Category Archives: birds

Sparrowhawk woohoo…

birds, wildlife

So I haven’t been out much in the garden for a few weeks due to the snow.  It only snowed for a few days and lay for a few days but is has been pretty darn cold.  It looked almost the same as it did in the winter of 2010/2011 so I didn’t take any more photos of the snow.  Today though I spotted the sparrowhawk and this time is sat on the fence for a good 10-15 minutes – enough for me to race through and grab my camera.  It was too far away for a good closeup, and it was through the mucky window, and the sun was creating glare on the window too but I took the shot anyway.  It had it’s left leg tucked into it’s breast feathers and only put it down to fly away.  Now the garden is just soggy so I will wait for a while yet before doing much.  The frogs should be making an appearance about now and a few more bulbs too.  Bring on some decent sunshine and warmth.

birds, wildlife,
Sparrowhawk

Our feathered friends…

birds, wildlife
I have always had the notion that I would befriend the wildlife in the garden and they would become tame enough feed by hand.  Our dogs didn’t share that notion though especially our latest one.  He does not want to share the garden with any of them.
The smaller birds he tolerates but he will see off pigeons, crows and the likes.  At one point we did manage to get tame pigeons by keeping the dogs indoors at bird feeding times but that kind of back fired on us because every time I went out to the garden I was followed
around by a flock of pigeons.  So we stopped feeding them from our hands and only put the food out in bird feeders and on a small tray.  Well now, my photographs can look a bit grainy if I have taken them from behind a dirty window and they are all different sizes but hey ho I am not trying to win any photography prizes.  We have most of the usual suspects visiting the garden: tits, sparrows, thrushes, blackbirds, crows, magpies, jackdaws, wrens, robins, haw finches, bullfinches, goldfinches, chaffinches, starlings, wood pigeons, feral pigeons, collared doves, chiff-chaffs, black caps, nuthatches, tree creepers, greater spotted woodpeckers, swifts or fly catchers, tawny owls (heard only and found pellets  but have never seen one yet)  and even a gold crest, a grey wagtail, siskin, sparrowhawk, herons and pheasants.  Some of the birds go for the frogs and tadpoles.  The magpies and crows flip out the tadpoles onto the slabs then pick them off.  The robins come down to the pond when I am clearing the  weeds from the surface and pick out any creepy crawlies and any unfortunate tadpoles.  The herons sit on the garage roof where they get a great view of the pond and surrounding area and they can be seen have a wander all around the garden in search of frogs.  One poor sparrow photographed had a deformed beak but managed to eat the bird seed ok.  One or two blackbirds had partial loss of pigment (leucism)  ie. a white tail feather.   We even had a lost racing pigeon wander into the house but that was a missed photo opportunity.
birds, blue-tit, wildlife,
Chirping bluetit.
birds, sparrows,wildlife,
Lots of sparrows.
birds, sparrows, wildlife,
Sparrow with strange beak.
birds, goldcrests, wildlife,
birds, goldcrests, wildlife,
birds, doves, wildlife,
Doves with youngster.
birds, wrens, wildlife,
Wren hiding.
birds, pigeons, birdbath, wildlife,
Pigeon bathing.
birds, robins, wildlife,
Robin in snow.
birds, pigeons, wildlife,
Feeding pigeon.
birds, pigeons, wildlife,
Feeding pigeon.
birds, pheasants, wildlife,
Cock pheasant.
birds, pheasants, wildlife,
Hen pheasant.
birds, blackbirds, wildlife, birdbath,
Blackbird bathing.
birds, nuthatches, wildlife,
Nuthatch – a bit dazed after flying into window.
birds, woodpeckers, wildlife,
Woodpecker feeding youngster.
birds, herons, wildlife,
Heron.
birds, herons, wildlife,
Heron looking for frogs.
birds, herons, wildlife,
Heron on lookout.
birds, magpies, wildlife,
Magpies fishing for tadpoles.

A few changes…

birds, pond


We have all heard about ‘global warming’ and the effects it is having on our weather systems – but just whose prediction will be right?  Some theories suggest we are heading
for a mini ice age across Europe (Gulf Stream conveyor belt theory) while others predict hotter, drier summers with wetter autumns and severe winters along with flooding from higher sea levels.  The earth may also be going through a magnetic flip – where the poles
actually change their magnetism.   Only time will tell which, if any, theory will be correct?
Here in the UK our weather patterns are changing and these changes are already affecting our wildlife. Spring is staring earlier and our growing season is getting longer. Some
species are adapting to these changes while others are struggling.  Already a rise in sea temperature has affected the sand eel population in Orkney and Shetland. Sand eels are the main food source for guillemots, puffins and other sea birds so a reduction in sand eels has drastically affected the sea bird population.   Similar affects can be seen in our own back yard.  Our blue tits are having trouble feeding their young as the caterpillar numbers are peaking too early.  The frogs are coming to our pond earlier to spawn, but the hard late
frosts are killing all the frogs spawn.  To help our wildlife out a bit we are putting mealworms out for the blue tits.  Live ones are best and although I had an interesting few months when I decided to breed some myself; it is a lot easier to just buy them mail order instead.  To help out the frogs we keep a bucket of spawn in the cool conservatory
during spring and once they have hatched into tadpoles we can pop them into the pond.  We lost a few plants and shrubs in some summers due to the very hot and dry conditions but most of the others have survived well needing only a bit more mulch to keep the moisture in.
Climate change however is not the main culprit for some of the changes in our back garden.  In February 2006 we acquired a new canine friend, who is in his element
the back garden.  In just his first week here he found that he could leap effortlessly over the 1.5m walls – hence the addition of trellis above all the boundary walls.  He took our neatly coiled hose for a wee jaunt around the raised bed, around a few trees then chewed and reduced its length by a few meters.  He runs full pelt up, down, across and through the garden and has already worn a muddy trail under the right hand arch.  One fine game is to
find and dig up the peanuts that the squirrels have hidden.  He has absolutely no respect for our borders – crashes his way through the tulips and Narcissi and even has a chew at the odd branch while it is still attached to the tree.

trellis

One major project in 2006 was stripping out the old pond liner and replacing it.  Poor frogs – we made them a makeshift pond; a large flat container with their old pond water, stones and a few plants, then placed it  about 2 meters from where we were working and popped our amphibious friends  into it.   Harry stripped away the old liner then added some new soft sand while I cut back the water lilies, divided the flag irises and threw away any overgrown oxygenating plants.  Meanwhile, our home sick frogs who did not appreciate our efforts at a makeshift abode, jumped straight into the sandy layer before their new home was finished. We were astonished to find that only 2 weeks later the new pond liner
had sprung a couple of leeks.   ***bleep bleep*** exclaimed Harry.  This time they were just patched with pond lining tape.  Just when he finished filling it up with the old water and plants a couple of ducks turned up!

pond 2002
ducks