Hobbies and Crafts

I missed this one Vera but how lovely I love chaffinches such cheeky little birds.

For about the last 10 days we have had regular visits from a male and a female chaffinch. Not earth shattering news I know but I have only seen one other chaffinch around here in the 9 years we have lived here, and that wasn't in our garden. I'm really pleased to see them and hope they are going to stay.

Concern over; - it visited the garden several times today (Wednesday 15th). No sign of a mate.

EDIT: 2 March: Have seen it every day since then, except today.
EDIT: 5 March; Now four days without seeing it. I reckon it must have found a mate and is probably sitting on some eggs now.

Aah, a Valentine pairing :-). Let's hope that's all it is and nothing worse. It's always a bit concerning when a creature who has been around regularly suddenly disappears.

For a while now we have been having a pair of greenfinches coming to one of the feeders. They always seem to be together but I thought they were both males. Yesterday I saw another bird on the feeder that I thought might be a female greenfinch but I wasn't sure so I checked online and yes, it was definitely a female. So I'm hoping she is going to pair up with one of the males and nest in one of the nearby trees. I would love to see baby greenfinches in the garden, especially as their numbers have dropped dramatically due to disease and they are now on the endangered species red list

Well, after seeing it every day since 13th Jan, it failed to appear today. Its beak has been getting redder so I hope it has found a mate and gone off with it; today being an appropriate day for pairing.

Yes the moorhen is alone and it comes into the garden three or four times per day. It seems to find food all over the lawn. Apparently they eat quite a variety of food. I put out a small quantity of dried mealworms, suet bits and wild bird seed mix every day, some of which it eats.

Is it a lone moorhen ?
Strange to see one in your garden away from water.
I wonder what food it is finding that attracts it to return to you....

There are quite a few around here, but I've only ever seen them near water.

The latest unusual bird in our garden is a juvenile moorhen. It has been coming to the garden several times per day since 13th January. We are about half a kilometer from the nearest stretch of water.

Well winter is here!
We have feeders up (neighbours) at the front of house on the little through road on our site (Mobile home park)..and one on our tree.This morning we had a pheasant, he hopped over the wall to the fields after a feed. We get loads of birds....gold finches (3-5 at a time), dunnock (1-2), sparrows, loads, black birds 2-3, starlings, yesterday there were about 6. Blue tits 2-4, loads of ducks from the pond, often get the ducklings outside to feed, anything from 3-4 to 12...great!!..

Meryy Christmas and New Year..x

I don’t want to think about Autumn ‘cos it means winter is on the way. I know bee eaters are lovely colourful birds though I’ve never seen one. I believe in the last couple of years a few have nested in Norfolk.

Well it's autumn - I've just seen a bee-eater and they pass through here autumn and spring. :-D

so clever. how do they know which way to go when we can get lost on a small island.

We were saying just the same this morning Gwyn and Pat. The Canada Geese here that frequent the lake in a nearby business park have started their 'training flights' ready for their journey to their winter quarters. How do they know they need to do that, which one makes the decision first and why are they so noisy? Every night they fly more or less the same route down our driveway, (why the same route?) leaving their large momentoes on my white car on the way. It is joyous to hear them and their enthusiasm though.

Amazing how the young ones navigate, isn't it Pat.?

I always think that about young cuckoos leaving UK too.... How do they know to do that ?

Our swallows and swifts are lining up in the afternoon. This usually means they will be leaving soon.

The younger birds fly several weeks after their parents when they have gained weight and strength. Wonderful how they know where to go, unless the parents leave them a map. ;-) :-D

One bird I forgot to mention in my last report was the chiffchaff. We made three or for sightings of them in the garden and had to refer to the field guide to be sure. Now having checked up on their call, I now know that the land beyond our back garden has many living there.

So far this year the highlights have been yellowhammer, marsh harrier and red kite. Also actually in the garden was a male pheasant on a couple of occasions.

The first swallow of spring Pat a lovely sight.

Opened our sitting room shutters this morning and watched the acrobatic flight of a swallow. It's the first one I've seen this year.

Soon the sky will be full of the chattering acrobats.

Spring is on it's way and your swallows, swifts and house martins will be flying towards UK.

In today's world we needed good news :-D

We had a jay in the garden today. I think it’s only the second one I’ve seen in the 8 years we’ve lived here though we used to get them at our old house. They have such lovely colours.

I visited Dover Castle yesterday and saw the 4 young choughs there.
These have been captive-bred in a wildlife santuary and are just visiting in a purpose built aviary to advertise a project.
They have been hand reared and it is hoped that in time they can go on to help provide young, which can be released, so that coughs could fly wild over the White Cliffs again.