not been around for a few days. nor has the heron.

The snow has as good as gone now:o(( but MORE due tonight :o))

Sister was here this afternoon and l asked her again about the Wagtails, wellll yesterday she had 3 types of them........The Pied, The Grey and The Yellow. She says the Yellow should have wintered elsewhere but probably got left behind.....she was'nt going to take a photo cause thought it would'nt come out but l have persuaded her to keep camera on window sill !!!!!

Not too many birds in the garden today, mostly blackbirds,jackdaws earlier, couple of c/doves, sparrow and robin:o) oh and l think one chaffinch....stil abit of food left!!

jude:o)

Jude,
Tell your sister to give that yellow wagtail directions to Africa! It shouldn't be here! lol

Snow been melting today but more on the way, apparently.

** Muses: If it gets too cold, I could go round to Jude's sister's and pick up that lost yellow wagtail and that would give me a good excuse to go somewhere warm and sunny............. mmm**