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!!

The Young Ones

                                 SUNDAY 15^th. MAY 2011

 

Yesterday I spent an enjoyable few hours (and numerous cups of tea!) watching from my patio window the comings and goings in my garden.

The overriding theme seemed to be "the young ones" or to put it another way, the next generation.

There was a family of House Sparrow fledglings (six) being attended to (fed) by dad in various locations around the garden, although mum seemed to be missing, perhaps sitting on a new clutch of eggs? 

I noticed that all six fledglings never seemed to be in the same place at the same time but scattered around the garden, I wonder if this was just coincidence, confusion or self preservation. Whichever it was it all added up to a lot of work for poor old dad! 

"you're not my Dad"

 The Starlings were by far the noisiest and rowdiest, ten or twelve squabbling and fighting continuingly over the suet treat feeder. No fledglings yet but I guess it won’t be long as some of the birds were flying off with beakfuls of supplies.

Mr. and Mrs. Blackbird were on the lawn with just the one fledgling, although mum and dad stayed well away I noticed that Junior decided to mix it with the Starlings under the feeders until he/she was given a lesson in how sharp a Starling’s beak is!

A pair of Blue Tits were busily to’ing and fro’ing from the fat ball feeder in a relay of about every two minutes or so, I guess (hopefully) I’ll soon be getting a visit from some young Blue Tits.

And my favourite young visitor of the day has got to be a fledgling Robin looking very smart in his/her speckled coat and already showing that air of arrogance that says “this is my patch, watch out”!

Other visitors to the garden included two Collared Doves, a Woodpigeon, two Goldfinches and a very brief visit from a male Chaffinch looking very dapper in his immaculate and bright breeding uniform. And as I sit at the computer writing this I can see and hear him singing out from the roof of a neighbour’s house.  Wonderful.

                                All images taken through a double glazed window.