Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Robin.

[viques]

I saw your new baby hopping around the garden this morning, only a singleton, but s/he was looking well and healthy.

I am hoping for good news from Mr and Mrs Blackbird soon, but they seem to be a bit slow this year, last week they were still refurbishing the nest. Mrs B is fussy diva and expects a complete overhaul and redecoration every year.

Shockers - I am in love! What a little teeny beauty! Please update with pictures of her being released and let us know how she gets on if possible.

Mrs taken post baby body too seriously robin is feeding 2 junior robins on the lawn

Mr & Mrs blue tits are a blur of blue back and forth to the bird box on the shed, just like last year.

Unfortunately Mr & Mrs rat have produced at least 3 mini ratties

10 days ago I did a double take as Mr Blackbird scuttled across the grass with three ladies behind. Then realised that 2 of them were babies, they're much bigger than their scrawny little ma and pa, who are obviously struggling to feed them.

The robins are looking particularly skinny, they must have some babies somewhere too. I've now put all the feeders into cages, can't keep up with feeding dozens of parakeets and pigeons.

We have starlings in our gutter, they are very noisy.

Mr squirrel keeps trying to give Mrs squirrel a 'special cuddle', she's not having any of it.

Mr and Mrs black bird have moved on from our (overgrown) Rosebush that they settled in last year and have taken residence in next door's conifers. I understand that Mrs B moves house two or three times a year and needs a new nursery for each birth. I admire her dedication as I can barely be bothered to redecorate the room for new children let alone build a new house each time.

Something is nesting in the guttering next to dd's room. I just can't tell what but they are noisy buggers at bed time.

Mrs pigeon continues to nest in my conifer hedge but I don't know how successfully.

Chaffinches also ignore my Niger seed feeders (yes pleural.... I have then around the garden but have never learnt my lesson!) and I might as well not bother with peanuts. Sun flower hearts however are gobbled down by the sparrows

This is a fledgling goldfinch from last year, fancy them being such messy nest keepers...

All the lady pigeons round here dodge the special cuddles too, the male pigeons stomp about 'cooing their cusses' as my mum used to say.

The goldfinches in my garden love sunflower hearts, I've had 11 on the feeders at one time, no babies yet.

Eeeeek2 I was informed by a pest control person a few years ago that outside rats (ground rats) are more or less like squirrels.

If you figure that rats eat grubs, worms etc and are also fodder for foxes etc then baby rats aren't that bad. They make the most amazing smooth runs/nests of earth too.

No sightings of baby birds but have seen other birds. But I think baby frogs will be growing from tadpoles soon in my pond. SuperFlyHighCat will no doubt soon be catching them as soon as they mature into young frogs as frogs seem to be the creature he catches the most of (he keeps gnawing/pawing through the netting at pond and stepdad came round last weekend to mend it).

squoosh and semi, I too am in love!
I will certainly post updates! 🦆

Our baby robin from last year was back this year - hatched under our kitchen window so very tame. Unfortunately, his/her partner is a bit shy, so we don't see so much of them. We had two baby jays last year and I just saw mum jay wandering around (unfortunately, I think mum jay reckons the nicest food is ... baby robins).

Can I say, I cannot stand wood pigeons, unless to eat. They mate all year round, and are so noisy both in their mating and calls in the morning - shut up! They are an abundant source of food. We should make more of them.

I will certainly post updates! - Thank you. I hope your duck will recognise you when you go back for visits.

We have very Tame birds in our Garden the robins feed from the hand and blackbirds knock on the window when they want feeding. Grated cheddar cheese is their absolute favourite.

I will say this... Since arrival of Cat (now 3), who is a ferocious hunter, most birds have wisely moved out of my garden, though I do see wood pigeons, magpies, blackbirds etc. the neighbours have also seen Cat on the very end of a branch after a magpie but he didn't get it...

Despite having a cat who is a prolific garden we have a garden full of birds. I am rather annoyed at them though, I mean just because I fill the bird feeders doesn't mean to say they have to empty them, especially not twice in one day! That was yesterday. I filled them again this morning and I have no doubt they'll need it doing when I get home. They are missing out to what they'd usually be getting, as, since the DEFRA regulations came into force there has been less seed thrown on the floor for the hens, and despite their now being out once again we're continuing to feed them undercover, so the wild birds are missing out.

Will hopefully be seeing some fledglings soon to make up for this cost!

There used to be an Outdoorsy Shite topic for just such threads.

We have starlings in the guttering and they are waking me up every morning (nest right outside my bedroom window).

There seems to be a lot more seagulls this year, we are over an hour away from the sea but there are 100's of them flying around.

Exactly Time - how much do they eat?! I only figured out how many times they ate because I was unemployed for the whole summer last year!! (Bloody handy for watching Wimbledon though...).

Robins are my very favourite birds. I used to work in the equestrian field and there was a robin who used to land on the manger in one particular horses stable - I don't know why I like them so much but they are fab. Goal in life: to get one to eat out of my hand. I think this may be one for the retirement years given the amount of time that might take!

Robins are wonderful. I love how arseholey they are. They are just little bastards. But then, when they fight for territory, the winner will feed the loser until he's recovered from his wounds. I like that.

polly - it should be easy! There's a stage when the babies fledge, when they're out of the nest but won't really fly. You want to get in there a bit before that - when there's an exhausted daddy robin (mummy will be brooding the next clutch and being fed by daddy as he splits his time between her and the chicks). At that point, the babies might well take food from you. But if they get used to you being nosy then, they'll definitely be tame later. Robins are super friendly so won't actually mind humans, and you won't scare them away from a nearly-fledged chick, the way you might make them change their mind about a nest site if you were too keen early on.

The other ones that are good for contact are jackdaws. If you ever see jackdaw chicks, they'll happily hop onto your hand and stay around you if you feed them. They like nesting in chimneys and I have had to reach up behind a very dark chimney-ledge to pick out the idiot fledglings that fell down instead of flying up. And then, the fledglings don't want to leave you!

I love how fearless and nosey robins are. They march (or hop) right up to you in the garden as if to say 'hello there human, what are you up to? I care not a jot that you are 2000 times my size'

Delightful little buggers.

I've just had to rescue this little fella from a curious crawling 1yo, poor thing was terrified and frozen to the spot. DS2 was very aggrieved that I wouldn't let him eat it!
Our garden is fab for birds and wildlife, we have loads of mature trees & hedgerow, lots of fruit & berry plants & we back onto fields & woodland.

TimeI with my last 2 cats I had a bird table (why?!) and feeders and birds (mostly blackbirds and blue tits or some other "tit" came into the garden. Cats rarely caught them, preferred field mice and frogs.

New cat (just turned 3) is more of a bird hunter and so I've taken down feeders and table.

But you're right Time birds empty the bird feeders in no time.

I'm not in the UK.
Mrs Cat (I'm desperatly trying to catch her to neuter her, but she is too sceptical) appears to have had a change in husbands, as the kids look distinctly different to the past two litters.
She left them alone in a building site this morning, and is now is a strop because the builders saw them, and put in a cardboard box on the other side of the lane. She currently seems unsure if the kittens are hers or not. Hope she agrees soon, because her kids are starving

Going by the size of the splat on my clean washing we had an ostrich with a stomach upset fly over