The RSPB ask you to count the birds in an hour visiting your garden but I get neck ache trying to hold my binoculars steady for an hour, so, what we did this morning is we both spent the first 20 minutes of three consecutive hours, i.e. 9.00am to 12.00am counting the birds.
Done this way with 40 min. breaks we can get on with other things and we got a far more diverse selection of birds to our feeders over this extended period.
NOT EXACTLY TO THE RSPB INSTRUCTIONS BUT, THE ESSENCE OF THE SURVEY IS TO GET AN OVERALL PICTURE OF JUST WHATS THERE!
Pleasant surprise this morning at 9.05am a male Greenfinch!
First birds in, a Collared dove quickly followed by two Carrion Crows who chased it and two Woodpigeons, this was quickly followed on by the usual daily visitors with some more unusual birds.
You can only put down what birds actually visited at one given time, for instance; we scattered bird seed in the field at the back to keep the Rooks and Jackdaws out.
We have a Rookery just a field away and lots of local Jackdaws.
Consequently although I counted 22 Rooks sitting on the power lines in the field and more underneath feeding with Jackdaws, we only had 6 and 2 actually land in the garden that could be counted.
Bluetits 4
Great tits 2
Long tail tits 9
Coal tit 1
Nuthatch1
Siskin1
Greenfinch 1
Brambling 3
Goldfinch 4
House sparrow 3
Wren 1
Magpie 1
Chaffinch 3
Woodpecker (male) Greater 1
Jackdaws 2
Rooks 6
Crows 2
Blackbird 1
Robin 2
Pheasant 1
Woodpigeon 2
Collared dove 1
The female Sparrow hawk put in an unwelcome appearance at 9.20am just as we were having our coffee break hurtling low down across the lawn and snatching at the Goldfinches on a feeder but we think it missed as it carried on into the woods!
Always goes quiet for a bit after one of these hawk visits hence the good sense in the twenty minute sessions.
You need good binoculars and a good British birds identity book to quickly spot new or strange birds.
Spring is nearly here!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Sequel to RSPB bird count yesterday is 5 Woodpigeons together feeding on ground this morning, also about a dozen Goldfinches or so on feeders and two Woodpeckers on fat balls!
Ah well, you win some!
See you all Wednesday at Farmers.
Ah well, you win some!
See you all Wednesday at Farmers.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
The moon is born
and a child is born,
lying among white clothes
as the moon among clouds.
They both shine, but
the light from one
is abroad in the universe
as among broken glass.
R.S. Thomas.
This week while they were still dormant, I decided to remove the water lilies in the tub from my pond after 9 years in situ and oh boy; what an undertaking!
I started the ball rolling on Monday by removing as much plant material as I could from top of tub with a rake and spade.
I drained the pond down to half way yesterday morning then Nigel and I spent most of the afternoon digging the rest of lilies from tub before we could lift the heavy duty 5ft by 3ft by 18" tub itself out.
What a difficult task that turned out to be, the water lilies had grown enormous! there had to be at least a half ton of clay soil, stones and plant material removed from my pond.
There is way too much to put in my compost bins so its just piled up in a muddy heap for now while I decide what to do with it all.
Meanwhile its taken from 8.00am to 5.pm today to part refill pond by spraying water back in on fine spray.
I got to within a foot of normal level before bad light stopped play.
I will finish it off early tomorrow morning when its light again, just hope it doesn't freeze up hosepipe again like it did this morning.
Last two Saturday mornings we've spent at the RSPB reserve at Deganwy testing out their spotting scopes on the waterfowl on the lakes there.
Fascinating place if you are interested in aquatic birds as they attract some unusual visitors through the winter and its made me determined to treat myself to a decent scope after looking through their own brand 60mm and 80mm scopes on sight.
They have incredible clarity and sharp detailed images, and, good for star gazing too, just no comparison to my 8x42 binoculars, but, a tad pricey!
and a child is born,
lying among white clothes
as the moon among clouds.
They both shine, but
the light from one
is abroad in the universe
as among broken glass.
R.S. Thomas.
This week while they were still dormant, I decided to remove the water lilies in the tub from my pond after 9 years in situ and oh boy; what an undertaking!
I started the ball rolling on Monday by removing as much plant material as I could from top of tub with a rake and spade.
I drained the pond down to half way yesterday morning then Nigel and I spent most of the afternoon digging the rest of lilies from tub before we could lift the heavy duty 5ft by 3ft by 18" tub itself out.
What a difficult task that turned out to be, the water lilies had grown enormous! there had to be at least a half ton of clay soil, stones and plant material removed from my pond.
There is way too much to put in my compost bins so its just piled up in a muddy heap for now while I decide what to do with it all.
Meanwhile its taken from 8.00am to 5.pm today to part refill pond by spraying water back in on fine spray.
I got to within a foot of normal level before bad light stopped play.
I will finish it off early tomorrow morning when its light again, just hope it doesn't freeze up hosepipe again like it did this morning.
Last two Saturday mornings we've spent at the RSPB reserve at Deganwy testing out their spotting scopes on the waterfowl on the lakes there.
Fascinating place if you are interested in aquatic birds as they attract some unusual visitors through the winter and its made me determined to treat myself to a decent scope after looking through their own brand 60mm and 80mm scopes on sight.
They have incredible clarity and sharp detailed images, and, good for star gazing too, just no comparison to my 8x42 binoculars, but, a tad pricey!
-
roselanekoi
- Posts: 322
- Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Hope you've recovered from your exertions removing the water lilies, but just think of all the fun you're going to miss out on the next time you try to net a koi, no more hours spent chasing it around the water lilies.
One point about refilling your pond, Welsh Water now treat a lot of their water supply with chloramine and not chlorine, I know my water supply is now treated with chloramine. This is much slower to break down and spraying the water over your pond surface will have little effect on removing the chlorine. Luckily all pond tap water de-chlorinators will remove the chlorine even when the water is treated with chloramine.
One point about refilling your pond, Welsh Water now treat a lot of their water supply with chloramine and not chlorine, I know my water supply is now treated with chloramine. This is much slower to break down and spraying the water over your pond surface will have little effect on removing the chlorine. Luckily all pond tap water de-chlorinators will remove the chlorine even when the water is treated with chloramine.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Good point about the Welsh Water chloramine Colin, but then I treat all tap water put into my pond with Sodium Thiosulphate as a matter of course.
As a chlorine remover, it's very efficient at what it does best i.e. make safe tap water for pond use.
I keep a couple of kilo's on standby as its relatively cheap to buy off eBay.
One of the good points about Thiosulphate is it's safety of use, you cannot really overdose with it which makes it pretty much safe for amateur pond keepers to use, unlike the much mis-understood and mis-used PP!
The fish will miss the shade effects of the lilies this year and protection for my Rudd from the 'tall grey bugger with the sharp dagger', but, I have the solution, I think? ** plastic pipes!
I saw these used as a fish refuge in a pond last year, two foot lengths of heavy duty 30cm to 50cm plastic pipe with the ends smoothed off to avoid any damage to fish, four placed side by side so fish can exit either end.
Or! I can do what Martin did back in his long-ago days in Corwen before he buggered off to Ozz and fit an old jib-sail up over my pond for shade.
Obituary Section
Earlier on this week while searching through my overly full shed for my Grundfos pond emptying pump, I came across a sad little sight; a tiny dead Goldcrest in a box under my bench.
It had obviously been dead for some time and must have flown in late last year when I've left the shed door open, poor little beggar must have starved to death in there through the winter.
I really felt bad about that I can tell you!
It has now had a Christian burial as befits its British residents status and will spend the next few years helping a plum tree grow big.
As a chlorine remover, it's very efficient at what it does best i.e. make safe tap water for pond use.
I keep a couple of kilo's on standby as its relatively cheap to buy off eBay.
One of the good points about Thiosulphate is it's safety of use, you cannot really overdose with it which makes it pretty much safe for amateur pond keepers to use, unlike the much mis-understood and mis-used PP!
The fish will miss the shade effects of the lilies this year and protection for my Rudd from the 'tall grey bugger with the sharp dagger', but, I have the solution, I think? ** plastic pipes!
I saw these used as a fish refuge in a pond last year, two foot lengths of heavy duty 30cm to 50cm plastic pipe with the ends smoothed off to avoid any damage to fish, four placed side by side so fish can exit either end.
Or! I can do what Martin did back in his long-ago days in Corwen before he buggered off to Ozz and fit an old jib-sail up over my pond for shade.
Obituary Section
Earlier on this week while searching through my overly full shed for my Grundfos pond emptying pump, I came across a sad little sight; a tiny dead Goldcrest in a box under my bench.
It had obviously been dead for some time and must have flown in late last year when I've left the shed door open, poor little beggar must have starved to death in there through the winter.
I really felt bad about that I can tell you!
It has now had a Christian burial as befits its British residents status and will spend the next few years helping a plum tree grow big.
Last edited by pollygog on Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Last Friday night we saw our young up and comings, the Welsh under twenties rugby squad beat a very good Scotland squad at Eirias Parc.
A close run thing right up to the last few minutes of play.
The time just flew it was such a good game but 18 to 15 was a fair result.
The weather was unusually dry and clear with a stiff breeze but freezing cold, as anyone who has been there knows.
The wind scours in from the North straight off the Irish Sea onto a very open Eirias Parc so its always cold at evening games in the winter.
A good omen it seems for the Six Nations as the senior squad then beat Scotland the following day at The Principality Stadium (Millennium!) then the Welsh women's rugby team beat the Scots women's team yesterday, a Welsh hat trick!
Pity we never beat the Irish though, as the under twenties did the previous week.
The question is, who will get now the wooden spoon! Italy or the Jock's?
Got home Friday night to a phone message from my brother in Trentham Ontario Canada, it seems their weather took a dramatic turn for the worse on Friday.
Their winter there seems to have generally followed our pattern by and large, a mild wet one, but temperatures plummeted on Thursday night to minus 27 degrees and Friday morning they had a wind chill factor of around minus 30 degrees. Following this message we received an email from my nephew who lives near Ottawa who said their Friday night chill factor of minus forty degrees were actually two degrees lower than the temperature at the North Pole the same night!
I just pray we don't get that weather system here, that will bugger things up good style!
A close run thing right up to the last few minutes of play.
The time just flew it was such a good game but 18 to 15 was a fair result.
The weather was unusually dry and clear with a stiff breeze but freezing cold, as anyone who has been there knows.
The wind scours in from the North straight off the Irish Sea onto a very open Eirias Parc so its always cold at evening games in the winter.
A good omen it seems for the Six Nations as the senior squad then beat Scotland the following day at The Principality Stadium (Millennium!) then the Welsh women's rugby team beat the Scots women's team yesterday, a Welsh hat trick!
Pity we never beat the Irish though, as the under twenties did the previous week.
The question is, who will get now the wooden spoon! Italy or the Jock's?
Got home Friday night to a phone message from my brother in Trentham Ontario Canada, it seems their weather took a dramatic turn for the worse on Friday.
Their winter there seems to have generally followed our pattern by and large, a mild wet one, but temperatures plummeted on Thursday night to minus 27 degrees and Friday morning they had a wind chill factor of around minus 30 degrees. Following this message we received an email from my nephew who lives near Ottawa who said their Friday night chill factor of minus forty degrees were actually two degrees lower than the temperature at the North Pole the same night!
I just pray we don't get that weather system here, that will bugger things up good style!
Last edited by pollygog on Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
The Elwy is finally taming down from its violent tumult of the past few weeks, the muddy peat stained water is clearing to a more normal tawny hue this morning as the level drops.
For the first time in weeks the banks were dry enough to walk the dogs although it was pleasant enough at Colwyn bay beach yesterday morning on a cold frosty but clear sunny morning.
It was nice to get out onto the river banks again for a roam with the dogs.
This morning we saw a cormorant fishing by the road bridge and a dipper on a mid stream rock working the shallows about three hundred yards upstream from Foxons concrete casting steps, also a pair of mallard up ending close in to the bank nearby.
A grim reminder of the devastating power of the recent floods is an enormous ash tree trunk complete with roots ripped from the river bank somewhere up river. It's now jammed four foot up from the river level between two large alders on the far bank directly opposite the football pavilion. The trunk is about three feet in diameter and about thirty foot long, the top limbs have been shattered, ripped of with sheer brute force on its trip down river and now lies surrounded by debris.
Peeping through the mud and stones thrown up onto the river bank are the bright yellow buttons of coltsfoot, they look like tiny dandelions without the leaves and buttery yellow lesser celandine everywhere forming a dark green carpet around the rafts of snowdrops that are just about at their best right now.
Surprised at how much the hawthorn has come into leaf lately, the neatly trimmed hedge along the Old Denbigh road by the caravan park has lost its purple, bristly hard bitten look of winter and now shows a lot of fresh bright green.
The Myrobolan cherry tree on The Common is in full flower today, a right pretty sight, a mass of frothy white blossom in the sunshine.
The dawn chorus was getting a little louder and longer this morning, I heard a couple of blackbirds, a robin, a dunnock, and a chaffinch starting up about seven am and a song thrush way off in the distance having a quick spontaneous burst, and, I could read until five pm in daylight!
SPRING IS NEARLY HERE!
For the first time in weeks the banks were dry enough to walk the dogs although it was pleasant enough at Colwyn bay beach yesterday morning on a cold frosty but clear sunny morning.
It was nice to get out onto the river banks again for a roam with the dogs.
This morning we saw a cormorant fishing by the road bridge and a dipper on a mid stream rock working the shallows about three hundred yards upstream from Foxons concrete casting steps, also a pair of mallard up ending close in to the bank nearby.
A grim reminder of the devastating power of the recent floods is an enormous ash tree trunk complete with roots ripped from the river bank somewhere up river. It's now jammed four foot up from the river level between two large alders on the far bank directly opposite the football pavilion. The trunk is about three feet in diameter and about thirty foot long, the top limbs have been shattered, ripped of with sheer brute force on its trip down river and now lies surrounded by debris.
Peeping through the mud and stones thrown up onto the river bank are the bright yellow buttons of coltsfoot, they look like tiny dandelions without the leaves and buttery yellow lesser celandine everywhere forming a dark green carpet around the rafts of snowdrops that are just about at their best right now.
Surprised at how much the hawthorn has come into leaf lately, the neatly trimmed hedge along the Old Denbigh road by the caravan park has lost its purple, bristly hard bitten look of winter and now shows a lot of fresh bright green.
The Myrobolan cherry tree on The Common is in full flower today, a right pretty sight, a mass of frothy white blossom in the sunshine.
The dawn chorus was getting a little louder and longer this morning, I heard a couple of blackbirds, a robin, a dunnock, and a chaffinch starting up about seven am and a song thrush way off in the distance having a quick spontaneous burst, and, I could read until five pm in daylight!
SPRING IS NEARLY HERE!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
A Blackbird Singing
It seems wrong that out of this bird,
Black, bold, a suggestion of dark
Places about it, there yet should come
Such sweet music, as though the notes'
Ore were changed to a rarer metal
At one touch of that bright bill.
You have heard it often, alone at your desk
In a green April, your mind drawn
Away from its work by sweet disturbance
Of the mild evening outside your room.
A slow singer, but loading each phrase
With history's overtones, love, joy
And grief learned by his dark tribe
In other orchards and passed on
Instinctively as they are now,
But fresh always with new tears.
R.S.Thomas
I thought the above poem appropriate for this time of year as the dawn chorus builds up locally.
It really is a thing of beauty the Blackbird singing, and, marginally better in my opinion is the thrush, but to me the very essence of 'the joy of life' is to lie on your back in a spring meadow and listen to a skylark's rapturous trilling as it ascends to its heaven, it just makes me glad to be there, to be alive! There's something cerebral going on here I'm sure as its not the most beautiful of bird songs.
Despite the coldest night I've recorded so far this winter, a balmy minus 5 degrees, the heavy frost soon disappeared when the sun got busy from about 9.30am
Thought I would have some early frogspawn this week as I found a pair of frogs in plexus in my Nexus last Monday morning. I netted them out and found that the female frog had the tell-tale red rash of Chytrid fungus on its belly and legs. I dosed them both in a bath of FMG which is the best remedy at hand for the koi keeper and I then placed them in the overflow pond were the frogs seem to lay most of their spawn. This had previously been treated with Potassium Permanganate after I did the pre spawn clean-out and fifty per cent water change, but, they appear to have scarpered!
I'll bet they're back in the Nexus, its warmer in there.
It seems wrong that out of this bird,
Black, bold, a suggestion of dark
Places about it, there yet should come
Such sweet music, as though the notes'
Ore were changed to a rarer metal
At one touch of that bright bill.
You have heard it often, alone at your desk
In a green April, your mind drawn
Away from its work by sweet disturbance
Of the mild evening outside your room.
A slow singer, but loading each phrase
With history's overtones, love, joy
And grief learned by his dark tribe
In other orchards and passed on
Instinctively as they are now,
But fresh always with new tears.
R.S.Thomas
I thought the above poem appropriate for this time of year as the dawn chorus builds up locally.
It really is a thing of beauty the Blackbird singing, and, marginally better in my opinion is the thrush, but to me the very essence of 'the joy of life' is to lie on your back in a spring meadow and listen to a skylark's rapturous trilling as it ascends to its heaven, it just makes me glad to be there, to be alive! There's something cerebral going on here I'm sure as its not the most beautiful of bird songs.
Despite the coldest night I've recorded so far this winter, a balmy minus 5 degrees, the heavy frost soon disappeared when the sun got busy from about 9.30am
Thought I would have some early frogspawn this week as I found a pair of frogs in plexus in my Nexus last Monday morning. I netted them out and found that the female frog had the tell-tale red rash of Chytrid fungus on its belly and legs. I dosed them both in a bath of FMG which is the best remedy at hand for the koi keeper and I then placed them in the overflow pond were the frogs seem to lay most of their spawn. This had previously been treated with Potassium Permanganate after I did the pre spawn clean-out and fifty per cent water change, but, they appear to have scarpered!
I'll bet they're back in the Nexus, its warmer in there.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
9 days on from removing water lilies, followed by a 50% water change and 6 flushes of my Nexus filter, my pond water is still murky!
I accidently tipped a lot of clay into pond whilst removing water lily tub and although I removed most of it, what remains is really fine (and persistent) at clouding water.
A lot has been settled out in Nexus every time I've flushed it but the K1 by itself is just not fine enough to filter out the tiny suspended clay particles so they pass through continuously, even through the veg filter.
I've seriously considered a bead filter for this stage but were to fit it is the problem?
I accidently tipped a lot of clay into pond whilst removing water lily tub and although I removed most of it, what remains is really fine (and persistent) at clouding water.
A lot has been settled out in Nexus every time I've flushed it but the K1 by itself is just not fine enough to filter out the tiny suspended clay particles so they pass through continuously, even through the veg filter.
I've seriously considered a bead filter for this stage but were to fit it is the problem?
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Yes, tis the wise Thrush who sings each note twice over.
Lest he should ne'er recapture that first full careless rapture.
from 'Home Thoughts From Abroad'
by Robert Browning
First frogspawn officially recorded this morning, in my overflow pond.
Must be down to the pair I netted out of Nexus on Thursday and treated with F.M.G.
The temperature at ten o clock this sunny but very windy morning was an amazing 14c!
The unusually mild weather last night and this morning also seems to have been the catalyst to Frogs Inc. as they were really busy croaking and splashing in and around my (still murky) koi pond as I flushed out my filter yet again.
I hauled out two pairs in plexus swimming in the koi pond and three individual frogs from my filter including one that had climbed or fallen into an empty bucket under the Nexus and couldn't get back out.
They have all been bathed in FMG as a matter of course and put in overflow pond were they are 'at it like knives' tonight at dusk!
One of the jobs put off until today was fitting in my new Medo LA 80 air pump to replace the much smaller LA28 temporary air pump I'd installed.
This had been an emergency replacement for my knackered Alita air pump that ground to a halt some months ago.
It had run virtually non-stop from April 2007 to December 2015, so, no complaints there! just at the price of a new Alita; they're staggering!
Very pleased with the results as the new air pump really 'boils' the K1 in the Nexus, should be a more efficient 'flush' now.
Lest he should ne'er recapture that first full careless rapture.
from 'Home Thoughts From Abroad'
by Robert Browning
First frogspawn officially recorded this morning, in my overflow pond.
Must be down to the pair I netted out of Nexus on Thursday and treated with F.M.G.
The temperature at ten o clock this sunny but very windy morning was an amazing 14c!
The unusually mild weather last night and this morning also seems to have been the catalyst to Frogs Inc. as they were really busy croaking and splashing in and around my (still murky) koi pond as I flushed out my filter yet again.
I hauled out two pairs in plexus swimming in the koi pond and three individual frogs from my filter including one that had climbed or fallen into an empty bucket under the Nexus and couldn't get back out.
They have all been bathed in FMG as a matter of course and put in overflow pond were they are 'at it like knives' tonight at dusk!
One of the jobs put off until today was fitting in my new Medo LA 80 air pump to replace the much smaller LA28 temporary air pump I'd installed.
This had been an emergency replacement for my knackered Alita air pump that ground to a halt some months ago.
It had run virtually non-stop from April 2007 to December 2015, so, no complaints there! just at the price of a new Alita; they're staggering!
Very pleased with the results as the new air pump really 'boils' the K1 in the Nexus, should be a more efficient 'flush' now.