Had a lovely 30 minutes watching the birds in the front garden

[SheWhoDaresGins]

Firstly Mr Pheasant came calling quite literally, so I threw some feed out on the grass for him then in the 30 minutes I was standing at the kitchen window watching him hoover it up I saw...

1 daddy black bird feeding his chick in our conifer trees. The mammy hasn't been seen for nearly a week now so has probably been nabbed by a cat or a sparrow hawk.

Chaffinches having a nosey, having a bit to eat then buggering off.

Every now and then a lesser redpoll turns up then disappears.

A black cap.

Sparrows that have taken up nesting in the swift box we have in the eves.

Several blue tits coming and going.

2 coal tits pulling the fibres off the underlay on top of the guinea pigs hutch. There are little bald patches emerging and now know the culprits.

There have been 6 or so Goldfinches on the sun flower hearts.

There are great tits fighting over the sunflower seeds.

The resident Robin is perched on the edge of the bucket waiting.

Nut hatches swooping in between the great tits and nabbing the seed of its choice and dropping the ones it doesn't want. I think there was a fledgeling on at one point because it didn't seem to know what to do at first but then awkwardly got the gist of it and left happy.

There's a pair of wood pigeons on the ground getting what ever is dropped.

Then there is a pair of Dunnocks scratting around in the grass and a little Wren shows it's face every now and then.

Then the Jack Daws casing the joint to figure out how to get at the seeds but they are too big to fit between the bars on the feeders.

Then to top it off and I love these a pair of long tail tits. Little fluff balls with tails.

I could stand here all day just watching them. Shame I have house work to do really.

thanks Gerund...I think it must have been pretty tired, it just sat there on the wire as I stood underneath snapping away!

Most exciting bird I have seen is a Sea Eagle, they released some a few years back and dh and I spotted this mahoosive creature on a hay bale....couldn't get close and wondered if it was a giant buzzard, but it looked juvenile, anyway, when it flew off we realised it had something caught on its wing, which turned out to be an ID tag/flag ...local wildlife place had been on alert to see if any of them came our way.

And dh and the dog rescued a broken sparrowhawk last year, we never did hear what became of it.

There's something very seasonal about watching the birds...we have this lot arriving and suddenly you realise you won't hear the geese again until Autumn, and you watch for the fledglings in spring and summer.

I have to say what great photographs you are all taking.
Nothing happening in Peregrine world, but the three chicks are growing beautifully. Can't see the egg at the moment. But I expect it's still there.

We had swifts mid April which is quite early for here, mind, saying that the disappeared a week later just before it turned really cold. The swallows are having a whale of a time round here, loads of snacks to catch on the wing.

I'm glad the bloke over the road works every day because he is going to wonder why I am always at my kitchen window taking photos of what looks to be his house

That's actually a peregrine, not a sparrowhawk! Not a juvenile but not quite fully adult. Hope it was OK. Amazing to see the eagle. I am off to Ardnamurchan soon and hope to see white-tailed and golden eagles, and wildcats fat chance.

The different birds around from season to season has always 'shaped' my year :)

Sparrow hawks are lovely but I am still traumatised from last year when I was sat in the front garden and a 1 swooped in and took a long tail tit from the tree I was sat beside. It wasn't put off by my presence at all. I know they have to eat but for the love of god not the long tail tits.and especially not in front of me it did it again a week later.

I'm currently on hedge duty. Had a male magpie hovering around the last few days watching any activity coming and going from the hedge.

How they have grown !!

really...a peregrine!

i already id'ed it incorrectly!

...and the rspca woman had no idea, she could hardly bear to touch it, dh said she seemed very odd about the whole thing. He had to borrow her gloves to pick it up and put it into the box.

Yes - sparrowhawks have very fierce yellow eyes (or orange if they're old males, but never lovely big dark eyes like a peregrine's). They don't have the dark tear-drop marking under the eye either.

I expect the RSPCA woman was scared of those talons... but with any luck after vet treatment it was passed on to a rehabber or a falconer, who would have had the skills to get it well again and back into the wild.

Gerund - we were at Ardnamurchan last year and saw a golden eagle, just as we were leaving on the never ending skinny road. It swooped in front of the car and landed in a tree about 5 m away. I did an emergency stop and we watched it for ten minutes until it left.

We were really disappointed until that point as we hadn't seen much at all!

Wow, lavender, what an experience! V jealous. I have seen goldies in Scotland before but they've always been miles away.

Only saw white-tailed on my one previous visit to Ardnamurchan. The area is amazing for wildlife generally though. One of the best bits was at Sanna Bay - the archetypal stunning and deserted Scottish beach - just us and a flock of sanderlings. I sat down quietly and watched them have a bath in the sea, and then they trotted up the beach and right past me, incredibly close.

It was the highlight of our trip Gerund. We went to Arran, Mull, Ardnamurchan, Skye, Harris and back through Glencoe and Oban before our last few nights in Tesside.

Golden Eagle and Otters were the absolute best bit - three weeks of torrential rain and cold in August.

We walked to Sanna Bay - truly beautiful.

We are rubbish at taking photos Gerund. My DSLR is a Nikon D80 and I find it so heavy with the lenses (or even one for that matter) that we end up just using our phones. I bought a Nikon P610 in the sales in the hope that I will carry it because it is smaller.

On our most beautiful walk.

Just glorious! I completely get what you mean about carting the camera around. I don't take many landscape photos because it means carrying another lens, and faffing about changing it...

Just heard that one of the 2013 chicks from the osprey nest in Dyfi (which you can watch here - Glesni and Monty are busy incubating three eggs) has turned up in Wales. She is the first baby from this nest who's known to have made it back to the UK (our ospreys spend winter in Africa or Spain, and young ones spend at least a whole year there but an awful lot of them die in their first year).

Egg is still there.

didn't believe in Robins??

Nope. Really. He's a city boy through and through which I've dragged to a rural life that often confounds him. He'd never seen a Robin in real life, only on Christmas cards, so thought they were a mythical bird 😂

Don't get me started on bats...

Lovely pics on this thread! Loved seeing the swallow. I saw our first one this weekend. I was getting a bit worried they weren't coming to us as I was an hour South a month ago and they were already there.

I'm doing 13hr shifts for the rest of the week so won't be seeing much. Did see our wonderful buzzard zooming about this morning though. He's a newish arrival, I try not to worry too much about my bantam free range hen...

Lila, we have robins nesting just outside the back door. There is a palm sized hole on the cover of the electric meter and they have made a nest in there.

I slid my phone in when they were gone for a nest shot! Very busy on my feeder (only feeder left after pheasantageddon).

Our swallows haven't arrived yet. It is usually mid April when they pitch up. Not sure if that heralds a poor summer.

Well the front garden is a hive of activity this morning, MrP came calling for breakfast as per usual, Woody was on the peanuts for a short while till the bloke over the road left for work.

Loads of Gold finches, blue tits including a baby one wanting fed. Great tits. Spuggies, black birds, the dunnocks are still bobbing around the grass the diving back into the conifers.

Male and female chaffinches
Mr Robin and the nuthatches just keep coming.

I'm going to miss this when I go back to work. I'll have to get up a half an hour earlier to sit and watch them before I get ready.

Just seen my first Swift

Hurrah!

I am working honestly, although a lot on my mind/easily distracted ..... look at this lovely fellow smiling at me out of my study window.

First one I have seen, although I think I saw him this morning, I was on the phone and he was too far away.

summer is really coming!

I shall have to have words with the cats about being kind, and that birds are our friends and not a jaunty snackette for all the good it will do ...tbh they are not good hunters, but they do sometimes get lucky.

Faerie already pinged wideawake last night, well early evening, when she heard the swallows chittering in the nests....the ones left from last year at the sitting room windows really got a thorough inspection last night, it was super to hear them. And then she sat in the windowsill and scowled out at them all.

Something has gone erong with the web cam, it was fine earlier Now it's all blurred. Maybe one of the chicks has done their business owner the lens !