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.

I tried to encourage birds here

Bought a seed feeder and some seed. Found a place away from us but so we can still see them. Away from cats being able to sneak etc

Bloody snobs won't touch it! But are happy to rip open our bin bags

I have squillions of bird photos . Will try to be a BIT restrained with posting them though. This is my favourite pic of a goldcrest, hovering around some alder cones.

One more - chaffinch dad feeding one of the kids.

I love garden birds. Our suburban garden currently has blackbirds, robins, goldfinches, goldcrests, blue tits, great tits, black caps, sparrows, starlings, long tailed tits, wrens, chaffinches, pigeons, collared doves and dunnocks. Lots of red kites overhead who don't actually land, although they land on grass a few metres away. We can hear woodpeckers and owls in the trees nearby.

AnUtterIdiot - I'm with your mother in law, although I don't just rap on the window, I throw rotten apples at the cats. (I'm a good shot and can land one just inches away so it scares them but doesn't hurt them.) I'm also good at emptying a bucket of cold water over cats in the front garden from the bedroom window when they are sitting by the birdbath.This is done with the full permission of their owners, before all the cat lovers start objecting.

This thread is lovely!

We have a blackbird pair who are clearly feeding chicks now. Mrs Bird has a broken leg now though, we didn't see her for a few days and thought the worse. The male is working so hard so putting extra stuff out to help them out, reduced plums going down well with the mealworms :)

Also have collared doves, a very loud wren, few starlings, little gang of bluetits and a few greenfinches, occasional great tit. Not that exciting but nice to watch

We recently moved house and have a long hedge down one side of the garden. A large flock of sparrows lives there and that's all I ever see on our bird feeders. I have seen some cockroaches flitting around the trees on the lane and so hung up a feeder filled with Niger seed but they haven't been tempted yet.

There's a blackbird family nearby and I saw the dad digging for worms outside my kitchen window. A couple of wood pigeons swoop in regularly and hoover up the dropped seed. And I spotted them having raunchy wing-flapping sex on the lawn whilst I was cooking dinner. Was tempted to lob a bucket of cold water at them :o

Cockroaches? Autocorrect fail. Goldfinches

gerund those pics are amazing!

Out geocaching last weekend I saw my first Skylark of the year. I heard him first and turned to the direction of his song and saw him still ascending. I also saw a pair of Lapwings, birds I haven't seen since about 1986.

My favourite is still the Blackbird. I can listen to him sing all day.

Thank you Lonny. Wildlife photography is a tiny part of my work. And birding a lifelong obsession.

Would be very interested to see cockroaches fluttering around a bird-feeder

Fabulous photos Gerund I agree about the cockroaches

I love having birds in our garden. Amongst others we have a very tame collared dove who comes down for his brekkie at the bird table and I chat to him, so close you can see the colour if his eyes are burgundy not black, he is beautiful. So lovely that we have built up trust for him to come so close.

Collared Dove super-close. They do have lovely eyes.

Lovely thread ! What is is with Goldcrests and windows ? We had this little chap visiting last week.

The way her crest is flared out I'd say she is trying to intimidate her own reflection! Lots of birds do this with windows in spring, territorial instincts in overdrive. Fab pics

Gerund, love the dad chaffinch stuffing more grub into its bloated offspring. Rather like having a giant teenage boy near a fridge.

Clearly my Kindle needs some educating about birds. Definitely no flying cockroaches here :o

Has anyone seen/got greenfinches (which autocorrect wanted to change to freethinkers!) in their garden? We used to have a large-ish flock in a nearby tree at our old house and they would visit regularly and scoff sunflower seeds but then they disappeared and didn't return the next year. I heard that greenfinches were succumbing to disease. I still haven't seen any five years later. Are there many still around? Worried.

Oh goody. I needed some people to tell that last night, just after midnight I had to get up, open my window and tell a magpies to shut up as it was haranguing an owl in the nearest tree. It was dark for goodness sake and the owl had every right to be out strutting his stuff. The magpie should have been resting.

There was a lot of owl action last night.

What a lovely thread. Even though i live in a very urban area we have some large trees and while we dont get quite the variety of birds that you do Op, ive seen a number of great tits, blue tits, the resident robin, some jays chasing each other in an out of the neighbours garden, and a little wren who visits our patio - so small that the first time i thought it was a mouse. Love this time of year.

Lovely thread, I've got a little robin that appears every time I'm doing any gardening. He seems to be getting bolder, pecking around the soil literally as I've dug it.
Got a group of blue tits that like to swoop down on some roses every morning, think they may be eating greenfly or something.
Also got a pair of blackbirds nesting in some holly, they like to get wet leaves out of the house gutters for their nest, they make a real mess buts its lovely hearing them sing and watching them come and go.

Our office has large grounds so we put up bird feeders that attract lots of birds. I am amazed how many people walk past without a s econd glance. Every time I walk past I have to stop and and watch for a few minutes.

Sugar 3 yr ago this little guy spent nearly all day pecking our window. He was still pecking away as we moved house. Was sad to leave him behind

We've got a hedgehog! DS noticed him snarfling around in the long grass today. It's very exciting!!!

I love hoggies!

I hand reared two baby wildies about 4 years ago.
They were snuffling about in the bright afternoon sun. Not normal. Mum was no where to be seen and they were very little.

I released them once they hit a certain weight. Can't remember what it was now