My how time flies and what a full busy life I lead, no time to get old and decrepit even though I've now reached the antique age of 72
. I made the first bird cake for this winter today and the Blackbird was the first bird to get tucked in for a feast, he was soon followed by the ravenous Woodpigeon, I allowed that bird to eat for a moment but the huge beakful it took persuaded me to chase it away. When my back was turned four Woodpigeons homed into the garden and made for the cake, luckily I spotted them out of the corner of my eye and a wave of my arm drove them off.:clap:
The weather hasn't been that bad this winter, only one morning of frost so far but the forecast looks like we are about to get some snow for a change, being a "halfcast" ||Western Australian I get excited to see snow, fingers crossed it will be here for Christmas.
For the past week we have had three Bullfinches visiting the feeders and along with the Robin and Chaffinch they give a bright glow to the garden. The Jay has also started visiting now that I put out peanuts in their shells for them, he spends his time in the pear tree over the road, digging out the nuts. The regular birds to the feeders are the Greenfinches and the Goldfinches, they bring to the garden a bright colorful sight, and the dapper Dunnock flits about beneath the feeders picking up the bits the finches drop. The Great-tit and the Blue-tit along with the Coal and Long-tail tit's are a familiar sight each day as they strive to extract peanuts and suet from the various items I put out for them.
The Blackbirds are the ones who enjoy feeding on the halved, rotting apples, even if they're not rotting we always make sure we have some apples on the ground.The Long-tailed Field-mouse or Wood Mouse also comes out to feed on the fallen seed or nibbles at an apple. The grey Squirrel pays a visit but I only allow it a moment to feed before chasing it away because he does too much damage to the feeders.:storm:
My wife, Ann and myself do our birdwaching from the living-room window and the feeding station is about three to four yards away. My camera is the FUJIFILM FINEPIX HS10 and Anns is the FINEPIX S5600.The HS10 has a 30X telephoto lenze that allows me to get reasonable pictures of birds in the trees opposite. Neither of us are experts with a camera but thanks to digital we take hundreds of pictures and after editing we manage to get a couple of reasonable ones.|=)|
The trees over the lane in my neighbors garden, the one on the left is a tall pear tree and the one on the right is an overgrown Hawthorn that has a variegated Ivy creeping up it to form a dense clump where the other morning I watched seven blackbirds come out after roosting there overnight. The Hawthorn is covered with berries and is a favorite perching tree for the birds before descending down to my feeding station
A daily visitor to the garden these past few days is the Sparrowhawk who dashes in trying to make a meal of my little friends, |=@|so far he's missed each time I saw him, and the disgusted look on his face when he lands on the privet hedge is quite amusing. I haven't managed to get a picture of him on the hedge, three yards from me because any slightest movement causes him to dash away. I did manage to photograph him last week when after another failed attack he perched on the roof of the house opposite.
. I made the first bird cake for this winter today and the Blackbird was the first bird to get tucked in for a feast, he was soon followed by the ravenous Woodpigeon, I allowed that bird to eat for a moment but the huge beakful it took persuaded me to chase it away. When my back was turned four Woodpigeons homed into the garden and made for the cake, luckily I spotted them out of the corner of my eye and a wave of my arm drove them off.:clap: The weather hasn't been that bad this winter, only one morning of frost so far but the forecast looks like we are about to get some snow for a change, being a "halfcast" |
|Western Australian I get excited to see snow, fingers crossed it will be here for Christmas.For the past week we have had three Bullfinches visiting the feeders and along with the Robin and Chaffinch they give a bright glow to the garden. The Jay has also started visiting now that I put out peanuts in their shells for them, he spends his time in the pear tree over the road, digging out the nuts. The regular birds to the feeders are the Greenfinches and the Goldfinches, they bring to the garden a bright colorful sight, and the dapper Dunnock flits about beneath the feeders picking up the bits the finches drop. The Great-tit and the Blue-tit along with the Coal and Long-tail tit's are a familiar sight each day as they strive to extract peanuts and suet from the various items I put out for them.
The Blackbirds are the ones who enjoy feeding on the halved, rotting apples, even if they're not rotting we always make sure we have some apples on the ground.The Long-tailed Field-mouse or Wood Mouse also comes out to feed on the fallen seed or nibbles at an apple. The grey Squirrel pays a visit but I only allow it a moment to feed before chasing it away because he does too much damage to the feeders.:storm:
My wife, Ann and myself do our birdwaching from the living-room window and the feeding station is about three to four yards away. My camera is the FUJIFILM FINEPIX HS10 and Anns is the FINEPIX S5600.The HS10 has a 30X telephoto lenze that allows me to get reasonable pictures of birds in the trees opposite. Neither of us are experts with a camera but thanks to digital we take hundreds of pictures and after editing we manage to get a couple of reasonable ones.|=)|
The trees over the lane in my neighbors garden, the one on the left is a tall pear tree and the one on the right is an overgrown Hawthorn that has a variegated Ivy creeping up it to form a dense clump where the other morning I watched seven blackbirds come out after roosting there overnight. The Hawthorn is covered with berries and is a favorite perching tree for the birds before descending down to my feeding station
A daily visitor to the garden these past few days is the Sparrowhawk who dashes in trying to make a meal of my little friends, |=@|so far he's missed each time I saw him, and the disgusted look on his face when he lands on the privet hedge is quite amusing. I haven't managed to get a picture of him on the hedge, three yards from me because any slightest movement causes him to dash away. I did manage to photograph him last week when after another failed attack he perched on the roof of the house opposite.
