Very busy at the bird feeder today! (13 Viewers)

[hectorzaza]

We get fieldfare"s and Redwing"s in the trees opposit but they never come down into the garden so I have bought some apples today and stuck them on the branches of our rowan tree fingers cross that will bring them down

 

[karpman]

Hey guys just got back from work and catching up on the thread.

Awesome shots GE and what a lovely set up ya got going on there, I'm blessed not to have any squidgells at present "Thats what me daughter calls squirrels and it kinda sticks"
Fieldfare numbers increased to 2 though which is nice got some more shots today and apples is sure the way to go.
I would chop a couple in half and lay em on the lawn too mate seems mine are most happy to feed there and belly flop starlings.

Later
karpman

 

[Mary]

Love everyone's descriptions of their fieldfares' antics! You know that old saying-'be careful what you wish for, it might come true' ? Well I've been putting out apples every winter for years, hoping for a fieldfare ..... now there's one in the front, and another in the back garden! Mayhem! We've got a new saying in our 'ouse... anyone being a bit beligerent or stroppy.... they're fieldfarish! A redwing has tried to join the melee, so there were 4 thrush species together - dare I wish for a Mistle?!

 

[Bananafishbones]

Some unusual paw prints on the snow covered lawn this morning.. so have just put out a couple of sausages for a foxy treat!!

Birdwise its pretty normal today, the Redwings are still in good numbers as is virtually everything else. Only one Redpoll & Fieldfare and no Song or Mistle thrush today.

Temprature was -15 when I left for work this morning, I did find time to think of how the birds were copping, sure cant be pleasant.
Have been finding whatever scraps of bird edible food to put out, including some jaw breaking musili that has been sat in the cupboard, a few extra handfulls of cheap seed also. Unfortunatly only getting an hour of light after work this week, but with the complete whiteout with the snow it does keep a little lighter for longer... about 16.20hrs this evening. Roll on weekend.

Some great posts over the last week or so, good to see some new contibutors too, although I miss the updates from the likes of Fozzy, Treesparrow and Moray, maybe they are all snowed in!! <I am sure they can be tempted out though>

Dave

 

[ChrisKten]

I forgot to add these to my last post, all taken today through the window:

 

[captaincarot]

lots of birds out in the garden for the short time we were round the house to look.

and loads of great pictures on here as usual.

it was very cold here last night so our birds have had masses of food put out for them a bit of everything i could lay me hands on round the house.

here's the best of the pics from the day.

 

[karpman]

Hey BFB -15 dam was about -7 here the cars were reading and thats bad enough for sure!

Yeah good to see new posters and cracking photos christken your garden reports always amuse me such detail of the frolics awesome, Got some pics from my garden today sorted now and got apples ready for the morning hopefully draw some more strangers to the garden.:eek!:

Strange thing happened today my boss got a phone call and we had to rush off to a factory to rescue a woodcock, A new specie for was not going to tick it due to the circumstances but as it was released and observed free i'm gonna allow it my self this once lol

Got some pics will pop them in separate thread later on.

 

[ChrisKten]

karpman: I just noticed that you asked if your pictures were too dark, and nobody replied. Well they are too dark.|=)|

I think they are underexposed, this could be because of back-lighting on some, but not on all. Maybe your camera is metering wrong, perhaps try a different metering setting?

I hope you don't mind, but to illustrate my point, I've adjusted the exposure slightly on your Fieldfare picture. I can't do much more as it'll just blow the whites of the Snow too much, but I think you can see there is a lot of detail there that you are missing. Also you can only do so much in post processing, and I'm only working with the low resolution image, not the original.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Since I put out some chopped apple yesterday my solitary Fieldfare has decided to take on all comers - chases off the Blackbirds (and Wodpigeons) by running at them, or dive bombing from the shrubs or bird table, and then stands all fluffed up in the middle of the lawn. Eventually the Blackbirds get hungry, outnumber the Fieldfare, and get their share, but the spacing is much larger than it was.

Our first Lesser Redpolls of the year turned up this morning on the sunflower feeder, so I hope the Siskins won't be long now. And I saw a female Blackcap in the top of the shrubs next door just after I spotted the Redpolls.

Greenfinch have vanished completely - I think they may have been badly hit by disease.

Current visitors:

...Blackcap 1
.. Lesser Redpoll 2

Flyovers:

Red Kite 1

All the birds seem to be getting more aggresive due to the cold weather and scarcity of food. A good selection of garden birds - Blackcap, Redpoll and flyover Red Kite (very envious).

Talking of bramblings there has been a single male and a female hanging around with the chaffinches here.

Always lovely to see Bramblings.

Had my first Blackcap of the year today a male also first Brambling also a male and our first Greenfinch this year, total at moment 26.stuck some apples in tree nothing on them yet

Blackcap and Brambling are not on my garden yearlist yet.

Most people think Collard Doves are gentle birds, but anyome who's observed them for any length of time knows different. Collard Doves are no different to any other Bird; they'll do whatever is necessary to survive. So why am I posting this? Well because one of them just surprised even me. Bear in mind that I've been watching my garden for years, and for at least 6 hours a day, so I don't get surprised too often lately.

I was upstairs and could hear a funny squeaking noise coming from the garden. I knew it wasn't a Starling as they are always beating one another up, and I'm used to that sound, but it sounded a bit different to the noise that the House Sparrows make when squabbling. So I went downstairs to see what it was, oh, and I knew it wasn't a Sparrowhawk as I could hear all of the other birds still in the garden.

For those that don't know, I hang home made trays in the trees for the Collys and Sparrows (which the Pigeons worked out long ago). Usually Sparrows feed from these trays alongside the Collard Doves, and sometimes the Starlings. The Sparrows also have 2 normal seed feeders that they empty before the afternoon. Anyway my garden has gone mad recently and sharing is a thing of the past, now it seems it's a case of get to the food or die trying.

OK, so you get the idea, so back to what surprised me:

At the side of one of the trays was a Collard Dove, in it's mouth was the wing of a Sparrow. The Sparrow was dangling from the Colly's beak while screeching and trying to fly away (not easy when one of your wings is clamped in another bird's beak). The Sparrow continued to struggle, and every now and then the Colly gave it a shake from side to side. This went on for about 30 seconds until the Colly ate the Sparrow; no it didn't, just kidding.|=)| The Sparrow eventually got free, or was released, and flew away unharmed. So I'm guessing that all deals are off as far as sharing is concerned.

When you get the chance, watch your gardens as much as possible, I think that this harsh weather will provide some very interesting behaviour.

If you think that's not a lot of Wildlife; all of the above are in a 20 foot square garden with 2 trees taking up most of the space.

Glad to hear the Sparrow escaped. It illustrate that birds are increasingly driven by the survival instinct when the temperatures drop.

Well we have about 8" of the white stuff here, and everything is permanently frozen solid. I do feel sorry for all the wildlife in these circumstances, but all I can do is make sure there is plenty of food and water for them. Just keeping the water bowls clear of ice is a bit of a never ending job.

I imagine it is a never ending job. Temperatures locally never rose above -4°C today despte the virtually wall-to-wall sunshine.

Some unusual paw prints on the snow covered lawn this morning.. so have just put out a couple of sausages for a foxy treat!!

Birdwise its pretty normal today, the Redwings are still in good numbers as is virtually everything else. Only one Redpoll & Fieldfare and no Song or Mistle thrush today.

Temprature was -15 when I left for work this morning, I did find time to think of how the birds were copping, sure cant be pleasant.
Have been finding whatever scraps of bird edible food to put out, including some jaw breaking musili that has been sat in the cupboard, a few extra handfulls of cheap seed also. Unfortunatly only getting an hour of light after work this week, but with the complete whiteout with the snow it does keep a little lighter for longer... about 16.20hrs this evening. Roll on weekend.

Some great posts over the last week or so, good to see some new contibutors too, although I miss the updates from the likes of Fozzy, Treesparrow and Moray, maybe they are all snowed in!! <I am sure they can be tempted out though>

Dave

Temperature reached a record -17.6°C this morning just a mile from you and daytime temperatures were well below freezing. I'm off next week but I hope this cold weather will get a bit warmer. I'll settle for +2°C atm!!

We were colder than Toronto (-4°C), Copenhagen (-5°C), Prague (-6°C), St. Petersberg (-8°C) and Chicago (a mere -9°C) this afternoon according to met office figures.

Hey BFB -15 dam was about -7 here the cars were reading and thats bad enough for sure!

Strange thing happened today my boss got a phone call and we had to rush off to a factory to rescue a woodcock, A new specie for was not going to tick it due to the circumstances but as it was released and observed free i'm gonna allow it my self this once lol

Got some pics will pop them in separate thread later on.

Well done on your rescue. Woodcocks are awesome birds!!

CB

 

[JeffMoh]

If you think that's not a lot of Wildlife; all of the above are in a 20 foot square garden with 2 trees taking up most of the space.

Great post! That's certainly a lot of activity for a small garden.

Pretty crazy at home over lunchtime. Chipping Sparrows, House Sparrows, House Finches, Northern Cardinals and even a Carolina Wren trying to push onto the feeders. Got ridiculous when two Gray Squirrels joined in; one even tried climbing up our window frame to reach the food. Threw several cobs of corn on the ground to keep the squirrels off the feeders. It was working when I left, but I don't know what will happen when the corn is finished. Or rather I do know what will happen.

Trees on our street were full of Waxwings, and we had 100+ Waxwings at the college also. On my way between offices I had a very close encounter with a Pine Warbler - year bird #60.

Tonight's going to drop to about 19F/-7C, so I'll be putting out lots of food, including more corn for the bloody squirrels. Tomorrow morning I'll also be pouring hot water into both birdbaths, so the birds (and bloody squirrels) can access them.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[karpman]

Hi mate,

Cheers chris i have a certain fear of scaling and adjusting the bars lol.
Thanks for the input dude i don't think it's so much of a metering issue as more the way i am shooting and shooting raw so exposing manually.
I greatly appreciate your input and seeing what you done with the photo i can see my mistakes!
Cheers mate thanks for the honesty i had a feeling i was staying on the darkside lol.

Karpman

 

[Scratch]

Just got round to putting a few feeders (fatballs/half coconut) up after moving in to a new flat, I need to put the fatballs in a proper feeder really.

The flat backs onto a very small but surprisingly busy patch of woodland.
Blue/Great/LT tit, GSW, Magpie, Bluejay, heard what I think was a Tawny owl the other night and there appears to be a Heron visiting every so often.

Heard peanuts might be good for the GSW, Not sure what to tempt the owl and Heron with though!

 

[karpman]

Hey scratch welcome to the thread mate and cracking shot!

karpman

 

[Scratch]

Haha thanks, my girlfriend took the pic. The feeders are set up straight in front of the patio doors with a camera/tripod directly behind, hoping to get a few decent shots myself over the next few weeks.

 

[captaincarot]

Temperature reached a record -17.6°C this morning just a mile from you and daytime temperatures were well below freezing. I'm off next week but I hope this cold weather will get a bit warmer. I'll settle for +2°C atm!!

We were colder than Toronto (-4°C), Copenhagen (-5°C), Prague (-6°C), St. Petersberg (-8°C) and Chicago (a mere -9°C) this afternoon according to met office figures.

CB

at the time we had the -17.6 the antarctic was a camparatively balmy -15.

 

[amasara]

Busy here in OHIO snow storm in progress. Had an unfortunate window hit toaday - white throat did a nose dive into bow window - put up snowflake decals after.... also feeding 2 young opossums and a few squirrels - hear we are a few nuts short this year - so all are welcome. Usual cardinal, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, doves, 1 blue jay , a flock of starlings (thanks UK)
Did notice a starling filling up on snow - gobs of it - must be thirsty!! Also say the first purple finch pair this year. Favorites carolina wrens make the rounds - they're staying in their nestbox - hope they survive the extreme cold we're to get!!

 

[Cheshire Birder]

at the time we had the -17.6 the antarctic was a camparatively balmy -15.

Not many places colder than Britain at the moment!

CB

 

[amasara]

Busy here in OHIO snow storm in progress. Had an unfortunate window hit toaday - white throat did a nose dive into bow window - put up snowflake decals after.... also feeding 2 young opossums and a few squirrels - hear we are a few nuts short this year - so all are welcome. Usual cardinals, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, doves, 1 blue jay , a flock of starlings (thanks UK)
Did notice a starling filling up on snow - gobs of it - must be thirsty!! Also saw the first purple finch pair this year. Favorites carolina wrens make the rounds - they're staying in their nestbox - hope they survive the extreme cold we're to get!!

hit wrong button

 

[Disneynut1973]

A lot to catch up on today and some great new posters too!

My garden wasn't too busy today, Woodpigeon, Collared Doves, Blue Tit, 2 Goldfinch, House Sparrows, Dunnocks, Robin and quite a few Blackbirds. Definitely a big change from Tuesday.

I did have a Wren and a Blackbird in the front garden this afternoon, which meant good views as the garden is a lot smaller than the back one.

 

[karpman]

Just added redwing and song thrush to the list!

Nice nice been a swell week!

karpman