Well the fatballs certainly work, there was a male Greater Spotted Woodpecker vigorously disembowelling one early this morning and about lunchtime while the sun was still out, a small flock of about a dozen Siskins landed in the pear tree where the feeders are and had a good go at the sunflower hearts.
Their yellow and black plumage really stood out in the bright sunshine, almost canary like.
It was back to business as usual though as by 3.00pm it was thistledown again with a bit of sleet and hail thrown in for good measure.
The snow is still capping the Clwyd's in it's wintry grip and my Koi continue to repose on the pond bottom.
Spring is nearly here!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
CAROL
What is Christmas without
snow? We need it
as bread of a cold
climate, ermine to trim
our sins with, a brief
sleeve for charity's
scarecrow to wear its heart
on, bold as a robin.
R.S.Thomas
The bird feeders continue to attract as the weather turns colder this week, besides a lot of bluetits and long tailed tits coming and going we had a brief visit from a lesser spotted woodpecker on Saturday morning.
They are quite small, about sparrow size so they are easily missed among small birds around a crowded feeder, but, they do tend to keep apart and are only interested in the fatballs or suet.
Our resident cock pheasant continues to visit but only briefly and very early morning lately.
We don't think he's too fond of our dogs chasing him so he tends to forage next door in peace and quiet were they don't have a dog but they have a lot of shrubs and trees and also, the owners stay out of the garden a lot!
Still not had a vulture visit yet Colin!
What is Christmas without
snow? We need it
as bread of a cold
climate, ermine to trim
our sins with, a brief
sleeve for charity's
scarecrow to wear its heart
on, bold as a robin.
R.S.Thomas
The bird feeders continue to attract as the weather turns colder this week, besides a lot of bluetits and long tailed tits coming and going we had a brief visit from a lesser spotted woodpecker on Saturday morning.
They are quite small, about sparrow size so they are easily missed among small birds around a crowded feeder, but, they do tend to keep apart and are only interested in the fatballs or suet.
Our resident cock pheasant continues to visit but only briefly and very early morning lately.
We don't think he's too fond of our dogs chasing him so he tends to forage next door in peace and quiet were they don't have a dog but they have a lot of shrubs and trees and also, the owners stay out of the garden a lot!
Still not had a vulture visit yet Colin!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
What frost!
Our Vale of Clwyd microclimate is still working, large parts of the country are getting snow, ice, fog, and heavy frosts with temperatures down into minus double figures for some, meanwhile we miss most of the harsh weather here thanks to our mini-climate tucked between the Clwyd's, the Berwyn's, the Denbigh Moors and Snowdonia.
Well we had just a little frost last night but it had melted off the grass by 10.00.am.
Yesterday and again today I've had stoneflies and caddis flies hatching and dancing around in small groups across the ponds and garden.
I noticed a dark winged caddis fly crawling about on a window yesterday and several dark mayfly (Ephemera) types with their long twin tail streamers flitting about today in the warm afternoon sunshine.
Perfect for trout fishing except the wind is now veered to the south and east; not good for tomorrows fly fishing session!
It's forecast to be colder and cloudier than today though, so possibly not all bad.
I counted 13 magpies mobbing a buzzard sitting in a large ash tree in the woods this afternoon, I'm not sure if that's a very unlucky omen?
Certainly, we have way too many magpies around; possibly from eating my Koi food!
Our Vale of Clwyd microclimate is still working, large parts of the country are getting snow, ice, fog, and heavy frosts with temperatures down into minus double figures for some, meanwhile we miss most of the harsh weather here thanks to our mini-climate tucked between the Clwyd's, the Berwyn's, the Denbigh Moors and Snowdonia.
Well we had just a little frost last night but it had melted off the grass by 10.00.am.
Yesterday and again today I've had stoneflies and caddis flies hatching and dancing around in small groups across the ponds and garden.
I noticed a dark winged caddis fly crawling about on a window yesterday and several dark mayfly (Ephemera) types with their long twin tail streamers flitting about today in the warm afternoon sunshine.
Perfect for trout fishing except the wind is now veered to the south and east; not good for tomorrows fly fishing session!
It's forecast to be colder and cloudier than today though, so possibly not all bad.
I counted 13 magpies mobbing a buzzard sitting in a large ash tree in the woods this afternoon, I'm not sure if that's a very unlucky omen?
Certainly, we have way too many magpies around; possibly from eating my Koi food!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
I must go down to the sea again
To the lonely sea and the sky
All I need is a tall ship
And a star to steer her by
John Masefield
For all you potential stargazers out there tomorrow morning looks good for spotting the rare alignment of the morning planets, they will be clearly visible at 6.45am.
Last visible 2005 so, fill yer boots!
The forecast is for a clear sky so if you look towards the east and then rising across the night sky to the south you will see them all.
Starting in the eastern sky and close to the horizon you will possibly see the first one (a not very bright) Mercury, then, higher and by far the brightest star you will see in the night sky, the unmistakably large Venus, (my birth star).
To the right and above is a smaller but quite bright Saturn followed again to the right and just below the line of transit; a smaller but red coloured star which is Antares.
Above this and to the right is 'The red planet' Mars, (was it named after a chocolate bar or a god?)
Mars is clearly larger and quite visible and to the right and below the line of transit is another bright star Spica.
The last of the morning stars in the alignment is the planet Jupiter high up and to the right (south) again clearly visible and brighter against the backdrop of millions of smaller stars.
If you have a telescope that's brilliant, but if like me you just have a good pair of binoculars make sure you rest them on something firm or solid otherwise you will get dreadfully blurry images with the inevitable 'shake'. Remember, the more powerful they are the more 'shake' you get.
I learned a lot about the stars when I did a night school course for nautical navigation as part of a Yacht masters certificate about 45 years ago when I started sailing offshore and they have intrigued me since.
To the lonely sea and the sky
All I need is a tall ship
And a star to steer her by
John Masefield
For all you potential stargazers out there tomorrow morning looks good for spotting the rare alignment of the morning planets, they will be clearly visible at 6.45am.
Last visible 2005 so, fill yer boots!
The forecast is for a clear sky so if you look towards the east and then rising across the night sky to the south you will see them all.
Starting in the eastern sky and close to the horizon you will possibly see the first one (a not very bright) Mercury, then, higher and by far the brightest star you will see in the night sky, the unmistakably large Venus, (my birth star).
To the right and above is a smaller but quite bright Saturn followed again to the right and just below the line of transit; a smaller but red coloured star which is Antares.
Above this and to the right is 'The red planet' Mars, (was it named after a chocolate bar or a god?)
Mars is clearly larger and quite visible and to the right and below the line of transit is another bright star Spica.
The last of the morning stars in the alignment is the planet Jupiter high up and to the right (south) again clearly visible and brighter against the backdrop of millions of smaller stars.
If you have a telescope that's brilliant, but if like me you just have a good pair of binoculars make sure you rest them on something firm or solid otherwise you will get dreadfully blurry images with the inevitable 'shake'. Remember, the more powerful they are the more 'shake' you get.
I learned a lot about the stars when I did a night school course for nautical navigation as part of a Yacht masters certificate about 45 years ago when I started sailing offshore and they have intrigued me since.
-
roselanekoi
- Posts: 322
- Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm
Re: Spring is nearly here!
I don't have a clear view of my bird tale from the house so yesterday I decided to set up my video camera to record the visitors after I'd filled the tray with a bird seed mix plus quite a few peanuts, no exotic visitors I'm afraid, just the usual garden birds.
quite a few Jackdaws
a grey squirrel
pair of magpies
pair of doves
pair of pigeons
couple of sparrows
blue tit
great tit
(there may be more than one of the tits but there was only one at any one time)
The video ran for over an hour and for nearly all that time someone was feeding at the bird table, as one left another arrived. The jackdaws and the squirrel definitely preferred the peanuts but kept returning to feed after they had all gone.
Colin
quite a few Jackdaws
a grey squirrel
pair of magpies
pair of doves
pair of pigeons
couple of sparrows
blue tit
great tit
(there may be more than one of the tits but there was only one at any one time)
The video ran for over an hour and for nearly all that time someone was feeding at the bird table, as one left another arrived. The jackdaws and the squirrel definitely preferred the peanuts but kept returning to feed after they had all gone.
Colin
Re: Spring is nearly here!
If you put up cylindrical squirrel ( and jackdaw ) proof bird feeders, particularly with fat or suet in Colin, you will find you will attract a bigger variety of small birds, also, caged ground feeders will get the same results.
The bigger birds tend to intimidate the smaller birds on the open platform type feeders but the bigger birds cannot use the cylindrical feeders, particularly with the anti-squirrel metal mesh guards on.
We bought a bird feeder in Canada of a type that my brother has used for years over there that's also very useful.
It has a weight-sensitive platform on front that tips the larger birds off, anything blackbird size and over has no chance of a free meal.
Not sure if they are for sale over here though?
We've had two uncommon visitors take advantage of our free bird food offer recently.
A pair? of Brambling feeding with the chaffinches in our ground feeder yesterday and today, ( they look pretty much alike)
We mistook them for plump odd coloured chaffinches at first until we got our bird book out to identify them.
I took my own advise yesterday and went out very early to see the morning planets alignment in the south-eastern sky.
I figured the best place to observe them locally was the car park on top of the Great Orme at Llandudno so we bundled ourselves and two equally sleepy doggies into the car and headed South to Llandudno.
We arrived at the car park at 6.30am and had it to ourselves, except that is for a couple of the Ormes famous white goats lying behind the car park's limestone wall (they quickly vanished when we got out of the car) and a lot of rabbits about; which also scarpered fast when the dogs got out the car and smelled them!
We saw rabbits everywhere, all the way up from the tram sheds at the bottom to the car park on the top and voles! running across the road and tramtrack mostly.
There is no street lighting up there so it was perfect for viewing the stars and the full moon that had been visible the whole way there to our right from the A55 was by then low down on the horizon and out to sea to the West.
It wasn't too cold up there and almost cloudless but the strong wind made our eyes water making it difficult to see the planets clearly through the binoculars, still well worth the visit though.
We left about 7.15am and headed down into an awakening Llandudno to get a coffee somewhere then head for the beach at Rhos on Sea just as the first orangey-pink streaks of dawn ilumined the eastern sky.
Venus still hung there like a brightly glittering jewel low in the ever lightening eastern dawn sky but the lower duller smaller Mercury had by then vanished into the new day.
We drove about Llandudno looking for a café open but in vain so we drove to Rhos and walked the dogs on a deserted beach but for one man with his Labrador.
When we were pushed off by the making tide at 8.30am the sun was rising, we found a café open at last so a good breakfast was in order and it worked a treat.
A good start to a lovely day!
The bigger birds tend to intimidate the smaller birds on the open platform type feeders but the bigger birds cannot use the cylindrical feeders, particularly with the anti-squirrel metal mesh guards on.
We bought a bird feeder in Canada of a type that my brother has used for years over there that's also very useful.
It has a weight-sensitive platform on front that tips the larger birds off, anything blackbird size and over has no chance of a free meal.
Not sure if they are for sale over here though?
We've had two uncommon visitors take advantage of our free bird food offer recently.
A pair? of Brambling feeding with the chaffinches in our ground feeder yesterday and today, ( they look pretty much alike)
We mistook them for plump odd coloured chaffinches at first until we got our bird book out to identify them.
I took my own advise yesterday and went out very early to see the morning planets alignment in the south-eastern sky.
I figured the best place to observe them locally was the car park on top of the Great Orme at Llandudno so we bundled ourselves and two equally sleepy doggies into the car and headed South to Llandudno.
We arrived at the car park at 6.30am and had it to ourselves, except that is for a couple of the Ormes famous white goats lying behind the car park's limestone wall (they quickly vanished when we got out of the car) and a lot of rabbits about; which also scarpered fast when the dogs got out the car and smelled them!
We saw rabbits everywhere, all the way up from the tram sheds at the bottom to the car park on the top and voles! running across the road and tramtrack mostly.
There is no street lighting up there so it was perfect for viewing the stars and the full moon that had been visible the whole way there to our right from the A55 was by then low down on the horizon and out to sea to the West.
It wasn't too cold up there and almost cloudless but the strong wind made our eyes water making it difficult to see the planets clearly through the binoculars, still well worth the visit though.
We left about 7.15am and headed down into an awakening Llandudno to get a coffee somewhere then head for the beach at Rhos on Sea just as the first orangey-pink streaks of dawn ilumined the eastern sky.
Venus still hung there like a brightly glittering jewel low in the ever lightening eastern dawn sky but the lower duller smaller Mercury had by then vanished into the new day.
We drove about Llandudno looking for a café open but in vain so we drove to Rhos and walked the dogs on a deserted beach but for one man with his Labrador.
When we were pushed off by the making tide at 8.30am the sun was rising, we found a café open at last so a good breakfast was in order and it worked a treat.
A good start to a lovely day!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
This extraordinarily mild winter continues to surprise as a clump of primroses have now come into flower down the bottom of our garden and a large toad has been swimming in and roaming around my Koi pond the last few days and nights.
Cleaning out my overflow pool yesterday preparing (hopefully) for the frogspawn to come I found an adult smooth newt crawling through the rank mass of watercress I was raking out.
It just hasn't stopped growing this winter, normally its killed off almost completely by the frost.
My veg filter has been the same as the watercress (and the white arum lilies) continue to grow unchecked.
The lilies have flower buds on and they're about a foot high already.
At this rate my lilies will be in flower next month, possibly with a good show of roses to follow?
Topped my pond water up yesterday and it triggered the fish to look for food, fed them some wheatgerm floaters that they ate within 20 minutes.
I've been watching a small flock of Goldfinches trying to feed on the wildly swinging bird feeders this morning.
Besides the heavy horizontal sheets of rain and violent gusts of wind, they have to cope with the feeders travelling through 180% every few minutes, they are determined little beggars though, tougher than the bluetits and sparrows who just mostly seem to sit in the hedge watching until the rain subsides.
Several feeders have been blown off twice today, they're being left off until the wind dies down.
Cleaning out my overflow pool yesterday preparing (hopefully) for the frogspawn to come I found an adult smooth newt crawling through the rank mass of watercress I was raking out.
It just hasn't stopped growing this winter, normally its killed off almost completely by the frost.
My veg filter has been the same as the watercress (and the white arum lilies) continue to grow unchecked.
The lilies have flower buds on and they're about a foot high already.
At this rate my lilies will be in flower next month, possibly with a good show of roses to follow?
Topped my pond water up yesterday and it triggered the fish to look for food, fed them some wheatgerm floaters that they ate within 20 minutes.
I've been watching a small flock of Goldfinches trying to feed on the wildly swinging bird feeders this morning.
Besides the heavy horizontal sheets of rain and violent gusts of wind, they have to cope with the feeders travelling through 180% every few minutes, they are determined little beggars though, tougher than the bluetits and sparrows who just mostly seem to sit in the hedge watching until the rain subsides.
Several feeders have been blown off twice today, they're being left off until the wind dies down.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Very important message for all you viewers, this weekend is the RSPB garden bird count, you can download the information sheet off their website to fill in.
It only takes an hour for the survey but the bird count fulfils an important part of the overall information the RSPB need to know, basically what birds are where and how many there are!
It's not perfect; as the birds you see in an hour are an inadequate reflection of what birds actually visit your garden throughout a winter, say from late September through to March, but, it does give some idea of what's actually out there!
Below is a list of our garden visitors and residents from about October to present, some are here all year round like Bluetits and Blackbirds and some are winter visitors only like Siskins, Fieldfares and Bramblings that breed in Scandinavia and Russia.
We tend to see a lot more birds due to our location next to a mature mixed conifer and deciduous wood.
We have a selection of different bird feeders and natural food available in the garden that attracts a wide variety of birds and also, various shrubs with berries and plant seeds, etc.
r = regular/resident
v = occasional visitor
Mallard v (nocturnal visitor to my veg filter)
Heron v (very unwelcome)
Pheasant cock r
Blackbirds r
Thrushes r
Missel thrush v
Dunnets r
Wrens r
House Sparrows r
Blue tits r
Great tits r
Long tailed tits r
Willow/Marsh tits v
Goldcrest v
Goldfinches r
Siskins v
Fieldfares v
Bramblings v
Chaffinches r
Robins r
Nuthatch r
Tree creeper v
Lesser spotted Woodpecker v (seen once)
Greater spotted Woodpeckers r
Woodpigeon r
Collared Doves v
Jay v
Rooks r
Crows r
Jackdaws r
Magpies r
Sparrow hawks r
It only takes an hour for the survey but the bird count fulfils an important part of the overall information the RSPB need to know, basically what birds are where and how many there are!
It's not perfect; as the birds you see in an hour are an inadequate reflection of what birds actually visit your garden throughout a winter, say from late September through to March, but, it does give some idea of what's actually out there!
Below is a list of our garden visitors and residents from about October to present, some are here all year round like Bluetits and Blackbirds and some are winter visitors only like Siskins, Fieldfares and Bramblings that breed in Scandinavia and Russia.
We tend to see a lot more birds due to our location next to a mature mixed conifer and deciduous wood.
We have a selection of different bird feeders and natural food available in the garden that attracts a wide variety of birds and also, various shrubs with berries and plant seeds, etc.
r = regular/resident
v = occasional visitor
Mallard v (nocturnal visitor to my veg filter)
Heron v (very unwelcome)
Pheasant cock r
Blackbirds r
Thrushes r
Missel thrush v
Dunnets r
Wrens r
House Sparrows r
Blue tits r
Great tits r
Long tailed tits r
Willow/Marsh tits v
Goldcrest v
Goldfinches r
Siskins v
Fieldfares v
Bramblings v
Chaffinches r
Robins r
Nuthatch r
Tree creeper v
Lesser spotted Woodpecker v (seen once)
Greater spotted Woodpeckers r
Woodpigeon r
Collared Doves v
Jay v
Rooks r
Crows r
Jackdaws r
Magpies r
Sparrow hawks r
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Walking the dogs in a brisk biting cold wind and bright sunshine this morning I took note of all the flowers out in peoples gardens.
Lots of , snowdrops of course in flower everywhere, but you would expect them now at the end of January, but it's the daffodils in flower everywhere, lots of crocus out in full flower, the primroses and primula's way before their time, hebe, fuchsia's, wallflowers, grape hyacinth, forsythia, plum, pussy willow, jasmine, hellebores, both red and white I saw in flower today, hyacinths, saxifrages, iris, scilla, and Japanese quince, these are March/April flowers!
The bird list I posted yesterday does not include two very obvious common garden birds, the Starling and Greenfinch.
The Starlings I've not seen since last summer and the Greenfinches tapered out about the middle of last September.
The Greenfinches were very regular and quite common visitors throughout the year over the years since we put bird feeders up but they have gradually got less and less, quite worrying really.
We know the once common Starling is in terminal decline but not the Greenfinch!
Lots of , snowdrops of course in flower everywhere, but you would expect them now at the end of January, but it's the daffodils in flower everywhere, lots of crocus out in full flower, the primroses and primula's way before their time, hebe, fuchsia's, wallflowers, grape hyacinth, forsythia, plum, pussy willow, jasmine, hellebores, both red and white I saw in flower today, hyacinths, saxifrages, iris, scilla, and Japanese quince, these are March/April flowers!
The bird list I posted yesterday does not include two very obvious common garden birds, the Starling and Greenfinch.
The Starlings I've not seen since last summer and the Greenfinches tapered out about the middle of last September.
The Greenfinches were very regular and quite common visitors throughout the year over the years since we put bird feeders up but they have gradually got less and less, quite worrying really.
We know the once common Starling is in terminal decline but not the Greenfinch!
-
roselanekoi
- Posts: 322
- Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm
Re: Spring is nearly here!
After reading about the RSPB garden bird count I decided to take part on Saturday morning. After filling the bird feeders I sat in the bedroom window, binoculars in hand, waiting for visitors.
First to call as always were the rooks closely followed by the pigeons and doves. Then there were a few surprises, a male chaffinch was present almost the whole of the hour perched in my small apple tree and making occasional forays to pick up bird seed from the floor.
There were the usual blue tits, great tits, robin and sparrows but later I started to see a couple of small birds I didn't recognise. Consulting iBirdUK on my phone I discovered they were a long tailed tit and a couple of coal tits, birds I'd never noticed in the garden before. This just shows how unobservant I've been, although in my defence, the feeders are set up between two bushes and cannot be seen clearly from the house.
First to call as always were the rooks closely followed by the pigeons and doves. Then there were a few surprises, a male chaffinch was present almost the whole of the hour perched in my small apple tree and making occasional forays to pick up bird seed from the floor.
There were the usual blue tits, great tits, robin and sparrows but later I started to see a couple of small birds I didn't recognise. Consulting iBirdUK on my phone I discovered they were a long tailed tit and a couple of coal tits, birds I'd never noticed in the garden before. This just shows how unobservant I've been, although in my defence, the feeders are set up between two bushes and cannot be seen clearly from the house.