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.

Exit - it'll be a tawny for sure. The others make quite different noises. Tawny is our most numerous owl by far, especially in villages and towns, though it is declining - added to the amber list of conservation concern last year.

We had two baby tawny owls on a wall last year, in broad daylight. Some silly women let her DD try to stuff worms in their beaks and lots of people took photos of them. They didn't survive unfortunately.

Oh, that's sad :(

Tawny chicks leave the nest well before they can fly, and just sit around sleeping and waiting for their parents to bring food (at night). The nest's normally in a hole in a tree, and the chicks climb out onto nearby branches, so they're quite well hidden by the leaves. If they fall down they can climb back into the tree. Strange that those ones ended up on a wall.

Today's update. There are now three eggs hatched but I can't see the fourth one anywhere fees screenshots to show you from 5 minutes ago.

Mum just taking the test of the food out of the nesting area

Spotted the lesser redpoll again. You can just about make it out above the flowering currant.

Would help if I included the bloody picture.

I give you the lesser redpoll

Feeding time again !

My son is a falconer, two years ago the centre he works at were called in to rescue a family of kestrels that had been subjected to a cat attack. The father bird was dead but the mum and babies were still alive, sadly mum was so badly injured she had to be euthanised so DS and his colleagues set about hand raising the young. Several weeks later all of the young were well enough and old enough to be released back into the wild. Now, every day a female kestrel visits the centre, sits on the roof of the barn where the babies were raised and watches as they exercise the birds then she takes off again, the falconers think she is one of the young they raised coming back to say "hi".

Mummy the pics are getting better and better

Lovely story hellhasnofury I hope it is one of the young birds.

Ending. Story ending

Mummy it looks like pigeon was on the menu

i just noticed this thread as active, popping in to say i went school to drop the kids off. its a big deal because i dont usually drop them off since its far away so my husband drives up.

anyway yesterday whilst waiting at the school gates me and my kids spotted a Heron or a stork? Or a Crane im not sure which. it had a mostly grey body, yellow beak white bit on head. in flight the neck area looked bit saggy but that could the the long neck contorted in flight. It looks most like a Heron had a large wing span it was bigger than any small garden birds i have seen.

It is a semi rural area and there are forests, but i dont know of any parks with water near by with fish, a 5 min drive away yes but nothing closer. This was a really quiet affluent residential area, i reckon the heron was fishing in the ponds in these local residents gardens . id be mad if that occurred i keep fish myself but in a tank. id be crying if a bird ate my goldfish :o

I too thought it was a pigeon. I think the other egg is behind the three chicks. Where the clock tower is there are loads of pigeons so they won't go hungry that's for sure. I am boring everyone who comes to visit with the web cam !

Katarzyna, that sounds like a grey heron. They hold their necks bunched up when they fly. Adults have a black eyebrow but juveniles have grey heads.

Don't stop posting pics Mummy you seem to capture all the good bits

Katarzyna I second it being a heron, they look like dinosaurs don't they?

other parents didnt seem interested they must have seen them before or thought what an idiot i was. i was behaving like a child looking at something new. well ive never seen one except in books....

yes they do look like dionsaurs in that theyre big and strange looking if you;ve never seen one

We have a heron visits our garden, he is after our fish ! When they fly their wings flap very slowly compared with other birds and their feet sort of hang down ! The girl who used to be out next door neighbour came running round one day to say we had a stork in the garden !! We were never bothered for years but now we have to keep netting over the pond as we don't want to lose our fish.

mummylinyes damn koi fish arent cheap either, if you have any of those and the heron is getting them, its like a whole salmon free from the fishmongers id love some too! lol

ive been dreaming of a japanese garden with a pond of my own in a few years time, but sounds like hassle enough having to maintain the pond in all weathers, nevermind prey animals after the fish stock.

Yes we have a few beautiful koi, but also some more common fish as well. The koi are really beautifully coloured and maybe attract the heron even more. Dh would be devastated if he lost one. But it can't get to them now.

It does take Dh quite a bit to maintain it, always having to clean all the filters etc, which are always covered in horrible little red worms, hence I won't ever be doing that, but I have had to keep a big fish afloat in our bath and swish it backwards and towards so the air got into the gills !! Many times I have had to do that, and yes it did survive !!

The only thing I've had in my pond before we moved was frogs, newts and a party guest oh and a few cherry tomatoes from another party guest launching at others mouths. This was many years ago

There's a heron down by the river here though he is more towards the wider parts of the river but he regularly glides over the roof tops. They are odd looking.

We haven't had a single frog for a couple of years, I don't know where they went, but last year we had newts in a smaller pond we have. I had no idea what they were at first. Don't think we have any this year. We have foxes instead I think !

Amphibians and fish aren't very compatible in (relatively) small ponds. One of my pals has a really little wildlife pond and it's heaving with frog tadpoles every spring - think she has only seen the one newt though. They get damselflies too.

Shall we start a general wildlifey thread in the Great Outdoors, as suggested by Exit?