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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Today's Visitors (1 Viewer)

Superb Kits! Great to have a fox visit and be able to get a snap - I just see their pee marks on my toolstore! Haven't seen a single Painted Lady this year, quite a change to last year when they seemed to be everywhere.

Have got a bit of a scratched shin at the moment - one of the collared doves was walking up and down my leg as I sat on the back step, going from my boot to my knee and then slithering back down again. Just white skin marks though, not exactly as though I had a goshawk grabbing my leg! :-O

The Robin and Dunnock were out picking through the leaf litter earlier, the Robin paying very close attention to some old cuttings I'd moved and the Dunnock was hunting out suet pellets that the Blackbird and Sparrows had missed. The Sparrows were watching me from their usual shrub hideout as I sat on the back step, coming out to gather suet I threw to them but dashing back to cover at the slightest thing - very nervous little birds but with the Sparrowhawk activity this year it's not surprising, the Blackbird hides under that shrub with an eye to the sky as well!
 
Pair of Goldcrests zipping about this morning. I've been hearing but not seeing them. Young Woodpigeon begging to be fed by an adult. I haven't seen that before. Green Woodpecker looking for ants and a male Great Spotted Woodpecker on the feeders.

Pat
 
Four cock pheasant were strutting down the track this afternoon, but I was on the phone and couldn't get a photo! GSW back after an absence and lots of blue tits, great tits, chaffinches and wood pigeons. Also saw two Red Admirals fluttering around this morning.
 
Greenfinches are back again. Four of them this morning, as well as the usual wood pigeons, blue tits, great tits, coal tits and magpies.
 
Had a Wren in the garden over the weekend, a very rare sighting in my garden and caused quite a bit of excitement as I really love to see them anywhere. :t: Otherwise very much the usual suspects here, lots of Collared Doves, Starlings, House Sparrows, Robin, Dunnocks and Blackbirds. Had a couple of black-billed Blackbirds in the garden the other day, causing the resident pair a great deal of consternation!

The House Sparrows continue to become bolder and bolder in their attempts to hoover up the suet pellets I throw for them, some will come within just a few feet of me in order to gather them up and some will pause there and munch on the treats rather than just flying back with them to the safety of the shrubs. Managed to get a few pics of them at the weekend though they were a bit nervous of the camera!
 

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Yes, really nice that Wendy - must have been a lovely sight. :t:

Thanks Val and Kits - nice to get close to the little spadgers.
 
Fozzybear said:
Had a Wren in the garden over the weekend, a very rare sighting in my garden and caused quite a bit of excitement as I really love to see them anywhere.

The Wrens seem to have been silent for a few weeks but the past week or so has seen them back in full song. Fairly quiet in my garden at the moment but the Tawny Owls have been very noisy just before dawn.

Nice Treecreeper today. Both woodpeckers absent this week.

I shouldn't complain - I went to Stodmarsh on Monday, which was my birthday, and saw an Osprey and a Kingfisher. Not sure how my husband arranged it...

Pat
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How wonderful, Wendy. :t:

Hope you had a good birthday, Pat.

I hear Tawny Owls every night, Pat and Val! I hear them when I go up at night and when I wake during the night I can hear them calling to each other, and often hear them first thing in the morning. I love hearing them.

Nuthatch has been in today as well as the usual crew.
 
I know this may not seem very exciting, but today we had a sparrow in the garden! They very rarely visit so I was particularly pleased to see it. Yesterday I saw a wren, and the GSW and nuthatches were back in, as well as all the usual suspects.

The other night there was a real hullaballoo going on with tawny and barn owls calling for over an hour. I wouldn't have minded, but it was 3am!
 
Kits said:
I know this may not seem very exciting, but today we had a sparrow in the garden! They very rarely visit so I was particularly pleased to see it. Yesterday I saw a wren, and the GSW and nuthatches were back in, as well as all the usual suspects.

The other night there was a real hullaballoo going on with tawny and barn owls calling for over an hour. I wouldn't have minded, but it was 3am!
Click to expand...

Having the owls calling must be annoying, yet very cool at the same time Kits! I'd love to hear them like that but wouldn't want to lose sleep from the racket! :-O

I have sparrows in my garden every day (I have a colony that roosts and spends a lot of time in my garden) and though when you get to see them a lot you get a bit blasé, they have a real charm that always cheers me up. When they come to the back door looking for food and particularly when the females look up at me with those little black eyes they really are VERY cute.

I think the sparrowhawk has been around a lot hunting the large flock of starlings that's taken up residence in the neighbourhood - I've been finding quite a few patches of starling feathers where she's used the sheltered part of my garden to pluck her prey. A great deal of Woodpigeon and gull movement going on currently too, am regularly seeing flocks of between 50-75 or more woodies and have seen some really quite big flocks of gulls moving south too.
 
We still have Pondskaters on our pond & tiny baby ones as well. This is far too late in the year.

I watched a Sparrowhawk being harrassed by a Herring Gull over the garden, a little while ago, the Sparrowhawk took evasive action & vanished rapidly in a South Easterly direction. The Gull came flying back with a very smug expression.:-O They roost on the roof here, but that's the first time I've ever seen one see off a Sparrowhawk.
 
Haven't seen a Gull go for a Sparrowhawk before Val, usually Crows that see them off here. Not surprising though, Herring Gulls can be pretty belligerent!

Had a superb experience with my garden Robin earlier this afternoon. I went outside to get some air as it was quite calm and not that cold and noticed the Robin perching in his spot at the base of a shrub, just watching me. I picked up my bag of suet pellets and sat down on the low step at the back door, my feet apart a bit and the bag between my legs as I rummaged in the bag for some pellets. The Robin hopped over and stood a few feet away with his head cocked and when I tossed a pellet or two to him he quickly snaffled them. Getting a few more from the bag I threw one not far from me and in doing so dropped another near the bag. The Robin came to pick up the one at my feet and then paused, looked at the one I'd dropped and then hopped between my feet (only about 5-6 inches apart) and picked up the fallen pellet before hopping back! Considering I was effectively looming over that spot with my legs to each side and my arms resting on my legs it was putting a LOT of trust in me not to harm it, quite remarkable for a small wild bird to have such confidence! I know Robins are well-known for their bravery and confiding nature but that really was something else - it took me a few moments to process it and accept that it had just done that! :t:
 
That's lovely, Fozzy.
We have had some very tame Robins here. They will get within a few inches of you, some of them. I wonder if the ones who aren't so tame are migrants, like the Blackbirds, the dark billed ones are very wary, but the yellow billed far more trusting.
 
Could be Val, wikipedia suggests that Russian and Scandinavian Robins migrate to the UK and that they're both greyer and a duller orange.
 
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