Very busy at the bird feeder today! (3 Viewers)

[Disneynut1973]

Need to do a bit of catch up on here! Lots of snow this morning here too. I've been out once and sorted out the water and feeders but it's covering the seed tray as fast as I can clear it!

Still had quite a few birds out already though - Goldfinch, Blackbirds, Magpie, Blue Tits, Great Tit, lots of House Sparrows, Starlings, Robin, Dunnocks. Heading out for a walk after lunch if we can see through the blizzard!

Yesterday we had few visits from a pair of Long Tailed Tits and a pair of Greenfinch.

 

[Bird spotter]

This has been my best week so far as a relatively new serious bird spotter.
Seeing new birds arrive in the garden is quite something.
These 3 birds arrived this morning,feeding from one of our many seed and nut feeders.Siskin the book informs me,beautiful little birds.
The picture is not great,very dull here I'm afraid.

 

[karpman]

This has been my best week so far as a relatively new serious bird spotter.
Seeing new birds arrive in the garden is quite something.
These 3 birds arrived this morning,feeding from one of our many seed and nut feeders.Siskin the book informs me,beautiful little birds.
The picture is not great,very dull here I'm afraid.

Wow cracking birds mate!:t::t:
Would be a lifer for me lol:-O

karpman

 

[Hobbes2]

What a feast for the eyes it is on here this morning!

Karps - spectacular photos! Those head shots of the Wigeon are amazing. Look forward to seeing the new feeder set up.
Birdspotter - you lucky so and so :t: - wonderful birds to get in your garden and, as you say, so pretty.
Dave - great to see your Sparrowhawk
Captaincarot - really sorry about your camera. hope you can get it sorted out asap.
Hectorzaza - nice to have your Blackcaps back again. I've not seen one for a while now.
Disneynut - still jealous of your lovely Greenfinches

No great changes in my garden. The robins have fashioned a nice little hole in the foliage of the fir tree to get in and out of their nest. I keep trying to get a picture of said bird entering said hole but the light has been awful here.

Had a party of 5 Blackbirds in the garden this morning. Most I've seen since last year.
Hobbes

 

[barnstormer]

So far this morning
32 goldfinch
8 greenfinch
7 blackbirds
12 starlings
4 robins ( no sign of my albino robin)
2 b/tit
1 g/tit
1 w/tit
2 dunnocks
4 chaffinch
3 sparrows
1 mistle thrush
2 collar doves

 

[karpman]

Nice count barnstormer!

Had a few Blue tits checking out the nesting box, Heres a run photos from about 1 hour ago lol:t::t:

Karpman

Edit: over cooked the Hue on the processing on the last one:S

 

[barnstormer]

Something to add to my list

My white headed friend has just been but by the time i got my camera out he'd gone.......

 

[JeffMoh]

Hope you can get your camera fixed easily, CC.

Love those duck photos, Karpman.

Can't believe you're still having snow, Pam and you others in the UK. It's going to be 70F/18C here today. Mind you, the forecasters say we could possibly maybe have sleet here during the week.

Went to a local reserve yesterday morning but didn't see a lot, partly because there were lots of kids around making a racket. Good to have kids at a nature reserve rather than at home playing video games, though.
On the way added year bird 121. Cattle Egret.

Our yards are quiet for birds but very busy with squirrels. The little buggers knocked down two feeders - a woodpecker block and a platform feeder. I'm trying to buy them off with apples but can't afford enough apples for all the squirrels we have!

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[karpman]

LOL, Never had a squirrel issue yet, this move could prove my downfall though!

Got some more bird houses today nipped garden center for some cress seeds me and mine felt like painting some eggs lol, Anyhow ended up with a sparrow box and 2 other boxes 1 robin type thing and one with a 32mm whole 20 per cent off could not resist!

karpman

 

[Bananafishbones]

Glad I took my camera

This chap and its partner were a nice find on the Canal this afternoon

Snow virtually gone already

Female Sparrowhawk terrorising the garden now

 

[ChrisKten]

Well it was Sparrowhawk day today. It was also raining so much that I did think about building an Ark.

This female killed a very young, and very unlucky, Pigeon. I've already told the story with the pics I uploaded to my gallery, but I'll repeat it here with a bit more detail.

This was one of the most spectacular attacks that I've witnessed, and I've witnessed a great many. The young Pigeon forced the Sparrowhawk all over the garden. There were loads of great wing spreads and poses from the Sparrowhawk while attempting to restrain the Pigeon. But in the end, the Pigeon was too weak to fight as it succumbed to effect of the repeated stabbing from the Sparrowhawk's talons. Unfortunately, with rain dripping down the window, and terrible light, I only got very slow shutter speeds and high ISOs.

First pic: 1/60th second - ISO800

Second pic: 1/15th second - ISO800

Both hand-held and through the window as usual. The second pic gives you a bit of an idea of the fighting of the Pigeon, and of the shots I could have got if only the bloody Sun was out.|=)|

Oh, DON'T click on the first pic if you are squeamish.

 

[karpman]

Wow superb mandarin dave, And stunning Spawk action chris have not been lucky enough to witness a full bloodied sparrow hawk attack

Cheers
karpman

 

[spock]

Today I had a go at making a bird nesting box,it's made from a solid block of beech,I cut away the inside,took quite a while to do, then drilled/modified the entrance,the back is fixed, but in a way that I can take off the back to clean it out,
Do you think this will work?or should I not be so tight and buy one,:-O

 

[karpman]

Today I had a go at making a bird nesting box,it's made from a solid block of beech,I cut away the inside,took quite a while to do, then drilled/modified the entrance,the back is fixed, but in a way that I can take off the back to clean it out,
Do you think this will work?or should I not be so tight and buy one,:-O

Hehe looks awesome to me mate, Bet they will use it for sure!
I like to make me own stuff were possible but time is short at mo, Bought some wood peanut feeders and enjoyed some painting lol:-O

karpman

 

[DaveN]

Great stuff there, Chris. Been quite busy in the garden today. Up to 8 House Sparrows, 10+ Starlings, 2 Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, c5 Chaffinches, 3 Blackbirds, 3 Collared Doves, Blue Tit, 2 Goldfinch and a first for the garden in the shape of a male Reed Bunting. Edit- forgot the male Pied Wagtail.

 

[JeffMoh]

Great photos of the Sparrowhawk, ChrisKten!
Light has been very poor here today, too. I was trying to get photos of White-throated Sparrows but, as you can see, didn't have much luck.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[ChrisKten]

There's more!

There's been some developments:

Coming soon... what's it like to be less than 18 inches from a Sparrowhawk?

Answer to follow later or tomorrow.|=)|

 

[karpman]

There's been some developments:

Coming soon... what's it like to be less than 18 inches from a Sparrowhawk?

Answer to follow later or tomorrow.|=)|

Later please you just ruined all my plans to watch a dvd!:-O
Will just sit here scratching me er leg then till ya let us in on the story:cat:

karpman

 

[spock]

There's been some developments:

Coming soon... what's it like to be less than 18 inches from a Sparrowhawk?

Answer to follow later or tomorrow.|=)|

It's ok, as long as you are not a sparrow,:-O

 

[ChrisKten]

Sorry, had to go for a while.

A couple of things first, I left the dead Pigeon as I was hopeful that the Sparrowhawk would return to finish it off (it's happened before); I also hoped for better light, but you can't have everything. One thing that I noticed; the Carrion Crows came for nuts, as usual, but didn't go near the dead Pigeon. I found that a bit odd, especially as they have the word "Carrion" in their name. Also, the Magpies that visit never touched the dead pigeon either, and that is very odd. The Pigeon that was killed wasn't "Squeaky", which I feared it might be. Two youngsters that just left the nest, joined the flock yesterday, now there's only one.

Anyway, just before 5pm I'm in the garden doing the cleaning ritual that I do every night (sweep up, disinfect feeding areas, etc); I also feed nuts to the 10 or so Pigeons that stay behind and follow me around while I'm clearing up. So I'm at the trees picking up apple skins and nut shells, and hand-feeding a few of the Pigeons.

Suddenly there's a Blackbird's alarm call, Tits' alarm calls, and no Pigeons in the garden. I knew what was coming next, because it's happened before, but this time turned out a bit different. The female Sparrowhawk suddenly flew around the tree behind me and swooped onto the fence. The fence being about 6 feet from me, and a foot from the dead Pigeon. She stared at me for a second, then flew straight at my head. I wasn't expecting that, usually they fly off, or high up into the tree, when they see me. Although there has been a couple of times when I've been ignored, and the Sparrowhawk has still gone after prey that was quite close to me in the bushes.

So, I ducked, even though I was nowhere near quick enough, as these birds are damn fast. But, as it turned out, she wasn't aiming for my head. Instead, she stopped for a second in front of my head, spread her wings, almost like an angel, and then flew to a branch less than 2 feet from my head. She then stared at me again, flew to the dead Pigeon, then changed her mind and flew off in a flash.

So I then stopped holding my breath and finished the clearing up. I came inside, shut the door, and within a minute she was down finishing off the Pigeon. So I'm guessing that she stayed in the tree watching me the whole time.

I did manage to get some pictures, but it was nearly dark, so they are even worse than the last lot. I'll try and post a few pics in a minute.

As promised, a couple of pics. BTW, checking the EXIF you'll see that the Pigeon was killed at about 10am, and the Sparrowhawk returned just before 5pm.