Hobbies and Crafts

That’s lovely to hear Gwyn. I hope you get to see them.

Swan Update..... I have just been speaking with a friend, who told me that the swans had 9 eggs in total.
I'm not sure what happened to all of them, as obviously some must have not been viable and were abandoned, but the parents are successfully rearing 3 fine cygnets and the family all venture out for fairly lengthy swims, so are often seen at some distance from the nest.

I will have to walk that way at various times of day in the hope of seeing them.

Bet our birds have left us since we have been away. Will find out tomorrow.

Gwyn that is sad about the swans. Unusual for them to abandon eggs unless they have been attacked.

Hello All not many birds about yet the odd sparrow one robin .blue tits just coming & going only a couple though .as you say there is plenty of midges.& I am sure the bushes & plants are full of little meals for our birds.hope you are alright .let you know if I get anymore visitors x Barbara x

Strangely, I haven't seen or heard so many magpies yet this year.
In the past, we have had blackbirds shrieking at them as the bigger birds launched their raids on the nest.
So sad to see that.

This week I saw 2 moorhens with their little chicks.
One of the mums jumped in the water, but her babies didn't follow her, so after a while she climbed back up the bank and joined them in rooting about on the grass.

Sad news about the swans.
I walked along the path next to their nest and was shocked to see 2 eggs, still whole but alone in the nest. There was no sign of the parent swans anywhere. I will ask around locally and see if I can find out what has happened.

Jane the trouble with magpies is that they will take baby birds as well as eggs horrid birds.

Have you had any birds back yet Barbara? They will I am sure they will find their way back. Maybe like Ann says there is plenty of food around for them at the moment.

Vera ,Magpie(s) is a rude word in this household at the moment. They are a real nuisance :-| :-|..I keep expecting to find eggs from the Woodpigeons nest on the ground .Maybe the eggs have hatched though as I sometimes hear what I think could be a baby up in the conifer.
The Green Woodpecker has just been having a feast on the lawn :-D. There are probably plenty of Ants now .

No doubt when we get home the birds will yet again have deserted us. They will come back Barbra, it may be that there is sufficient natural food around for them

The birds will come back Barbara. I’ve had a couple of spells when they seem to have deserted us but they come back again.

At the moment there are plenty of sparrows and blackbirds, a few bluetits, occasionally a great tit. We also have a thrush coming regularly and a robin. I was never sure if there was only one robin or whether I was only seeing one at a time and there were more. Well, today I saw two together pecking at the mealworms :-)

This will please you Jane, or maybe not. I’ve been reading that many birds are decreasing in numbers but magpies are increasing :-(

Thank you Jane .I have cleaned the feeders & put clean water out
fingers crossed they come back
:-) :-)

I am sure they will be back Barbara.Have you been away for a while? I always worry when we are away and there is no-one to put food out for the birds(I just have the window feeder now) but as soon as we get home and I fill the feeder they are soon back :-D

We have had wood pigeons .crows .collared Doves but no sm birds.?

Since being away our garden birds have deserted us we had blue tits looking in the bird house thought they were going to breed &all sorts coal tits sparrows finches.
Great tits Blackbirds still coming
& robin.pheasant every morning .how am I going to get them back maybe have to wait & Hope they return. Barbara

How lovely Ann. I keep having to flap my arms to chase off a Magpie that keeps going on the window feeder :-S. So many Magpies around at the moment and I am sure they are after eggs in nests :-( They are a real nuisance :-S

Just heard Thomas doing his Meowing sound when he has somerhing . He has brought a baby rabbit back :-(.. Just disposed of it. He is now looking for it . I think he thought it was his supper :-(

Today we saw a duck family, Mu, Dad and three or four very tiny babies. Dad was staying very close to them

There is nothing as lovely as seeing a Mummy Duck with her Babies running along behind :-D :-D.
I hope Gwyn soon you will be able to see what is actually in the Swans nest :-D. I love it when you see the little Cynets tucked up under the wings :-D

Next door to us there is a mini lake .Sadly the people who live there now have not looked after it and we no longer seem to see Ducks with babies,They often used to use our garden as a short cut to and from the water.Moorhens too. they would often be see in our big Yew hedge.Canada Geese would also land next door the same time every morning at a certain time of year .We would hear them fly over our roof .I think the water must be so stagnant and weed loggged now it is not the place water birds want to come to any longer.
Our old neighbour who lived there loved the wild birds.He also had a Peacock and 3 Peahens.If Mr Peacock was ever in our Garden he would feed from my hand :-D

The ducklings are sweet aren't they Gwyn. The other afternoon we had a stroll round a small country park near us. On one of the lakes there was a mother mallard with 9 ducklings, possibly a little bit older then the ones you saw. At one point we were standing on a bridge over the water when mum duck and six babies swam underneath to the other side. Three ducklings were left behind. After a minute they realised they had lost mum and started calling for her. She kept calling back until they worked out where she was and then we saw the funniest sight. In their hurry to get to their mother these three little ducks were running across the water really fast. We could see their feet moving across the water surface, but it really looked like something out of a cartoon :-D :-D

I was in a nearby town yesterday and saw a lovely sight.
A mother mallard was swimming closely followed by 11 little fluffy ducklings.
They must have been only about 2 days old, as they were so small and cute.

It really felt like Spring, as several people, like me, stopped to watch them in the warm sunshine.

Later I checked where the swans nested last year.
One was swimming and feeding nearby, the other was firmly on the nest, tweaking the feathers and reeds to perfect the nest to their liking. I don't know if there are eggs or cygnets, so I will go back soon to check. Once again they have nested right by the path, so it's easy to see into the nest, if the adult stands up.
Watch this space............

Vera our Blackbirds can be bullies on the window feeder.They seem to be quite intimidating .Plus they manage to chuck out a lot of the food onto the ground in their haste to eat as much as they can . I actually saw a Magpie on the feeder earlier :-S :-S. I flapped my arms quickly and it flew off.I hope that was just a one off.That is one bird I won't be happy to see on the feeder.

I’ve just been getting irritated by a couple of blackbirds who won’t let a thrush anywhere near the mealworms I have put out for them. Every time the poor thing gets within a foot or two of the dish they chase him away.

I saw a robin and a great tit take some from the covered ground feeder and then a couple of starlings arrived and had some but the thrush is just too big to get in there so the poor thing will have to go hungry :-(