Hobbies and Crafts

Have three bird boxes on one of our walls and One is fitted with a webcam( my idea) sadly the microphone part doesnt work.and so far two great tits are moving in.....


.havent seen any activity yet on the other two boxes.........(sans camera..)
Bob

glad to know the birds are nesting, I think ours have been very secretive about it this year. Still not seen them with nesting material as we usually do.

I have been looking at the photos on Jude's blogg, I forgot that I asked what that one bird was, so sorry not to get back.
Lesley , I think you my well be right saying it's a tree-sparrow, apologies for not getting back.
Flock of Long-Tailed-Tits covered the feeders first thing, by the time I got camera out they vanished, must of been 16 to 20 of them, lovely little bird. Also 3 Great-Spotted-Woodpeckers .
Lot of building going on regarding the Blackbirds, The Jays and Magpies must of got young by the looks of it because they are raiding the bird-table several times a day, or they could be collecting food for the female who's sitting on the eggs .

You all take care.
Shaun

It's a wonder we have any birds nesting , my neighbour opposite have 6 cats, who usually come thro our garden to the fields below or where ever they go !

I sho them away..just by clapping my hands, cos none of these lot are friendly ( and they poo in my garden and scratch up our plants !!. )

These neighbours( wanted to buy our house in 1984 ,bought the house over the road )...have always had cats some of the she cats would always rush up to be fussed and they were, hubby is a sucker for cats and I like most cats and dogs.
These are lovely looking cats and I'd never hurt them , just don't want them messing up my garden.!

I've got a good view of what they do..........
2 of these cats regularly sit on shed roof of my neighbour's below ,waiting to pounce on the birds, one climbed the Sycamore tree but was finally shooed away by 2 magpies guarding their nest.
Should take a photo of their antics but don't think the zoom is good enough on the Digi,and I never have my old trusty SLR ready to hand :(

Hopefully then it is all going on out of sight :-D

I think the magpies are nesting in large conifer in neighbours garden below ours and to the right ,I watch the when I'm having my breakfast at the dining table.

There's been a little robin around a lot lately too. I wonder where they are ?
He perches on our neighbouring wall and then flies down the bottom of the garden.

After my breakfast I move to the other side of the table and read the newspaper, and I see there are Blackbirds in and our of our Laurel hedge, I noticed then when it was snowing and thought they were taking food there and sheltering, but it's almost the same place we've found nests in the past :-)

The Magpies in our garden have been gathering nest materials for over a week now.
Haven't seen many little birds though.

We still have the Red Kite flying around. Yesterday it frightened off the paraqueets. :-)
Take care
Von

Normally at thistime of year some of the feeding birds (chaffinches, goldfinches, black caps etc) would disappear, off to the filds and hedgerows to set up their nests. And we would have seen the blackbirds and Robins gathering material for their nests which they make in the surrounding gardens. But the small birds are still with us feeding in groups and the blackbirds have not been collecting nesting material. are tey going to nest later because of the weather d you think? Have any of you noticed anything similar?

I did spot a wren in the garden yesterday, first seen since before Christmas.

Ooh haven't noticed Maryanna but I will make a point of looking now. If true it could mean another bad summer. However maybe they are nesting lower down because the weather is colder and windier at the moment (I hope so).

Has anyone else noticed how low the Rooks are nesting this year ?

Every year my Mum used to watch them building their nests and would, pretty usually it seemed in those days, be happy because the nests were high up in the branches as folk law says that means a good summer.

Occasionally she wouldn't be so pleased and we would get a bit of rain.

It seems to me that over the last few years they have been nesting lower and lower but still with some optimistic pairs higher up.

We have four rookeries near to us, this year some of the nests are almost on the bottom branches !!!!

Are things the same where you are ?

Time to buy yet another rain coat some some new Wellies I fear. M

Ah Shaun, Goldcrest I understand. I shall look out for it on Jude's blog.

ANN, It's a ``Goldcrest`` NOT a Firecrest as first stated.
I have sent 3 photos to Jude for her Blog.
Goldcrest , Bobby Rob and one which I would like identifying because I cannot think what it is and it's not in any of my bird books.
Shaun

To my knowledge Shaun I have never seen a Firecrest so will have to look it up. I look forward to the photo.

Jays are lovely looking birds but we never see them in our garden. Do seem to have one single magpie visiting the bird table recently. I am convinced it is the same one although they do all look alike. we just get the one.

Hello Gang.
We have a pair of Jays raiding the bird table every ten or 15 minutes so that only means one thing `` they have young`` . Going on past years ,that's the only time the parent Jays visit our bird table and that's to feed there young.

Also we have a Fire-crest feeding on the floor from what's been dropped from the feeders above which I have never seen before as the Fire-crest just feeds on insects. I have taken a photo and will send to Jude to put on her blog.

For the time of the year the birds are behaving oddly .

Shaun

Christina, you need to have a feeder that has a screw hole underneath then you buy the saucers in garden centre shops, make sure it is the same make as the feeder so you can be sure it fits. Or buy from RSPB on line.

No Ann, I don't have saucers under my feeders. I'll take a look around the shops now to see if I can find any feeders with saucers. Thanks for the tip.

As for the rat, is there was only the one, then the cat saw to that yesterday. :-(

I have noticed while the snow has been around all the Birds of Prey seem to be flying much nearer to the ground.There were 2 Buzzards and a Kite this morning ,and I think a Sparrowhawk.I need to look up a pic of one of those as I'm not totally sure it was one.The Kite today was very low ,probably only 30ft or so.

Linda, how lovely to see a Kingfisher, do you know I have never seen one although oh has on the golf course near hear where a small stream runs down the side.

Christina. Have you got saucers under your feeders, that should stop most of the seed falling. Usually the birds can escape cats, even if feeding they are usually alert except at nesting time. We used to have a cat and still fed the birds, she did catch birds but not when feeding.

Sparrow hawks, beautiful birds but not nice to watch them kill and eat other birds is it?

Rats are another problem. Could you try setting a trap to get rid of the rat?

Please can anyone tell me if they've found a solution to bird feed falling to the floor.

I started feeding the birds in my garden in October. (Decided the cat was too old and fat to climb the shrubs anymore). It started off very well, and I've thoroughly enjoyed watching the birds and squirrels feed.

I don't put food on the ground (because of the cat) but the blackbirds and pidgeons still hang around under the feeders. Plus a rat. (I don't mind one rat, but don't want to see anymore than that at one time).

Well, last week a sparrowhawk swooped down and killed a blackbird. (It's nature I know, but not nice to see). Then, yesterday I heard a loud squeak and a scuffle, and the cat had caught a rat.

So now a lot of the pleasure had gone and I'm feeling that me feeding the birds is more of a hazard to the wildlife than a help.

Has anyone else had similar problems, and is there a solution, other than just stopping?

Hi
Red Kites are now common in Berkshire too our daughter has lots over Reading and we have had them over Crowthorne too
This morning whilst walking our son's spaniel round the local lake I saw a kingfisher, he landed in a bush and stayed whilst I was talking to other dog walkers. Quite thrilling though I had read there were some locally I had never seen them before. We have lived here for almost 22 years too.

Linda xxx <3 <3 <3