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P&B Bird Watch


RedRob72

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3 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

Got a family of bullfinches nesting in the garden this spring. The other night two chicks made their first appearances...the mother was running about like crazy feeding them in bushes further down the garden, while the father did the bullfinch equivalent of sitting back and cracking a beer.

Rotten photo I know, but all I had immediately to hand was a wee camera with a crappy zoom facility....

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They are lovely things, we have a few that visit our garden but they only eat the buds off of our willow tree and haven't actually nested here. You're a lucky sod!

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Just now, Rizzo said:

They are lovely things, we have a few that visit our garden but they only eat the buds off of our willow tree and haven't actually nested here. You're a lucky sod!

We're lucky enough to live somewhere that's primo bullfinch real estate - the garden backs onto woodland, so my guess is they've been nesting somewhere at the edge of that, judging by the beady eyes watching me anytime I've been down that way the last month or so :)

 

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Sunflower hearts seem to keep our goldfinches and siskins happy, they'll go to the nijer seed feeder if there are no sunflower hearts left. Been seeing quite a few green finches in our garden the past few weeks as well which is nice as I seem to remember them being far more common. There's a definite pair but I'm not sure how many pairs there are or if it's the same ones I'm seeing every time. 

Might take a wee trip to Vane farm tomorrow if the weather is nice.

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1 hour ago, Hillonearth said:

Got a family of bullfinches nesting in the garden this spring. The other night two chicks made their first appearances...the mother was running about like crazy feeding them in bushes further down the garden, while the father did the bullfinch equivalent of sitting back and cracking a beer.

Rotten photo I know, but all I had immediately to hand was a wee camera with a crappy zoom facility....

32207376_10155942071523692_3711631404862275584_n.jpg

That explains what it is that's I've seen at ours now :lol:.  Seen one and wasn't sure what it was. 

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At my work there is a fair amount of bird life around and I've got a couple of suet feeders out. Unfortunately this has attracted the attention of some b*****d corvids and they demolish the food that is left out. Anyone use one of these squirrel / large bird "proof" feeders and are they effective in any way?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/21/2018 at 09:57, RiG said:

At my work there is a fair amount of bird life around and I've got a couple of suet feeders out. Unfortunately this has attracted the attention of some b*****d corvids and they demolish the food that is left out. Anyone use one of these squirrel / large bird "proof" feeders and are they effective in any way?

i have one of these very things hung out the back of the house, in which nothing has shown any interest at all for weeks, apart from a nuthatch which has a cursory look every couple of days then buggers off without taking anything; so - the nut level has suddenly plummeted over the last couple of days - spotted last night, a woodmouse climbing up the cable to the wall-mounted satellite dish, along an eight foot metal pole that's rested on the bracket - on which the feeder hangs, down in to the cage and stuffing it's mouth with nuts (mouse teabagging after a fashion, i suppose); it's been troughing stuff off the bird-table for ages, but has clearly now decided to go all ethan hunt for a bit of excitement...

the feeder definitely does the job as far as keeping bigger things from poncing food - get loads of infuriated jackdaws trying to get at stuff, so from that perspective it is very effective...

here's the little twat:

IMG_1112.JPG.72a197ba7a87c7b095d4c0482f41f0d1.JPG

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so - here is the path that the wee beastie has to negotiate to reach the nuts - up the wall from his home in the roof of the outdoor shittery, and along the metal pole to the feeder; I've managed to get a shot of him setting out on his treacherous journey, shinning up the satellite cable to the dish bracket where he gets on to the pole, but he's way too timorous - and i'm too fucking clumsy - to be able to get a shot of him either on the pole or stuffing his face in the feeder, he always clocks me and runs away when i trip over the clothes horse by the window or bang the camera in to the glass, or drop it, like a twat...

note the still-full nyger seed feeder that assorted feathery fucks are still steadfastly refusing to acknowledge

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I might need to invest in one of those feeders with the guards, our feeding station has been absolutely mobbed by jackdaws, magpies and feral pigeons recently.

There also seems to be a scabby little moggy that is using one of my raised beds as a litter tray. My dog has chased it from the garden a few times but it keeps coming back. Without resorting to land mines, gin traps etc is there anything that actually keeps cats away effectively? The garden is quite open so there's no way of fencing it off. We've made a makeshift fence around the particular bed the little git was using but now it sits under the bird feeders.

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quite impressive out there this morning - obviously had a clutch of blue tits fledge somewhere nearby and there were six of 'em scrambling round the feeders, tumbling over each other, falling of the perches,  throwing seed about and generally being quite amusing

as per usual, in the clamour to find the camera, i scared them all off - however - i have put together a court-room style chalk rendering, so that you can share my delight at this fetching display of ornithological joy in spite of the fact that i am clearly at the "absolutely cuntish" end of the autistic spectrum when it comes to taking photographs

seriously - apart from the fact there are only five of them, and you can't see the feeders - if you squint, it's just like being there...

5b1a8ea78d2eb_Bluetitchicksfledgingonabranch.thumb.jpg.d96bb027b3647549df7d833c4badedc4.jpg

 

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I'm very close to investing in some guarded feeders, now we have a massive fat b*****d wood pigeon that scoffs everything on offer whether it be nijer seed, sunflower hearts, peanuts or fat balls. I think I'm going to set up another feeding station purely for the wee finches and things that aren't getting a look in.

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I put up a feeder with suet balls a few weeks back and over the last few days it seems all the birds from the surrounding gardens have discovered it at  once. Cue some entertaining scenes with the wee bluetits and finches climbing over each other on the feeder while the larger blackbirds etc wait for the crumbs to drop down. The cat is loving them too - surely only a matter of time before I find the remains of something in my slipper one morning.

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On 16/06/2018 at 13:12, Zetterlund said:

Release your inner twitcher:

RSPB bird identifier

Ok I think I’ve got it. This just flew into the  living room window and landed in a bush. I think the cat caught a fledgling one.

Some kind of tit, great tit?

30F8399E-21F0-4AEA-857B-8AC5EC87CED9.thumb.jpeg.60a025dcd8ac7252f16f492a5ca9b1a6.jpeg

wee bugger eventually flew off after 5 minutes of shitting on my hand.

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