Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Chatting on the Plot => Topic started by: mumofstig on January 01, 2017, 10:33
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A New Year - a new thread :)
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.... and a rare sighting here! Have seen a thrush on the ground by the bird table - haven't seen one for ages, plus several blackbirds that have been a bit absent lately.
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We had a flock or Redwings last week in the trees at the bottom of my garden. Must have been about 30 of them. They seem to have gone now.
Plus there are many Lapwings in the area but none in my garden.
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Thrilled to see a blackbird with a beakfull of worms on a grass verge this morning. Rather surprised as well but can remember seeing a youngster calling its parent a couple of years ago at the beginning of march. So working that back it would have been an early nesting.
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Yesterday we had a small bird of prey (possibly a kestrel) near the bird table that nearly knocked itself out on our window.
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This last week or so we've seen a yellow wagtail on our bird feeders.
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Several of us are pretty sure that we heard a woodpecker a couple of times on Wednesday.
Usual robin, blue tit and wagtails are about.
South coast starlings didn't leave again this year but are murmerating beautifully :)
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CROW'S are the main birds i see in this area there's hundreds of them .They take no notice of the Red kites or the crows be gone cd I purchased to stop them roosting in a tree in my garden ,nothing seems to bother them.😠
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Our regular sparrow, gold and greenfinch visitors have returned after a 10 day absence following a few visits by the local sparrowhawk.
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Saw a green woodpecker on one of our trees at the plot. Beautiful birds
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I've got a volunteer lawn clean up team. A whole load of sparrows are de-thatching it and pulling out dried grass. Some serious nest building is under way :)
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Pair of Long Tailed Tits on the fat feeder right by the back door... paired off now after the winter so hope they breed in our garden somewhere. Such pretty little birds
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Good to see that my bird box is going to be tenanted by Blue Tits again this spring.
Cheers
Aled
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Heard my first ChiffChaff today. :)
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There were a pair of red kites circling the plot today. That's quite common and they are always interested if you are digging or moving compost. I get used to looking up and having a beady eye looking back down at me.
They got very interested when I got the bucket of chicken manure pellets out and took the lid off to chuck some on the overwintering beans, garlic and onions. I didn't hear it coming but one swooped down almost right next to me to take a closer look. I only realised as it flapped to get more height. I could have reached out and touched its wingtip :ohmy:
It made me jump at the time, but what an amazing close up look at a beautiful bird. A very, very big bird with scary claws and beak, but beautiful none the less :D
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There were a pair of red kites circling the plot today. That's quite common and they are always interested if you are digging or moving compost. I get used to looking up and having a beady eye looking back down at me.
They got very interested when I got the bucket of chicken manure pellets out and took the lid off to chuck some on the overwintering beans, garlic and onions. I didn't hear it coming but one swooped down almost right next to me to take a closer look. I only realised as it flapped to get more height. I could have reached out and touched its wingtip :ohmy:
It made me jump at the time, but what an amazing close up look at a beautiful bird. A very, very big bird with scary claws and beak, but beautiful none the less :
They are beautiful I love hearing them call to one another, they circle our allotments too waiting for someone to disturb a mouse or two.
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First time posting on this board - I saw a kestrel hovering at the plot this week. Not seen one here before.
I also have a friendly robin at home that regularly eats from mine and my daughters hands - it's not brave enough to eat from my 2yr olds yet but it's come very close! 😊
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Hearing the resident blackbirds kicking off I looked through the utility window with my binoculars and saw a sparrowhawk sitting on a garden bird bath plucking at a young bird between its feet. The brave blackbird pestered it so much it flew away. :( :unsure:
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I had similar yesterday. The starlings were feeding on the field next to the house and suddenly they went up in a squawking swirling mass. Flying low down the field with something in his talons - probably a starling - was the male sparrowhawk. A starling is quite a big take for a male, so no wonder he was struggling to get any height. Nice to think that they have young that they must be feeding :) , but so would the starling. :(
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We've got 2 families of starlings nesting at either side of the house eves!
Cheers
Aled
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Watched our local kestrel catch a vole today at the plot. She flew off with it in her talons so guessing she has young now, as usually she sits in a nearby tree to eat her lunch.
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Woodpecker knocking flat out on a tree outside our kitchen window this morning.
Cheers
Aled
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Didn't see but heard a cuckoo in North Wales when there at the weekend.
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I need a bird ASBO :ohmy: We have a newly fledged robin who has taken up residence in the garden with teenage attitude in spades.
He followed me round this morning while I watered my pots, fixing me with a beady stare the whole way. When I went to get the food, he barely waited for me to put it down before diving in. Now he's chasing off everyone else from getting a look in. The wood pigeon has just flown off looking totally confused at the tiny terror attacking him :lol:
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I'm pretty sure we've got a solitary waxwing. The call is an unmistakeable "trimphone" ring tone. Maybe his mates all left for the North and he was left behind? Haven't managed to spot him yet but he seems to be hanging around singing with the blackbirds!
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Saw a kingfisher flash past at the plot this morning ...fabulous colour!
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Trying to identify birds by their song but think we've had a song thrush around this last few days.
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We have finally moved out of our city tenement with a postage stamp garden into a half acre rural site in the middle of pasture and mature woodland and the difference in the number and type of birds is amazing!
When we were in the city, it pretty much stopped at the usual sparrows, blue and great tits, blackbirds, seasonal starlings, robins and of course wood pigeon. Crows, magpies and jackdaws raided the bins and feeders. We got the swifts in the summer and the occasional small birds such as wren and dunnock but here in the country there is so much more.
We have already spotted most of the above along with pied wagtail and great spotted woodpecker. We traded the swifts for house martins or swallows (can't tell which yet) and have added rooks to the corvids (we are apparently in the area of one of the local rook super-flocks where several hundred birds gather in the evenings so that will be worth a picture or two). Scotland has recently got Nuthatch and we have several pairs (minus the one which challenged my window yesterday and lost). I have only seen buzzards perched on posts or circling for rabbits but apparently there are more small raptors around. We have quite a few bullfinch which are very colourful and something small (sparrow-sized) and drab which hovers clumsily just over the long grass till it spots a bug then plunges down out of sight. No idea what it is because it is small and fast.
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Swallow throat red .
House martin white rump . :)
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We've been inundated by collared doves! Never happened before so don't know what has attracted them here this time.
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Saw a green woodpecker on the nut feeder this morning!
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Now that's different! The Pied ones come on our feeder, but never seen a green one there. :)
I saw a goldcrest this morning. The little birds are coming back close to the houses from the woods, a sign that the colder weather is on the way. :(
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The starlings are hammering the seed heads on the Cabbage Palm tree today, plenty on the ground for them too after the storms.
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I was nearly home yesterday when i saw a sparrow hawk,that is 3 in 2 days,near my house,i bet it is the same one,they are so graceful in flight and fast.
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right on cue for this time of weather, 2 lovely red wings eating my holly berries :)
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walking down the lane and frightened a small bird of prey which was chasing a small bird.
came back up and the same bird still chasing smaller birds.
probably a sparrow hawk? not really sure angular wings but small.
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walking down the lane and frightened a small bird of prey which was chasing a small bird.
came back up and the same bird still chasing smaller birds.
probably a sparrow hawk? not really sure angular wings but small.
Sounds likely :D
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This morning the two wires connecting the telegraph poles that go down the field were absolutely covered in starlings! Never seen so many at one time.
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the last time I did a bit of bird watching last summer I got a clip round the ear from my O/H o you mean the feathered variety sorry I was getting carried away with my thoughts of summer bird watching
so back to bird watching because the back of our house backs onto a cultivated field we see quite a few birds feeding quite close to our back window we recently seen eight pheasant's all hen birds quite content with scratching and eating something in the field and we get a cock bird visiting in the morning for his breakfast
sometimes get crows and magpies calling to feed and quite a variety of small birds in the summer they usually perch on the barbed wire just outside the kitchen window couldn't wish for a better picture ;)