Nature quiz.

Zebby wrote:

Bruntonpasty wrote: It's a great thread! No doubt some gonk will come along and corrupt it with something, Perhaps NS will come on and suggest that all migratory birds will be put onto boats back to where they came from! It'll save them swifts, swallows and martins a good old flap mind!

I wouldn't mind getting rid of grey squirrel mind

they're just vermin!

Ha ha, it ain't that grand mate I can assure you! And try changing your home insurance and see what happens!

We have feeders in our garden and we have around 75+ sparrows - counted them for the Big Garden Birdwatch (that's coming round again this weekend). We also get blackbirds, robins, great tits, coal tits, chaffinches, goldfinches, greenfinches, magpies, jackdaws, wood pigeons, collared doves and an odd wren. We also get starlings - nasty, horrible filthy creatures - pooh everywhere. Lovely to watch in a murmuration, but dreadful in your garden.

Do alright considering there's a motorway just beyond bottom of garden
Blue,great and long tail tits,wren,robin, blackbird,dunnock,woodpigeon,magpie,. Jay,goldfinch,chaffinch,siskin,frog,hedgehog,fieldmouse and fox oh and sparrows and sparrowhawk

Bruntonpasty wrote: What's the oddest thing you've seen in the garden? We have a beck running though ours and one afternoon a Dipper was hopping around.

Oddest thing my mam saw one Sunday morning when I was younger was me pissed up flat out on the grass with nowt on apart from my quilt.

You see loads of parrots flying around Kirkby Stephen.

Bats, shrews, sparrows, starlings, wood pigeons, field mice, blackbirds are all things our cats have brought in.

Unusual things in the garden:

As said previously my back garden is tiny. Also it doesn't have any grass. Just stone flags and patches of gravel and a a small raised bed. We had made it wheelchair friendly so husband could potter and tend his bonsai and auriculas.

We had some shelves on the wall where 3 particularly nice bonsai were displayed and a blackbird made a nest in one, rearing a chick. Husband muttered a bit about it ruining his bonsai but secretly was as pleased as I was.

A few months ago I looked out the window one Sunday morning and was surprised to see a cock pheasant stood on the raised bed. Nearby on the birdtable two wood pigeons were cleaning up. It could have been Sunday lunch delivered to the door!

Seen foxes and grey squirrels in our garden in edinburgh, and magpies as well, didn't know they didn't use to come this far north

Cat has brought in documentary evidence of mice, in fact I had to fish a live one out from behind the tumble dryer on tuesday, hope it's not feeling the cold back outside.

Never seen a hedgehog though - weirdly I did see them as a kid down in carlisle, but never any of the other animals above

orfc wrote: Seen foxes and grey squirrels in our garden in edinburgh, and magpies as well, didn't know they didn't use to come this far north

Cat has brought in documentary evidence of mice, in fact I had to fish a live one out from behind the tumble dryer on tuesday, hope it's not feeling the cold back outside.

Never seen a hedgehog though - weirdly I did see them as a kid down in carlisle, but never any of the other animals above

Speaking of hedgehogs managed to pull this one out of drain gully don't k ow how it got in there but its tiny head was the only thing above water.

There were hedgehogs everywhere when I was a kid. Now it’s a treat to see one, that’s my terrier doesn’t see it first!

Anyone familiar with higher ground will have come across these bonny looking birds .

A Wheatear in Great Langdale .

Brilliant thread this makes a nice change from the boring football stuff anyways I moved house just before Christmas so I’ve been busy sorting the inside out but this thread has inspired me to set up a feeding station etc in the front garden. There’s a park opposite so hoping to entice some feathered friends from over there.
Will be taking the kids to get some food tomorrow morning before the game, I don’t know who’s more excited.

melbourneblues wrote: Brilliant thread this makes a nice change from the boring football stuff anyways I moved house just before Christmas so I’ve been busy sorting the inside out but this thread has inspired me to set up a feeding station etc in the front garden. There’s a park opposite so hoping to entice some feathered friends from over there.
Will be taking the kids to get some food tomorrow morning before the game, I don’t know who’s more excited.

I remember you saying ages ago that you had loads of building work done at your place.

Probably like we are now - different house and the problems that you have already remedied previously are needed to sorting out again ffs, good luck in your new gaff

Cheers munchy, yeah at lot of the work I’ve had done needs done again but hopefully worth it, had to move out of the area I’ve grown up in but seeing as nothing looks like getting done regarding flooding, I couldn’t take the risk of having to go through that again.

Got Heaton park 15 mins away biggest municipal park in Europe gonna have a nip down apparently waxwings there at minute and look for a couple of favourite of mine nuthatch and treecreepers

Hope you're lucky. I get nuthatch and treecreepers in the garden quite regularly. There's a litle wood just a few hundred yards from the house, so I think they call on the way to and from.

Never managed to photograph a waxwing though, would love to, very pretty birds.

Well just had a nice hour or so saw nutach,redwings and fieldfares feeding together as well as the usual stuff great blue and coal tits there's a couple of ringneck parakeets hanging around radio tower theregot chatting to a proper twitcher who was looking for a palid swift and told me an osprey had been spotted recently passing over which surprised me I didn't see the waxwings although he told me they are here and best place to find them...must do this more often this thread inspired me to get off my arse

It's a goldcrest really nice photo hard to get decent pics of them as they flit around a lot,rarely still for more than a couple of seconds. Out of curiosity where were you when you took the photo.

I'm no expert but my guess would be behind the camera.

pacirv wrote: It's a goldcrest really nice photo hard to get decent pics of them as they flit around a lot,rarely still for more than a couple of seconds. Out of curiosity where were you when you took the photo.

Whinfell Forest it was far too busy sifting through pine needles to notice me i must have got my camera phone to within inches of the little thing .
Talking to one of the rangers and he said there's a health population on them in that area .

Alan I go to Whinfell every year spend a bit of time in the hide camera at the ready lol. Always look forward to seeing the red squirrels sadly Carlisle is falling fowl to the greys especially in the Kingmoor nature reserve. Used to see reds all the time but no longer. Good variety of birds in the reserve though and roe deer.

pacirv wrote: Alan I go to Whinfell every year spend a bit of time in the hide camera at the ready lol. Always look forward to seeing the red squirrels sadly Carlisle is falling fowl to the greys especially in the Kingmoor nature reserve. Used to see reds all the time but no longer. Good variety of birds in the reserve though and roe deer.

One i took in the summer there cant find an exact match but i think its a Bullfinch .

It's a male Chaffinch Alan

Chaffinch mate, male.

Alan wrote:

pacirv wrote: Alan I go to Whinfell every year spend a bit of time in the hide camera at the ready lol. Always look forward to seeing the red squirrels sadly Carlisle is falling fowl to the greys especially in the Kingmoor nature reserve. Used to see reds all the time but no longer. Good variety of birds in the reserve though and roe deer.

One i took in the summer there cant find an exact match but i think its a Bullfinch .

Nah, that looks more like a juvenile male Chaffinch.

I'm afraid it has quite a bad foot infection as well

I thought they were just some sort of bird winter sock glove type thing!

Im no feathered friend expert tbh as you can tell its feet definatley look swollen .
We had a lodge there for a midweek break and took some feeders with us manag ed to set up a broken tree branch with them on .
Everyone loved it including the birds .
Even had a woodpecker as a regular visitor probably the most illusive bird to snap .

That's a good idea Alan think I might try that on our next trip to Anglesey

Zebby wrote: That's a good idea Alan think I might try that on our next trip to Anglesey

This is a pic of it even got visitors of the red variety picking up the pieces .
Well worth 10 mins effort .

Difficult indeed to photograph. I snapped this one by pure chance while taking pics of others in our garden last summer!

Brilliant shot that think i need a new camera lense for my birthday

Am lucky enough to be in Cumbria for a couple of days and saw two pairs of Jays today in a spruce and larch woodland area near Bassenthwaite today.
What a treat it was! Hardly ever see them nowadays and they interrupted the plans for a longer walk.
Used to see them all the time as a kid but rarely nowadays.
What stuck me was just how noisy they were! Magpie kind of sound but different.
Spent a good hour or so trying to get closer to them but they were having none of it and always kept me at a good distance.
Such an odd flight looking like they would almost drop to the floor at times, bobbing so ungamely in the air.
Worth it for that flash of blue that I saw a few times in the late afternoon sun. Transported me right back to being a kid.
Ran out of time to get up Great Cockup but just as good watching the jays for an hour or two.
Buzzards, treecreepers, lots of tits (no long tailed tits though), starlings, a heron and a red squirrel as well.
Oh, and the sun setting behind the snow capped North Western Fells.
Not bad for a couple of hours on a cold January afternoon.

Alan wrote:

Zebby wrote: That's a good idea Alan think I might try that on our next trip to Anglesey

This is a pic of it even got visitors of the red variety picking up the pieces .
Well worth 10 mins effort .

That's my idea of heaven could sit somewhere like that all day looks idyllic

newcarlislefan wrote: Am lucky enough to be in Cumbria for a couple of days and saw two pairs of Jays today in a spruce and larch woodland area near Bassenthwaite today.
What a treat it was! Hardly ever see them nowadays and they interrupted the plans for a longer walk.
Used to see them all the time as a kid but rarely nowadays.
What stuck me was just how noisy they were! Magpie kind of sound but different.
Spent a good hour or so trying to get closer to them but they were having none of it and always kept me at a good distance.
Such an odd flight looking like they would almost drop to the floor at times, bobbing so ungamely in the air.
Worth it for that flash of blue that I saw a few times in the late afternoon sun. Transported me right back to being a kid.
Ran out of time to get up Great Cockup but just as good watching the jays for an hour or two.
Buzzards, treecreepers, lots of tits (no long tailed tits though), starlings, a heron and a red squirrel as well.
Oh, and the sun setting behind the snow capped North Western Fells.
Not bad for a couple of hours on a cold January afternoon.

Good post NCF any snow on the lower fells looking at rummaging the sledge out and heading off to lower banks of High pike with the older Grandson if there is .
Some cracking slopes and a lot quiter than Calbeck ?

Funnily enough I was talking to a few of the people who we've gotten to know a bit down the years and they were saying that Binsey yesterday was white all over. When I got here today it was all green!
Mild last night apparently so a lot of the snow has gone.
Bass side of Skiddaw was apparently snow down to the intake fields yesterday but when I got here snow line must have been at 1500ft approx.
Nothing really on Great Cockup, Sale, or Longlands. Dash valley and Great Calva looked whiter and NW fells looked magnificent but again snow maybe at 1500ft ish.
Damp and drizzly here now.

Hoping to be able to hand feed little Robin soon it's getting a bit bolder every time I feed its become a bait time regular now.

Nice one - Robins are lovely tame birds.

I have hand fed Blackbirds and Wood Pigeons in the past, you end up talking to them like a pet and they appear from bushes when they see you with food.

Reminds me of that old one - Dr Doolittle, if you are reading this can you come round and tell my neighbours dog to shut the [censored] up.

Alan wrote: Hoping to be able to hand feed little Robin soon it's getting a bit bolder every time I feed its become a bait time regular now.

Get yourself some live mealworms you can get them online,the little fella won't be able to resist be eating out your hand in no time Alan

You can get live mealworms in pets at home reptile section.

BlueBanana wrote: You can get live mealworms in pets at home reptile section.

You can pal, we used to get them from there for our now sadly deceased Bearded Dragon called Munch which was the inspiration for my username

Got four pairs of birds nesting in the garden currently, three pairs are Blackbirds and a pair of Song Thrushes so have been trying to keep an eye on them when I can to chase off predators.

The neighbour has been moaning again about the height of the trees stating that they can only be two metres above the fence, some are to be fair but some are about four metres but are very wispy towards the top and wouldn't be too much work but I believe it is against the law to touch trees with nesting birds in it or even if you are allowed to no gardener would rightly touch it so my neighbour can go and argue with the Queen if she wants to try and get the law changed.

The thing is that she was moaning about the Conifers which she is allowed to do apparently but when she demanded that I chop down the Apple, Pear and Rowan tree I bluntly refused as you can let a non-evergreen tree grow as large as you want to.

This is what irks me you see as we recorded from the upstairs window into her back garden on a sunny day and at the very top left of her garden for twenty minutes goes into shade and that was it! Fair enough if it was blocking her garden or house into darkness then I would be out of order myself as I would se her point.

Anyhow I showed her the footage and she wasn't very happy to be proved wrong and claimed that that was the part of the garden that she wanted to sit in at that particular time, when I showed her that the house next to me then totally blocks the light after said twenty minutes then she should pop round to my other neighbour and get him to chop his house down as well because he is restricting the light, she went mad and stormed off.

Probably get a knock on the door soon then from the Council

Mealworms are doing the trick all be it dry ones so much so its starting to visit the bait cabin now .

The swallows arrived at my place yesterday, you always know summer isn't far off.

Yes, been up in Cumbria for the school holidays and the Swallows arrived here 4 or 5 days ago.
Saw about 60 or 70 skimming across the surface of Overwater Tuesday evening and heard, but sadly didn't see, a Curlew and a Cuckoo this week as well.
Saw a very brief glimpse of the Osprey above Bassenthwaite and seen a fair few Oystercatchers and Woodpeckers as well.
Best of all was lying on my back in a field full of lambs and hearing a skylark singing its heart on a balmy Spring evening.

Got a garden full of young robins last couple of days, nest must have jumped

Been making a bit extra softfood for my birds and giving the leftovers to the wild birds they love it

Talking of bearded dragons, my son has one and has provided it with a holiday home at mine. It's a nice little thing, but I'm just a bit squeamish about feeding it hoppers and stuff.

Over the last few days I've seen swallows, no house martins as yet though.

Over the last week or so I've had a marvellous starling who sits on the ridge of the garage and goes through a full repertoire of sounds.

He does oyster catcher, curlew and lapwing, a meow sound that could be a cat or might be a buzzard as we have a pair nearby. A noise that could possibly be a petrol lawnmover or a moped or something similar, and a rather rusty bike bell, the exact noise the kids bike from round the corner makes. There are also a couple of other bird songs that I'm not clever enough to name but they aren't starling speak. Wonderful to listen to.