I was out at a meeting for a proportion of yesterday, when I came back I was sitting at my desk catching up on some emails, when I heard the distinctive call of a buzzard outside. I grabbed my camera and stepped outside.
There were two individuals and they seem to be having a lot of fun soaring and diving in the sky. I managed to capture a few images.
Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read or just sparked my interest in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.
Malta should consider moratorium on turtle dove hunting, says EU [The Guardian]
Idea of renewables powering UK is an ‘appalling delusion’ – David MacKay [The Guardian]
Climate change is corroding our values, says Naomi Klein [The Guardian]
Tory MPs tell Cameron to accept steep cuts needed for UK’s fifth carbon budget [The Guardian]
David Attenborough at 90: a TV legend’s top 10 moments [The Guardian]
The Week in Wildlife – In Pictures [The Guardian]
From wallpapers to book covers: illustrating the bird and the bees – in pictures [The Guardian]
I was sitting at my desk this afternoon, looking out across the garden. We’d had a funny morning weather wise, going from bright and sunny to sleet, hailstones and squally rain. By now the sun was back and the birds active, in particular a female blackbird, picking up sticks and leaves and other things and taking them into our honeysuckle bush. I think she’s nest building as there was quite a bit of tooing and froing collecting supplies, then back into the honeysuckle, which was rustling with her presence.
The blackcaps were back again too, again two male birds, so they’re obviously sticking around.
My afternoon dog walk was also full of birds. There was lots of bird song, and another buzzard sighting. This time the buzzard was soaring overhead, riding the air currents. I manage to snap a few photos on my phone.
Finally a little robin paid us an up close visit.
It’s the time of year when the bird feeders come down and are cleaned. They need a regular cleaning to prevent the buildup of bacteria, mould etc.
Very simple to do with hot, soapy water, and an old cloth.
Then rinse and leave to dry.
I wrote yesterday about our Resident Magpie. Well he’s obviously been telling his chums, because this afternoon there were three of them in the garden. Two on the bird feeder and a third on the suet block which is in the tree just behind. Unforunately I wasn’t quick enough with my phone to get a picture of all three together. The one on the lower platform of the feeder is the one I refer to as our resident, and has the discoloured feathers.
I’ve been a little slack posting here, so by way of a couple of videos, here’s an update on some of what I’ve been up to. I hope to have some news on the job front soon, and will cover that separately when I do.
We took the dogs to Emsworth for a swim yesterday. Only really the first time that Ruby has properly been swimming. The video is fairly low quality as I didn’t want to take my expensive camera out over the water with me, so I was using an older one, that I was less worried about dropping, but the quality isn’t as good.
Our garden seems to have become quite popular with a certain juvenile magpie, he’s taken a shine to one of the fatball feeders (rain or shine) and his acrobatics trying to get to the fastballs is quite entertaining. He’s fascinating to watch, particularly recently as he’s been trying to work out if he can dislodge the feeder from the tree branch to forgo his acrobatics (he hasn’t succeeded yet).
The Robin in our garden is still faithfully sitting on her eggs. Having done a bit of online research I now know that it is the female that sits on the eggs alone, and it takes 13 days for them to hatch. So assuming that when we first noticed her was last Saturday, 6th June, we are likely to have baby birds sometime this week.
As she is so exposed, we’re keeping watch but from a distance, so as not to disturb her. Her preference for this nest is completely different to the blue tits who we had nesting earlier in the season. They managed to find a gap in the side of the garage, and chose to nest there. It means we have no idea how many young they had, as other than the chirps of the young, and the parents tooting and froeing you wouldn’t have known they were there, unlike the blue tits from last year, who used the sparrow box, and you could see the young, sticking their heads out, now and again.
And now we seem to have one nesting in the garden or rather brooding eggs.
Electronic Scrapbook 