daily delight, lymm UK, garden and nearby reports (1 Viewer)

jape · May 6, 2018

mother blackbird has moved the kids up from hedge to a nearby leylandii. probably safer from cats and big enough not to worry about maggies.

thought for a moment i had a new bird in birdbath but it was a very wet tree sparrow! the water made it look all black and white.

last night glimpsed an owl, no idea which, too dark. it went 'hoo hoo' lightly a couple of times and then away.

lots of hoverflies, gnats, white butterflies, blue butterflies, large wasp or hornet, bumblebees of two or three types and a few honeybees that are almost black in colour.

there was a brief moment when the moisture on the grass lit up in beads; angle of sun, quirk of breeze and the myriad rainbows all turned to bright amber in the waving, dappled shade. magick!

jape · May 11, 2018

another 'new' bird! obviously i have a lot to learn. this little fully fledged creature acts like a dunnock around the hedge bottoms and feeds itself and uses the bird bath, however it is brown and very spotted with a definite yellow tinge to breast and dark and yellowish speckles!

got it ... fledgling robin. wow. so that hedge has successfully provided for dunnocks, blackbirds and robins.

jape · May 11, 2018

they are a bunch of busybodies today. little garden action now spring has come, they are out and away - but then one drops in and from all directions they come in minutes. watching to check one another from somewhere or other!

the neglected bed is full of dandelion heads about to open into clocks, in comes goldfinch on one of many heads for a feed. moments later he is bounced off by a greenfinch, then he is pushed off by a house sparrow. nearby, a blackbird watches, a dunnock hops into the fray and baby robin calls for both mum and dad to arrive with food.

after all, it is right on lunchtime if you ignore BST ... and thus within a few seconds we have blackbird, 3 robins, six house sparrows, dunnock, gold finch, greenfinch and a great tit who seems to be picking greenfly or similar from the rose bushes. the woodies are too busy having sex to eat for now.

past time i got stuck into the garden, but then again, neglect by me is bounty for them?

the bossy blighters all scrapped over the one dandelion but dozens more are within a few feet.

jape · May 11, 2018

and again! fledgling dunnock. darker than the robin babe, paler under eyes like a beard almost, darker head speckles, not so yellow on breast and greyer speckles down on belly.

amusing watching the two babes together, hopping around each other then squatting and gaping when adults are near. a whole length of wriggling worm as long as my finger just disappears down the robin gob in an instant.

jape · May 13, 2018

why fight over one of fifty dandelion heads? goldie, then greenfinch then sparrow all too busy to steal rather than move a foot and see the rest of the available food!
mine! no mine! nooooo mine!

jape · May 16, 2018

so cuuuuute .....! that is a phrase i never thought i would hear coming out of my mouth, but these babes are.
dunnock fledgling x2, robin, housesparrow

all play together. well they dont play of course but they get along ok in the same couple of hedge bottoms. they step on each other, collide as they chase something, splash in the birdbath and ignore the beak-open rushes of young blackbird. thankfully over the last few days they have all survived and are being more cautious about shadows and noises.

up in the tree above is a fledgling coal tit. doesnt really look like any pics on internet as his underparts, chest and belly are completely speckled and even his wing feathers, nape and head have fluffy stuff. but he/she can fly and is very happy in the masses of blossoms, finding sticky green caterpilars and gobbling them.

i am hoping for baby woodies next, there is a nest hidden in the hedge tops that the adults are starting to leave more often so maybe brooding and hatching is done.

yeah, i will allow 'cute', it fits.

jape · May 17, 2018

first swallows i have seen. had to go out and look to be sure i had not confused them with the local house martins that have been up high this evening. pleased to see the longer tails so a good sighting. i have always had a soft spot for them since as a child i heard they never land and live forever in the sky! not true of course but more likely for the swift.

the swift is a bird i like, it was rare where i was in Oz but i remember an uncommon day when the weather was really strange. the natural life around quietened enough to notice and the sky went very green in the middle of the day and the pressure dropped slowly as it got greener with a strange light illuminating everything but without the usual smoke from a fire or high blown desert dust you can get there.
there was a line of black clouds far on the horizon as afternoon passed to eve and suddenly hundreds of swifts appeared above, swinging and curving high and low from high heaven to just over my head. all in silence except for the thrumming of straining wings turning hard all around me in the paddock, somehow swooping close to the ground but never colliding. i swear i felt the air waves from some, so close to me. then, within moments, all gone except for a few high in the green and the clouds rolled in. magick.

today the various youngsters are still about, all present. one of the young missy blackbirds has lost her tail, i hope it wasnt a cat. i also saw the female sparrowhawk come through and the greenfinch dived into the hedge just in time from the lawn. the hawk sat in the cypress and looked around, just fifteen feet from workmen working on the church roof, i called to them and pointed her out but then the powertools started again and she left.

i was half asleep and a gaggle of very noisy geese went by so close i jumped up, to realise it was a pack of young primary schoolkids with teacher on the otherside of the fence, seriously, if i had recorded it anyone would have thought it was geese!

jape · May 18, 2018

i went out early to check on aeroplanes because i have a theory they disrupt my broadband signal. in just half the sky, 16 contrails.

below them a dozen martins, pigeons at height, 'clapping' woodies below, jackdaws, three ducks, crows or rooks and a hundred smaller birds at roof top or lower height criss-crossing, all in five minutes.

our skies are full as the humans follow one another, each path, road, motorway a metal queue, heads down and passersby look away not greeting. a sour world we created to live in. some at great height in aluminium skinned winged bodies, most tied to toil and the regular maze they follow.

we took a wrong turn 50 thousand years ago perhaps, better to have stayed in the forests and wandering the steppes and litorral. we settled and shaped the world, farrns and castles, religions and wars to deal with our fears. living in our waste and undoing the complex chains of interdependent nature so we could accumulate treasures and toys.

we gained awareness and focused it on our selves, our insecurities and possessions. much of nature holds on where we do not look, in the shadows and shelter, crossing the sky, travelling under the hedges and at night while we dream. then we wake and they hide from our noise and uncaring movement, our relentless concrete and ploughs and bulldozers and ships with nets, planes leaving contrails of fume and ionized air.

the birds watch. some of us watch them. from envy perhaps, some with care and concern. we take delight from their colour and flight but to them we only exist as peripheral movement below. usually inconvenience or destruction of the circles and cycles, chains and spirals of live they need to thrive.

if they thought collectively and expressed a desire or emotion, it would be that they wait, wait for us to go away. to go with our sharp, straight edges and harsh power. to leave the greening season, the flowering fertility, the autumn peace, winter rest. take away our violence and poison and noise and fear. we had a chance to look up but so few do.

jape · May 19, 2018

nothing much new, first cuckoo i could be sure of although perhaps heard before a week ago i was not then certain
both parents feeding young robin, lazy blighter standing next to the sunflower hearts while they pick them up for him!
collared dove back after a while away, just one

Deb Burhinus · May 19, 2018

I’m enjoying your musings and share your passion for detailed observations of the familiar Jape - keep it up!

jape · May 20, 2018

thank you Deb, it sometimes seems i am talking to myself alone so it is good to get a response!
in a way i am talking to myself, i have always 'known' nature from country living more than cities but it was just an ever present background with no names or links or understanding. i am really enjoying watching and learning, and as you say, musing.

jape · May 20, 2018

there are two young dunnocks!

jape · May 22, 2018

cat just took a pigeon. bloody things. no idea whos cat and i had no time to get out and stop it. hope it wasnt brooding.

owhy · May 23, 2018

jape said:
cat just took a pigeon. bloody things. no idea whos cat and i had no time to get out and stop it. hope it wasnt brooding.

How horrible. |=(| Cats are a real nuisance in my opinion, and I chase any that come into my garden - always with a bottle of water on hand to spray. Haven't seen any for a couple of weeks now. Not always home unfortunately but I keep a close eye on what happens in the garden whenever I am - especially now that fledglings are visiting the garden with their parents.

jape · May 23, 2018

there are 7 or 8 cats that hunt through my little yard! i chase them off sometimes but they ignore raps on the window and a couple of them dont move unless i do more than open the door, i have to step outside and clap or move toward them. i think they expect me to offer food or a tummy rub, spoilt creatures. one, the same that got the pigeon, slinks off because he knows i dont want him there from previous visits but then creeps back minutes later.

jape · May 24, 2018

three male and one female blackbird mucking about after the lawn was mown. scruff, now known as braveheart for the successful defence of his daughter against an attacking magpie that knocked her down, beat the rivals off then he and his missus spent a while eating ants, then catching and cleaning, de-sliming several slugs in the dust and flying off. seems they are still feeding someone, somewhere. horrible looking three inch black slugs with yellow bellies. mmmm, tasty. no thanks. i hope they chop them up before feeding.

dad robin had a go at a young bluetit and to his surprise and mine, came off worse when it flew back at him. he sulked in the hedge for a while. the young bluetit is more brightly coloured than the parents, seems bigger too but that is probably fluff. up close when pecking spiders from the window sill he actually looks like he is made of brightly dyed blue denim!

the sparrows must still have a nest or two, they have collected all the soft feathers from the pigeon kill.

an adult dunnock keeps chasing off the youngsters. i wonder why? they seem a bit young to be fully independent but then what do i know? maybe a second brood or a rival family moved in to the hedge.

quite a few regulars missing, no wrens or treecreeper or long tailed tits for a while. dont see much of great tits or coal tits

one jackdaw, looked adult, sat in tree and made strange noises for about ten minutes almost continuously, sounded almost like a human conversation with itself as it hopped to and fro, almost as if two people were just out of earshot, muttering and whining with a few extra sibilants. very entertaining.

jape · May 25, 2018

now there are three young dunnocks! just saw them all together so that is one species doing well.
i have now seen young blue, coal and great tit (the great tit today for first time but quite advanced)
also one young robin, two blackbird and several young house sparrows

jape · May 29, 2018

there is a time most days in the late afternoon when the 'youngsters' come out. the three dunnocks and the fledgling house sparrows trawl under the hedges or across the lawn for bits and pieces. they enjoy tiny greenfly.
the sparrows muck about in the bird bath, quick dips and sips each.
the amusement today for me was when the older dunnock babe noticed a spider hatch and leapt up to partake, ending up quite fully wrapped in web and other detritus caught in it, took him a while to clean up!
they all seem too blasé about the cat that hunts them, often ignoring the blackbird 'pips' and not flying off right to the last second.

jape · Jun 1, 2018

oh oh! no fledglings all day ... no feathers about so fingers crossed. magpies all around.

poor little very pretty moth tried to fly 6 metres across yard, had three near misses from young chaffinch and two sparrows in mid-air on journey, ended up in a spiderweb! i admit to releasing it and watching it flutter away foiling spider too. hope it got away finally and found some peace or nectar or something.

jape · Jun 3, 2018

i have been by the window most of the day and only seen one woodie and a couple of blackbirds in the garden and trees. not even a sparrow about for hours and no foraging clatter from the roof or gutters. i wonder where they all go? if i could find out i would go there too.

can hear a crow, jackdaws and magpies now and again in distance and a monotonous collared dove. there are house martins up high, that is it. there must be a quiet haven somewhere the rest all visit.

a banquet of flowers but only a single bumblebee. it is a strange, green desert.

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