WET BIRDS

It rained today, as it did for most of yesterday…and the day before that. I guess tomorrow, it will rain again?

So, stuck indoors looking out at the watery view I noticed that the birds coming to the garden feeders were struggling to keep dry. A lot of the the birds were recently fledged youngsters and it was noticeable that they were suffering the most.

This young Blackbird was continually running backwards and forwards across the shed roof trying to shake off and dodge the raindrops.


A recently fledged Robin looking rather grumpy!


One of the many (wet) young Starlings that were in the garden.


The adult birds were not doing much better at keeping dry.

                     Wood Pigeon 


                     Collared Dove


                     House Sparrow


Starling

So what do you do if you’re soaking wet and stuck out in the rain?…..


…..Cast an eye to the heavens, like this young Starling, and say “I wish this bloody rain would stop”….


….Or, like this Blue Tit, just shrug your shoulders and shake it all off…


….Or maybe, just give it a bit of a ‘twizzle’ like this young Goldfinch?

Or perhaps like this young Starling….
 
….you tuck your head under your wing and go to sleep!

For one visitor to the garden the hard work has to go on come rain or shine. This Blue Tit (there appears to be only one) has, for over a week, been coming to the garden at regular intervals, from early morning to late evening, grabbing some food and quickly flying off…doing the ‘food run’ as I call it.  This morning he/she was being closely followed by five, very newly fledged and noisy, youngsters? I hope they survive the rain and make mum or dad’s hard work worth it?


Sorry for the dark and grainy images but they were all taken through the double glazed windows.
Oh!…and did I mention that it was overcast and RAINING?


I’m off to polish my wellies now!!

HEADLESS?……

I caught this ‘headless’ Woody through the kitchen window a couple of weeks ago.



Not the best picture in the world but, it amused me!

LOCATION - LOCATION - LOCATION

 

 

This is the Third and final instalment in a series of three posts with, not many words of wisdom,  just a selection of images that I hope you will enjoy. Each post dedicated to a different location that I've had the pleasure of visiting since the beginning of the month.

 

 

 

 During the snowy weather that we encountered earlier in the month I took a trip to Stockgrove Country Park which is located near to Leighton Buzzard on the border between Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. 

The birds are quite tame here, due to being regularly fed by members of the public, and will come down to feed only a matter of inches away from the watcher, so I knew that with the lying snow and frozen conditions the birds would be hungry and there was potential for some good photo opportunities with excellent 'up lighting' provided by the snow.

 

 

Unfortunately the promised sun failed to appear, however, I did manage to get a few reasonable shots....

 

 

 Mr and Mrs Blackbird...

 

 Blue Tit...

 Robin...

 Dunnock...

 

 

And an inquisitive Jay came down from his lofty perch for a closer inspection!...

Now, I couldn't resist the opportunity to include some more images, again taken in the snowy weather and from another location, but this time taken from a bit closer to home...my back garden!

Unfortunately, due to me being a wimp and staying in the warm, these images were taken through my double glazed patio doors so are consequently a bit 'soft'...

Goldfinch...

Starlings...

Male and Female House Sparrow...

 Dunnock...

Female Blackbird...

And last but not least is 'Woody' the Wood Pigeon...

Wet Woody and The Dark Intruder

WET WOODY

A couple of days ago, you know the one, when it rained!  A Wood Pigeon settled on my shed roof looking in a bit of a state (the Pigeon, not the shed roof!  Although my wife’s favourite saying at the moment is “you know that shed roof will need fixing soon”) anyway as I said, the Pigeon looked in a bit of a state I think it possibly had had a bit of a run in with a car or maybe the local feline.

It sat on the shed in the rain for about two hours looking very fed up and occasionally shaking the water from its head. Eventually it moved to the top of the bird table where it sat for another half hour or so with the rain bouncing off its head, allowing me to go outside in slippers and t-shirt and with the camera covered in a tea towel, to take some close-up pictures.

It’s a good job the neighbours were all at work and couldn’t see me wandering around the garden getting wetter and wetter taking pictures of a thoroughly fed up Pigeon!

The good news is that it eventually it moved onto the bird table proper and started to feed on the seed and the next day it was back in the garden feeding as normal, if still looking a bit dishevelled.

THE DARK INTRUDER

While out walking in the woods the other day I encountered something that I had only seen briefly twice before, both times whilst I was driving the car and couldn't stop.........Black Squirrels!

There are a couple of theories as to where the Black Squirrel came from. One is that it is a mutation of our native Grey Squirrel (having excessive quantities of the black pigment melanin) and the other theory is that native American Black Squirrels were introduced to Woburn Park Bedfordshire at the end of the last century by the then Duke of Bedford and that they promptly jumped the wall and escaped.

I don't know which one is correct but now that I know where I can find them I will go back some time and see if I can get some better quality photos.

My Friendly Robin - not! (Part 1)

Over the last few cold and snowy days I have spent a couple of hours just watching the goings on around my bird feeders and table in the garden, and I`ve noticed one individual who seems to think that he owns the garden and everything in it! Yes it`s the friendly garden Robin, you know, the one that has its picture on countless greetings cards at this time of year, accompanied by such phrases as Seasons Greetings, Peace and Good Will, Merry Christmas, Best Wishes etc. etc. Well ‘my’ Robin certainly doesn’t live up to these sorts of greetings, oh no!!

I`ve got an evergreen bush in the garden (I`m not up on garden plant names so I can`t tell you what it`s called) that the House Sparrows love to sit in with just their heads poking out just before visiting the feeders, a lowly Dunnock was employing this same tactic when suddenly a brown streak shot across the garden and hit the bush in an explosion of snow right next to where it was sitting. Then on the bird table happily feeding away was, what I thought was ‘my’ Robin when, BANG it was knocked off the table by the same brown streak. So far I`ve seen my seasonal bringer of goodwill messages attack House Sparrows, a Dunnock, Blue tits, Great tits, Goldfinches, a Blackbird and Starlings in the same way. The only things that seem to be too big for him to attack in this manner are the Wood Pigeons and the Collared Doves although he does treat them to a lot of scalding and wing flicking to which they seem suitably unimpressed.

"Now, let`s see who`s next"

"I want my mum"

"Is that him over there?"

"Oooo help"

"I`m scared"

"I`m not, bring it on pal!"

Birdwatch through the window

I`m afraid I`ve been rather wimpish these last couple of days,with most of the country gripped in an icy blast,  I`ve stayed indoors in the warm catching up with paperwork and sorting photographs on the computer (that`s the excuse anyway!). however, I did manage to take a few pictures of the birds that came to visit the feeders in the garden.

Robin

 

 

Starling

Collared Dove

Wood Pigeon

Blackbird

House Sparrow

Blue Tit

 All these photographs were taken through a double glazed window so are not as sharp as they could be. The snow, however, acts as a large reflector bouncing the light upwards to great effect.