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

I'm here too!!
Sarah has a blue that visits the garden,it' has been given a name now......pinnochio....she sent a picture...i have never seen a beak as long!!!

I quite often see blue and great tits. I seen quite a few while out shopping this morning .

They were in this one tree singing away .

Nigel

Smurfles, I haven't seen any blue tits with long beaks. I wonder if it was deformed? Like the name for it though


Tue. 8th April 08
Weather: Frost, Cold, Sunny, Breezy, Showers



9.25pm I was in the kitchen and heard a clatter outside and knew instantly what it was. The metal lid on the metal dish . I hadn’t thought how noisy it would be The badger and had lifted the lid off, before getting his snout in the trough and scoffing noisily away. I hope no-one else heard the noise

9.29pm and a fox was loitering with intent in the background, and having hovered close to the badger and been glared at it moved down the garden and lay down to wait it’s turn. The badger was having none of it and jumped round, sending the fox skeetering off again. 9.35pm Once the badger had finished it went to the table, sniffed, decided there was nothing appetizing on it and at trotted down the garden.

The fox met him half way, and there was a stand-off with each making a run at the other but not making contact. Eventually the badger had enough and exited left as the fox came up to the dish and tucked in to the leftovers. At this point it was very clear that this was a vixen who appears to have cubs . 9.37pm She was munching away when the dog fox appeared at the bottom of the garden and mooched around, as if waiting for her. Both left at 9.52pm apparently satisfied for the moment.

7am and the table had been tipped over so we obviously had another nocturnal visitor too.

I went out and cleared the tables, topped up the bird feeders and put raisins down for the blackbird. Only a male is coming at present so I suspect the female might be sitting on eggs

The female woodpecker came at 8am, hammering fresh holes in the plastic wrapped round the peanut cake.The squirrel had a go at it too The robin, a nuthatch, one magpie, one squirrel and a few wood pigeons congregated to dine, and the blue s, great tits and long tailed tits were busy too. Two starlings went head to head on the peanut cake, and I began to think on of them was going to end up without an eye as their beaks are so sharp, but eventually one backed down. The one with the yellowest beak and reddest feet won

There was a bit of a calamity this evening as one of the feeders (six ports) came crashing on to the concrete path breaking the plastic tray on the bottom The hook it was hanging on eventually snapped, probably because the wood pigeons and squirrels swing on the feeders. Without the trays they can’t stay on the feeders, but then I have seeds on the floor which attract the furry blighters, so I can’t win

The feeder is back up without tray which I will sort tomorrow when hopefully it won’t be as cold. I have put badger food out again and hope that once again he gets to the food before the foxes. The lid was still there this morning I am feeding less at this time of year as I think they can find natural food, and only need a boost. The other reason is that the badger food, and a lot of the bird food has jumped hugely in price, so I have to be less generous for the sake of the bank balance .
I will keep you posted about any further visitors and will see you all behind the wall ing tomorrow


Websailo

PS Smurfles, any chance of a picture of the blue tit? Hope you don't mind me asking

Websailor

Good morning all!!
Picture winging it's way to you WS

Got it thanks. He certainly has got a long beak. It appears deformed, but so long as he can eat ok he should be fine. He looks well

Websailor

He's lovely ,isn't he!!!Glad you got it,i've had some real problems sending things,but i think i've got the better of it now

Somewhat strangely, I saw a Crow on a bird feeder yesterday! I was somewhat strugling and the bird feeder was swinging around but feeding the Crow was. I assume it was peanuts, but not close enough to see.

They eat all sorts of things. I only get them in my garden in very bad weather when they are very hungry. Probably because it is a confined space. They are quite intimidating at close quarters, but a rook is even more so,, and I have had both together. They seem enormous!

Websailor

Counting Crisis! I think I need a click counter Frenchbean.


Wed. 9th April 08
Weather: Frost and ice, sunny spells and the odd shower


Doing well this week. I think the badger is aiming to get here before the fox, either that or before the frost sets in.

10.45pm and brock was munching at the dish, with the fox loitering in the background The fox was too timid to come close and waited till the badger left at 10.52pm. I think he left very little food behind! The fox came up the path, investigated the dish, grabbed a morsel and ran out left, only to come back again a couple of minutes later. This routine was repeated for about twenty minutes, until the dish was empty. Surely she can’t be feeding cubs on our offerings? I shall have to check when the cubs are weaned just in case.

Woke this morning to a thick frost, with ice on the water and went out to feed the birds. I put some peanuts on the lawn and two jays were down in seconds, with the blackbird close behind for the raisins. The squirrels are pinching nuts and burying them everywhere. the nuthatch, robin and two dunnocks came next.

visitor today was a female house sparrow, struggling with a soft white feather which kept blowing away. It is strange to have the once common house sparrow as a visitor, but we see them so rarely now it is a pleasure. I think I have commented before that it appears to be because everyone round here has put fences in place of hedges.

The male woodpecker came at 7.57am and the female at 1pm. Both come to the peanut cake in preference to the peanuts, and the BTO Bird Table magazine notes that peanuts seem to be a lot less popular of late. Not in my garden they ain’t! The blue tits and great tits spend huge amounts of time on the peanut feeders.

Frenchbean, there were so many blue s around today I had a real ‘counting’ crisis I just couldn’t keep up. Between great tits, long tailed tits and dunnocks flitting about it was impossible to count. There are definitely more blue s coming to feed, but perhaps it is because they are all coming at once. It is far too early for fledglings, and they are clearly adults, as the ‘littlies’ tumble all over the place at first.

Only one bullfinch came today. I think they are feasting on buds that are appearing everywhere. Starlings and wood pigeons made the place like Heathrow, and just as chaotic but at least they don’t bring baggage.

Ginger and Fluffy Ginger strolled through, but Ginger is probably in the doghouse with my neighbour as he has broken the trellis on top of the fence Only finishing off what the squirrels started probably!

PHM is dutifully keep watch for wildlife (between and other sports!) so I had better get off and relieve him

See Y’all tomorrow.


Websailor

How lovely to run out of numbers. Presumably the cold brought them all to McWebbies Diner? It shows how important it is to keep feeding the birds right through ... because you never know when they'll need it.

Back off behind the wall

Fb

*s off to join FB behind the wall *

Hello Scorp Fancy a or is it a bit early where you are?

I'm celebrating my late father's birthday with a marguerita Awfully good for breakfast I believe

Un
to Fb,s late dad ,on his birthday.

Hello All *Waves*,



I have some exciting news for you............

The past few nights I have been leaving my bedroom window open slightly, because I have problems breathing and a little bit of air does help.

It is also nice because I wake to the sound of the birds . This morning I woke around 6.00 am and at 6.20 am, I heard the sound of the Green woodpecker . I dashed out of bed, put my glasses on, lifted up the net and there it was .

My next door neighbour feeds the birds each day, his peanut feeder gets covered up each night with an up-turned flower pot . On the long chain holding the peanut feeder was this beautiful Green woodpecker. The one thing I remember is the lovely green colour.

I rushed to get my camera and as I lifted the velcro flap of my camera case, the woodpecker must of heard and flew down towards Websailer's . It is such a rare sighting in our area, me and Websailer have heard this Green woodpecker on a number of occasions but not actually seen one .

Hopefully, Websailer will spot it in her garden soon .


Nigel

I am so delighted that Nigel has seen the Green woodpecker, it is good to know we had identified it correctly. I am not sure about getting up that early for a sighting though, at least not yet! We heard it at 8.30am though, a much more respectable hour

Thu. 10th April 08
Weather: Frost early, sunny spells, showers, breezy

My luck was out last night At 8.15pm the fox zig sagged back and forth across the garden from bottom to top. She sniffed the air, sniffed the dish, and decided not to risk opening it She disappeared like a About 10pm the dish had been opened, and as the lid was neatly on top of the brick I am pretty sure it was the badger.

At 1.20am the fox was munching away at what was left, but I was so I couldn’t stay and watch

This morning the magpie was cleaning up whatever was left in the badger dish before pulling more chunks out of the hanging basket. The pigeons and squirrels were doing likewise everywhere else. I put the food out and a pair of blackbirds dashed up for raisins, racing each other to get to the fruit first

Blue s and great tits have been feeding busily, and a robin, nuthatch and long tailed tit put in an appearance. The female woodpecker came at 12.40pm and 6.35pm hacking great lumps out of the peanut cake which the starlings on the ground soon cleaned up.

A tabby and Ginger are in hunting mode, racing all over the garden, but the birds are too wise so far. The real worry begins when the fledglings start appearing.



Websailor

I seem to wake up much earlier now, my body clock is all over the place . This morning I was wide awake by 5.30 when it was just getting light, the birds were singing away .

When I went to bed last night I made sure my camera was at hand in hope that the Green woodpecker would return . He didn't though, must be very camera shy .

All the best.

Nigel

threw my body clock out the window, it stopped working years ago