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Snow brings 2 new birds & an uneasy truce to the garden (1 Viewer)

AnnieW

Well-known member
Well I'm off work today with a very heavy cold – but as the saying goes every cloud ..... ;)

The garden has about an inch of snow and that has really bought the birds in. Around midday the garden became unbelievably busy with the birds literally queuing for the feeders. I was sipping on a hot lemon when I noticed a great spotted woodpecker on the trunk of the apple tree. I’ve seen them up in the woods near here but never in the garden – so I was particularly chuffed when it flew up the garden and spent about 10 minutes on the coconut suet feeder (although the blue tits looked non too pleased - it's their feeder!!)

I was just thinking that this was the highlight of the day when I spotted something hopping around deep within a clump of mistletoe – it was with a mixed bunch of tits, but clearly wasn’t one of them. I spent a frustrating 15 minutes as I kept catching glances but not clear enough to i.d. and then finally it hopped out into the clear … a beautiful little goldcrest and a lifer for me. It stayed for about another 10 minutes before leaving with a flock of long tailed tits. :bounce:

I was watching for him to reappear for another 10 minutes, when a single female pheasant turned up (unusual – they normally appear in groups of at least 8 in the garden). It was busily pecking around under one of the seed feeders when a fox appeared at the bottom of the garden. Well, here’s trouble I thought. The fox stalked around at the back of the garden for a while as the blackbirds went berserk and then started heading down the garden towards the oblivious pheasant … I watched with my breath held waiting for the inevitable, when bizarrely, the pheasant looked up, stared the fox in the eye and then started walking towards it. The two eyed each other up for a few minutes and then the fox strolled past the pheasant and started eating some of the scraps I had put out for the ground feeders. The two strange companions spent around 10 minutes wandering around together, exchanging the odd glance, before the fox finally headed off into the fields behind leaving me somewhat ..... :h?:

I've attached a shot of this unlikely duo .....
 
Okay ... attaching the photo didn't work. I'm getting an "error on page" message when I click on "manage attachments" ... anyone any idea why ???

Edited to see if it is now working following lots of helpful advice from Bird Forum members !!!

And it is :bounce:
 

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Hi AnnieW,

Congratulations on the new garden sightings. I just ried the 'mamange attachments' and it's working fine on my machine. Give it another go and if it's still not working PM Admin to sort it out for you.
 
IanF said:
Hi AnnieW,

Congratulations on the new garden sightings. I just ried the 'mamange attachments' and it's working fine on my machine. Give it another go and if it's still not working PM Admin to sort it out for you.
Ian - thanks for trying. I've just given it another go & it's still not working for me, so I'll do as you suggest.
 
Hi Annie, hope you manage to get the photo on eventually, I would love to see it. I had a slightly different experience here today. We only had a light sprinkle of snow which froze overnight, but the grass could still be seen through it. I have had two robins here which have got on well, and even could be seen feeding from the same dish at times. Then today, they were fighting, and I was going to post on here and ask why? I was assuming they were a pair and tolerating each other. I have three main feeding stations anyway, so there's plenty to go round. Anyway, come dusk tonight, I found out what was happening. In fact, there were not two robins, but FIVE! Wow. Never before, there were a few skirmishes, but nothing too viscious, so hope all the little ones will have got enough food to get them through tonight. I also had a Red Kite circling the garden this afternoon, first one since the late summer, it was beautiful with the sun on it and the blue sky.
 
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That's a really wonderful photograph, glad you managed to post it, I'm sure lots of people will enjoy it. A very rare occurrence too I would imagine.
 
songbird said:
..... A very rare occurrence too I would imagine.
Well I thought it was a one off too, but foxy has just put in another appearance again - this time accompanied by a male pheasant and his harem of 6 females. Same as yesterday - they wandered around the garden together eating the bread, seeds and fruit I'd put out. The fox even sat under one of the nut feeders for a while picking up the bits that were falling. UNfortunatley it's far too overcast and drizzly to get any decent photos today !!

I'm not sure if I have some kind of weired "garden creatures UN convention going on", a fox that has given up meat on moral grounds .... or whether the cunning creature is lulling them into a false sense of security and that like in the fairy tales, will soon be inviting them home to meet the family for tea :eek!:

I'm starting to wonder what I miss out there when I'm normally at work .... pity garden watching doesn't pay the mortgage.
 
Amazing picture! I must show it to my next door neighbour who is regularly losing chickens to foxes. I know that she really does because I usually find piles of white feathers in my front field.
 
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