If you’re looking for a particular post please use the search box below
Lucy loves this time of year, as the weather improves and creates pools of warm sunshine around the garden. Today she did a spot of big game hunting, catching a fully cooked chicken drumstick - heaven knows where from! After that it was time to relax on the patio, soaking up some of the sun’s rays.
We always leave one tomato pot free for Lucy - apparently on a warm day it’s the perfect spot to relax!
All in all, today was an excellent chance for some quality catting!
Photos taken 30 March 2024
At this time of year our garden is often invaded by a large flock of starlings. We see them murmurating over the road behind out house in the winter - just a few dozen birds - nothing like the huge displays you see by the coast. By late spring this year’s youngsters have fledged but are still happy to noisily demand food from their parents when they can get away with it.
I was doing some gardening when they arrived en-masse so I left what I was doing to top up the suet ball feeder and to throw a few handfuls of mealworms on the ground. This was enough to keep them happy and allowed me to quietly sneak closer with my camera and sit on the ground nearby.
This garrulous gathering were so focused on their food that they barely noticed me creeping down the garden path, allowing me to get within a couple of metres of them, sitting on the ground in plain sight.
Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.
This youngster was so oblivious to me that it landed on the edge of the bird bath about four feet from me!
Our unruly visitors were so noisy that many of our other garden visitors stayed away, but it didn’t take long for them to return when something spooked the starlings and sent them fleeing, however briefly.
Mrs Blackbird foraging among the wildflowers.
Judging by his threadbare tail I think our visiting robin has been busy raising a family and he or she is looking rather worse for wear!
Photos taken 29 May 2023.
This summer was a particularly hot one, so when I had a free day in September I took a leisurely trip to Audley End with my pinhole camera and a small tabletop tripod to search for photos.
Getting really close to the succulents in the glasshouse
Inside the garden bothy, with just a hint of flare from the window.
Looking up into the branches of a huge plane tree.
In the laundry I used my little tripod to get really close to things.
And finally, relaxing with an ice cream in the sunshine!
Photos taken September 2022
I’ve been confined to the house today, waiting in for a couple of parcels to be delivered. Frustrating as this is, it did give me a chance to catch up on some necessary admin jobs and print some photos too. When the parcels had finally arrived, I decided to sit in the garden for a while, preparing some music scores. I figure if I spend time in the garden regularly the local bird life will come to realise I’m not a threat and will hopefully come and feed while I’m there. This approach certainly worked with our young bluetit family last summer, although the goldfinches seem a little more skittish.
As I sat there quietly (wrapped in umpteen layers and with a blanket to keep warm!) the bird feeder tree was visited by a family of long tailed tits and two nuthatches, although I couldn’t get my camera to my face quick enough to photograph them. Eventually, a pair of bluetits and a few goldfinches returned and I was able to catch them on camera. By now the light was fading fast but not shooting through double glazed windows helped enormously with catching sharp shots! I can see I’m going to be spending more time out here in the coming weeks so hopefully I’ll be able to capture some of our other visitors.
If you'd like to hear what accompanied my time in the garden this afternoon I recorded a little of the birdsong and turned it into a video - you can find it here.
We were supposed to have lots of rain today but apparently no one told the weather that, so we had snow instead! I've been keeping indoors as I've got a hacking cough and cold so I spent some time watching the birds at our feeding station. The blackbirds have well and truly got the knack of feeding from the fat balls now but they do have to queue up as there's only one perch from which they can reach them. This young female blackbird was looking particular puffed up as she waited patiently and the falling snow just adds that winter wonderland finishing touch!
The birds who visit our garden are an endless source of entertainment and I keep some binoculars beside the kitchen window at all times to aid identification. Today we had the usual range of aviators in the garden - lots of goldfinches plus the odd greenfinch, half a dozen blackbirds and a solitary robin. Shooting through the kitchen window I was able to catch them all on camera, although it was a bit of a challenge as yesterday's bright sunshine had long since gone.
This afternoon, staring aimlessly out of the window, I noticed we had an additional visitor - more of an acrobat than an aviator. Most days this squirrel scoots along the back fence (the theme from Mission Impossible always passes through my mind when I see this!) but it rarely ventures further than that. Today though he or she whizzed up the bird feeder tree to nab some tasty morsels from the fatballs. I know technically grey squirrels are vermin but I couldn't help admire this one's grace as it scaled the tree and I don't mind too much, as long as it only makes the occasional raid on the bird food!
One of our plans for 2018 is create a wildflower zone in our garden to attract more insects and bees. I gave Kevin a bug hotel (plus some wildflower seeds) for Christmas so he spent some time today applying a coat of varnish in readiness for the spring when we hope we'll be able to attract some solitary bees to inhabit it. We also bought some seeds which I'll plant in a couple of months to add some colour elsewhere in the garden. All we need now is some warm weather to attract the insects and help our seedlings to germinate!
Our bird feeder tree has been very popular with the local avian population this winter. Every day a large flock of goldfinches comes to our 'all day buffet bar', along with blue tits, about five blackbirds, the odd robin and four or five greenfinches. Over the months the tree itself has begun to list as the ground became waterlogged so today we replanted it in a more upright position. As an extra treat I also cleaned out the bird feeders, added a new one containing 'buggy nibbles' and put some mealworms in the cup shaped feeders in the flower bed. That should keep our feathered friends happy and well fed over Christmas!
