h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lovely. Sounds nice where you are. Always fancied trying 'The Good Life' but never quite made it.

Websailor

Well... its our first year with a veggie patch and our lovely fruit cage and all of our seeds and bulbs are organic so we're expecting a lovely crop this year.

Having said that, the bookworm wife has been reading up on the 'right' way to garden organically after meeting the lovely Bob Flowerdew on a red letter day... so, we now have all the dogs on organic wormer, the bunnies on organic wormer tablets, the chickens on organic wormer liquid and even organic flee powder.... but its the organic seaweed extract that she keeps putting in my beans thats getting to me!! lol

xx

Tue . 11th Mar. 08
Weather: Breezy, cold, sunny spells and now rain and gusting wind.

We had no sign of our nocturnal visitors before bed time but by 4.20am the table was over and the dish all but empty. I am lost without the sensor and alarm. I really must get it sorted, though I am not sure I can drag myself out of bed these days. Roll on Spring/Summer

The female woodpecker visited at 7.0 am, 7.40 am and 1.10 pm but there is still no sign of a male . She seems to like the peanut cake with insects o perhaps she is fattening herself up for a long vigil.

The bird food came today and I spent an hour or so lugging 10 and 20 kg bags of peanuts, seeds, raisins and badger food in to dustbins outside. All opened sacks are in the kitchen in a tub.

Two robins came hunting for cheese but had to make do with fat and seeds etc. as I am all out of stock. Daren’t pinch PHM’s ration or I will be in hot water. Four blackbirds have been mooching around all day. with two dunnocks six chaffinches, two great tits and several blue . Twelve starlings shrieked in, made a mess and took off again . Two collared doves are here again so perhaps thy have another offspring! Two bullfinches enjoyed the feeders and the table and two long tailed tits tucked in to the biscuit crumbs.

Five wood pigeons and a squirrel made life for Ginger who sulked and ducked out of the bottom exit. Only one magpie showed up today, unless they finished off the badger food before I was awake, which is quite possible.

The wind is blowing a gale and the rain is pounding on the windows as I type so I think I will away for a and a rest.

Take care everyone,


Websailor

Wonderful to see you back Misty Blue - we have been looking after Smurfles in your absence. The caravan season has just about started, so I may well come and see you if invited

Hi Scorp,

Of course! You are more than welcome as long as you don't mind the dogs running around like loonies! lol

Having said that, I wouldn't consider venturing out in this nasty wind.. Brrrrrrrrrr I thought that we would have some trees down in the woods but thankfully, they have all stayed strong! :o)

Have a carfeul blustery day all,

xxx

Morning all!!!
Nice to see you around Sarah
I'm sure scorp would love having a look round at all the different things you have going on there
The birds have done a disappearing act here today...apart from the robin,who's taking advantage of having a swing in the hanging basket....that wind's horrible!!!
Back to !!!

Been far too windy here for a couple of days for birds really. I saw a male a Blackbird on lawn early morning and a Blue Tit on a branch briefly around an hour ago but it was too windy for it to be able to feed off oak tree buds like it usually does. The only bird call was the now gone Blue Tit, even the Wood Pigeons have given up and gone away now. Strangely even all the Starlings are nowhere to be seen! The Squirrels must be hiding somewhere out of the wind which is unusual as unless it is raining they are always running around here.

A friend, who is [i]very[/i] knowledgeable about birds was in the New Forest last week and saw a Redwing. This bird comes here in the winter for a comparatively short time apparently then returns to Iceland to its breeding grounds. He holidays all over the world in places where he knows he will see hundreds of species of migrating birds.

SS, I haven't seen any Redwings or Fieldfares since 1982 when we had prolonged heavy snow. They came for a glut of Bramley apple windfalls next door (the house was empty). They only come this far in very bad winters.

We have had as many birds as usual in spite of the weather.


Wed . 12th Mar. 08
Weather: Sunny with a cold very blustery wind. Rain on and off.

Whilst I was gossiping away on Hoo Too PHM informed me ‘someone’ had raided the table, presumably a badger, as the table was over. He/she was obviously out to get supper before the weather turned nasty

But, at 1am there was a badge munching away at the dish . It is so nice to see one, so we know we are not getting visitors. There is no messing with them at the moment, no mooching, exploring or sniffing the air. Their total concentration is on getting food to build up their energy after their (longish) . I will try to sort out which is which when they stay longer, but I don’t know how long this one had been at the dish, but most of the food had gone.

This morning the birds were taking food from the dish as were the squirrels, and there were birds everywhere in spite of gale force winds, and feeders swinging at 90º. (Crash hat required in this weather ) I refilled the peanut holders, the fat holders, tube feeders and tables, then threw some food on the lawn for the bigger birds and the chaffinches. Cleaned and refilled the water baths too.

Diving indoors I was pleased to see three blue s, a robin and four blackbirds along with several chaffinches and bramblings busy feeding. Two dunnocks and three great tits dashed in and out of the cotoneaster nearly bumping in to one another in their hurry and six bullfinches were happily swinging back and forth on the feeders .

I saw just one collared dove today, so perhaps ‘momma’ stayed home to look after their nest, which is flimsy and ill constructed at the best of times A coal tit was in and out of the lilac to the peanut cake and a nuthatch snatched bits from the cage and went away in a hurry, coming back seconds later. Unless of course it is another one It is so hard to tell.

One or two magpies and a few wood pigeons dropped in during the day and a squirrel or two. A female woodpecker arrived at 10.20am.

However, the highlight of the day was the arrival of TWO woodpeckers at the same time! A male and a female, the male on the peanut cake near the house, and the female on the peanut holder near the line post further down the garden. They are most certainly a pair, since she gave up her favourite treat to her partner

It was even nicer as PHM managed to lever himself out of the armchair in time to see them both and have a good look. He had to be content with six bullfinches earlier The wind and the rain is battering the window so I am going for a camomile and something nice (to take away the taste!) It helps me sleep so `i grin and bear it

See you all tomorrow. Stay safe.


Websailor

So that note about Redwings was for SusanDoris, and the bit about all our birds coming in spite of the weather was for SS. Dear, dear, it really must be time I went offline, I think I have been too long

Night night all,

WS

Hello folks...

Thought you might like to see a couple of pics my sister took in her garden...

She actually lives in the middle of a large housing estate in Hull...

http://public.fotki.com/moonhogg/foxy/

Redwings are nice SD, sort of thrush like, as WS said redwings and Fieldfare are normally in one group as quite similar, both thrushes I believe, hence the Redwing/Fieldfare discription.
.
The wind has died down here but I forgot to mention the other day that one of the Herons we get here was really struggling to stay in air as being buffeted around in storm. They are ar'nt great flyers at best of times let alone in 60 mph winds!

Those pics were wonderful Moonhogg - broad daylight too! We get them here but not until later at night.

WS! You sound just like Peter Rabbit! His mother made him drink camomile tea when he got back from Mr McGregor's garden.

This morning proved that it was not the lone female blackbird which Harry had killed earlier in the week - also proved that it is almost that time of year again. On the hawthawn hedge were three male blackbirds (all clearly intent on procreation) and the lady whose body language clearly said "sod off - I'm not playing"

I watched them for at least five minutes, as first one then another tried his hand (or other appendage) at the mating game; but she wasn't having any.

Moonhogg,

Those photos were great, the second one was stunning and the pigeon in the third one was pushing his luck!! We get foxes here both during the day, evening and night. They are quite brazen, sitting atop an extension in the sunshine. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera at the time.

Websailor

Thu. 3th Mar. 08
Weather: Sunny with a chilly wind. Rain on and off.

Wind and rain battered us last night but in spite of that Boss Man turned up at 9.45pm going straight to the dish. He generally tries the table as an afterthought if he has time.

He munched through the Marmite sandwich and other goodies before trotting off without so much as a sniff around. At 5.15am the table was over and just a few scraps of food were left so another badger had obviously been.

I was up early and the squirrels were finishing off the scraps of badger food, assisted by the wood pigeons and magpies. I took out the raisins, peanuts and seed and was surrounded by blackbirds, a robin, and three starlings overhead (wish I’d worn a hat ). Once back in the house the dunnocks and chaffinches came out to play, and the blue and great joined the long tailed tits. Two collared doves appeared briefly at the same time as two bullfinches and a coal tit.

The male woodpecker came at 7.55am and again at 11.58am but I saw no sign of Mrs. Headbanger . She is Headbanger again now as she is off the soft stuff and on the hard stuff again. To late arrivals to this thread that is not a but a change from soft peanut cake with insects to the hard peanuts which she hammers into till she must have a headache

The badger food is out now, so I will go and see if there are any visitors, and have my ‘Peter Rabbit’ drink before time . I think Spring must be in the air because I have had a mad day of odd jobs, and now I am suffering for it. I cleaned the kitchen window with a spray that makes it so clean it looks as if there is no glass in it. This means I can see the birds more clearly, but I have to put Sentinels on the windows so they don’t try to fly through

See you all tomorrow. Enjoy the Beeblecast


Websailor

I heard crows calling first thing this morning. It is a sign that summer is drawing to a close. And there was a relatively heavy dew on the grass....

Today is a more normal calm day in my garden than of late.
I am glad to see the Crows have restarted the nest building in Oak tree across the way in another garden. I was suprised to see two Goldcrest in garden as norally only see single ones, not that often too, I suspect pairing up for breeding is underway. The Collared Doves are nest bulding too.
What was really nice was to see a bird only seen in my garden once before around a year ago, a Black Cap, or more acurately a red cap as a female one. It is actually a quite handsome bird with its red cap and very pale cream chest.

I have noticed that the birds are singing later now and also much more earlier in the morning .

It is never a sign that Spring has Sprung, is it? .

Take care and happy wildlife watching .

Nigel

Frenchbean, missed this post.

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I am partial to a bit of Robin Jam or a bit of Crow Pie .

Nigel