Lincolnshire at New Year

As usual, we were away on holiday at New Year staying with family and family friends (about 20 of us in total). This year we were in Lincolnshire, a part of the world I had never really visited before. A very nice part of the world if a little, er... flat. Like really flat. Very odd given that I've spent nearly my whole life living in the Chilterns. 

Despite the lack of undulation in the landscape, its a very down-to-earth part of the country with great people, some beautiful countryside, and nice towns. Lincoln in particular was brilliant- well worth a visit if you haven't been already. Being on the wash, there's also some fantastic nature reserves, one of which we visited whilst we were there. 

I've included just a few of the photos I took during the week. The first few photos were taken at RSPB's Frampton Marsh Nature Reserve. These yellowhammers were feeding on the ground underneath the feeders at the visitor centre. Pictures taken through glass in poor light, so not very good (I'm getting too good at coming up with excuses for poor photography these days)!

We visited the reserve twice during the week. The second visit was late in the evening and we were lucky enough to see a gorgeous sunset- one of the best I've seen in years. I recorded a video just as the sun dipped below the horizon. It was a windy day so the background sound was horrible. As a result, I used one of Youtube's copyright-free tracks to add as background music. Couldn't quite find anything that fit the video, but this is the best I could do.



I also took a still image. For some reason, it seems as though Blogger has messed up the colours of this image when I uploaded it. The original picture shows the grass in the foreground as being much darker in colour than it is in the version you see below. Could be something to do with the compression of image files when they get uploaded but I'm not sure. The result is pretty horrible to be honest, but you probably noticed that the photo isn't even flat anyway, so I'm not too bothered.

And finally, here's a picture of a house sparrow which I actually took over the Christmas holidays that wouldn't really fit in any other posts.

Thanks for reading and I hope 2014 is a good one. 

Garden update

We have really had plenty of action in our garden recently. On Thursday, I went out to take a few photos of the birds, who have been feeding frantically recently. The finches are arriving in large numbers at the moment, as are the sparrows, but the first bird I saw on Thursday was this cheeky little Blue Tit...

Also seen were these sparrows at the other feeding station in our garden.

Some of you may remember that we created a small pond in our garden, in the hope that the wildlife in our garden would use it. The pond now looks much more a part of the garden than it used to and really fits in well where it currently is. Below is a photo of the pond as it was when we first created it.

We added some pond weed and plants to surround it. Below is a photo of what the pond looks like now.

However, whilst the pond might look a lot better and attract more wildlife now, we have found that there is a bit of a problem with it. The pond appears to be leaking water into the soil. We have to fill up the pond once every day or two, which really isn't right. The pond is quite shallow, so we originally thought that the water was just evaporating away. But just recently, the weather has been cooler and yet the pond is leaking just as much as before. At some point, we may have to create this pond again so that it stops leaking.

Enough of that for now. In the last few weeks, we have seen glimpses of a little Wood Mouse in our garden shed. I have no idea how it got inside, or when but its definitely made its presence known. My Dad first saw the mouse as he opened the top drawer in a chest of drawers in our shed last week amongst loads of shredded paper. I think it may have been starting to nest! Below are the photos of the drawer. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a photo of the mouse.

A view of the draw with the shredded paper...

I even found that part of a fat block for the birds being stored in the shed had been nibbled by the mouse! See the picture below.

Hope you all had a great weekend :)

The return of the sparrow

Well its great to see the return of the House Sparrow in our garden. For years, statistics have shown a dramatic decline in the House Sparrow population over the last 30 years. Before a couple of years ago, the sparrow was a rare sight in our garden. Since then, we have seen more visit the garden. Today, its really nice to see a group of around 8 of them hogging the feeder perches for once.

I am thrilled to see at least 4 juvenile sparrows in the garden at the moment along with at least 4 adults. The youngsters have been so entertaining over the last week or so and have caught my attention plenty of times. Whilst I was filling up the feeders a few days ago, the sparrows couldn't resist the idea of feeding on the feeders. Whilst I was out, they allowed me to take a few shots. You can tell that the sparrow in the photo below is a juvenile because of its small size and yellow gape on the beak.

This is probably my favourite photo of the lot (see below). A female sparrow was feeding with her youngsters:
One of the juveniles seemed quite shy and sat in a nearby bush whilst I watched it.
Whilst the make was happy to watch at the top of a shrub.

As I was sat in our little office building, I captured the video below of a male House Sparrow feeding its youngsters. It was great to see them share a perch on the feeder. It did seem a bit strange that the juvenile was reliant on the parent to feed it, despite the fact that the seeds were just next to it. It made me think just how vulnerable these birds are.

It can be quite easy to attract more sparrows to your garden. It appears that the sparrows in our garden prefer seed mixes to the sunflower hearts. I now fill up at least one of our feeders with seed mixes for the House Sparrows. I suppose putting seed mixes out is just one way of attracting sparrows to your garden. Another way to help is to have plenty of water available for them. They sometimes visit our garden just so they can have a quick drink at the bird bath, and it isn't uncommon to see 4 or 5 of them having a wash too.

As many of you will know, you can buy House Sparrow terraced nestboxes with 3 seperate compartments. Unfortunately our box has never been used by House Sparrows, but hopefully, they will use it to nest next year. If you buy one, you may well find that a different bird uses one of the compartments to nest in, as Blue Tits did in ours last year! The sparrows that have visited our garden this year nested in the wall of a house a few doors away from us.

Elsewhere in the garden, birds are visiting our feeders in large numbers. A group of at least 7 Greenfinches have been around in our garden as well as plenty of Chaffinches, Starlings and Woodpigeons. One bird I haven't seen in a while, however is the Coal Tit. I imagine they are probably nesting far away from our garden. The Blue and Great Tits have been providing lots of entertainment though...

This is because we have now seen both Blue and Great Tit fledglings from nests in other gardens. We have also seen some very scruffy parents visiting the peanut feeder. Earlier on this year, when Blue Tits were choosing somewhere to nest, they declined our camera nestbox after visiting several times. They then built a nest in our non-camera nestbox, but moved out of that too, to nest in a garden nearby. It is amazing how fussy they are!

Last, but by no means least, I have also seen a couple of juvenile Starlings about. Not sure this is a good thing, judging by what other bloggers have said about the noise they make!

Norfolk birds

So, here I am posting about our family holiday to Norfolk which I have just come home from. We stayed in a nice cottage in northern Norfolk (rather near where Springwatch is currently being filmed at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve this week). The variety of wildlife seen around the garden and grounds of the cottage was amazing. I think I will share my Norfolk wildlife and plant sightings over at least 2 posts. The grounds of the cottage were amazing. My favourite part of the grounds was the small lake pictured below.

Pretty much as soon as we went into the back garden of the cottage for the first time, we saw Blue Tits were nesting in a small hole in a wall. The adults were seen flying in and out of the hole with insects all the time and it was difficult to follow. This activity was constant until later on in the week when the Blue Tits stopped feeding the young. We think that they must have fledged, although we have not seen any fledglings around. Of course it is possible that the nest was predated but the hole was too small for anything large to get in and take the young. The picture below shows the hole.

Also nesting nearby, but in the grounds of the cottage rather than the back garden were Goldcrests. In a conifer tree, a pair of Goldcrests were rearing young in a tiny nest on the end of the branch. The young looked very close to fledgling when I saw them on the first day of the holiday. It looked like there were 2 or 3 chicks crowded inside the nest. One of them decided to exercise his/her wings outside the nest, before returning to the nest cup. I just managed to get a picture before it hopped back inside the nest, which is seen in the top left image of the photo montage below. The nest was empty the next day so I am assuming they have fledged.

Other fledglings that were seen around were Great Tit (main picture in montage) and Coal Tit (bottom left photo in montage).

Also nesting in the garden of the cottage were Blackbirds who had built a nest high up in a shrub. Unfortunately, while the male was around, it only appeared to be the female who was feeding the chicks. Nevertheless, the female came in frequently with mouthfulls of insects.

The first picture below is of the female perched on the garden wall about to fly into the nest. The second photo is of the nest, which I managed to take a quickly and quietly. If you look carefully, you should be able to see the beaks of a couple of chicks. Maybe they will fledge next week. The photos were taken this morning before we left.

A flock of 15-20 Long-tailed Tits visited the garden twice and were very entertaining. They always look busy and never seem to stop. These little birds were flitting around the branches of a tree in the garden. I love the way they follow each other around. The biggest flock we have seen in our garden at home was made up of around 10 or 11 birds, so I was impressed to see such large numbers in Norfolk. I got a few photos of the tiny birds in action.

In the lake in the grounds of the cottage were Mute Swan cygnets and Egyptian Goose goslings. The cygnets were very closely watched by the adults and any threats to the cygnets were scared away very quickly. Also on the lake were Tufted Ducks and Mallards. The Egyptian Geese were often seen sat on the edge of the lake in the sun. The goslings were still quite small and were seen huddled together looking like a pile of feathers.

My highlight bird-wise in the grounds has to be the Barn and Tawny Owls that were seen flying around in the evening. A few evenings during the week, we walked to the barn near the lake to watch the Barn Owls. I think the Barn Owl must be roosting in the barn at the moment. We have seen it come out of the barn in the evening to hunt over the surrounding fields. I don't think they have young yet as they didn't return to the barn with any food.

Barn Owls are such incredible creatures and it was fantastic to see such good views of them as they hunted silently in the dark. We only saw the Tawny Owl once, but heard it much more often. They could well be roosting or nesting nearby too. Also seen near the barn were bats in large numbers. We also saw a Treecreeper one evening just as it was going dark on a tree near the barn.

Away from the cottage, we saw plenty of other birds. National Trust properties often have gardens that are fantastic for birds. We went to Felbrigg Hall, a National Trust property near the cottage. Click here for the link to the website. As I was looking around the gardens, I came across a House Sparrow terrace nestbox in use by a Great Tit. It was seen bringing food into one of the holes.

A Chaffinch was seen singing on a tree.

And Jackdaws were seen at another NT property, Blickling Hall. Click here for more information on the property.

Many other birds were seen on various walks throughout the week. On the beach near a town called Sheringham, Little Tern were seen at the shore. I had to check the bird book to make sure they weren't Common or Sandwich Tern. They certainly were little and were struggling to fly against the wind. Just slightly further along the coast near some cliffs, I saw a species of pipit. This bird, I was unable to identify even with the bird book. I am guessing it was either a Rock Pipit, or more likely due to its brighter outer tail feathers, a Meadow Pipit.

Also seen in Sheringham were Starling:

And finally, on a sunny walk in the countryside, a female sparrow on the roof of a house. It's great to see the declining House Sparrow in its well-known habitat.


Other bird highlights were: Nuthatch, Marsh Harrier (seen at Blakeney Point), Reed Bunting, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipit, Yellowhammer, Chiffchaff, Cuckoo and Great Spotted Woodpecker. Blimey, isn't it amazing what you can see in a week!

Finally this posting comes to an end. I did chatter a bit didn't I?

Birds bathing

It seems silly that at this time of year in the sub-zero temperatures, that any bird would want to wash itself in cold water. Well, Sunday morning while I was filming the birds, a Magpie decided to have a splash in our bird bath. I had only just tipped the ice out of the bird bath and filled it again with water. It was very funny to watch, and quite sweet too, even though it was a Magpie.

I had my tripod placed in the usual position of our office building. Again, please forgive me for the bad control of the tripod in the video below. I will learn! The other birds didn't dare to take a dip at the weekend, but were busy on the feeders most of the day. The main features were Blue Tits (it appears that 2 have already paired up for spring as they flew around together), House Sparrows (which have been very common recently), Great Tits, Dunnocks (as always), Robins, Blackbirds, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Magpies and of course Woodpigeons and Collared Doves too. I have read Shirl's posting for today, and it looks like her garden was very busy with birds coming and going. Notably the Blackcap, which I haven't seen so far this year. Hopefully the extra suet I put out on Sunday should attract them again this winter.




I haven't seen any investigation of our terrace nestbox for a 2 or 3 weeks now, so I hope they return when I relace it with my camera nestbox (hopefully this weekend). Its interesting to hear that birds in different parts of the country nest earlier than others. I am guessing that because the south is warmer, birds such as the Blue Tit are more likely to investigate nest sites earlier than in previous years.

The other video I wanted to show you timed out when it was uploading, but I will try again tomorrow.

Both videos were taken by me in our garden on Sunday 4th January 2009

The birds have returned...

...Well, kind of anyway! The sun is out and the birds are singing. Funnily enough, since the last post about the disappearance of the birds, they are starting to return slowly but surely. However, they are awfully shy, and it has really been difficult to capture these birds on camera. A Greenfinch has showed interest in the bird food and seems to be visiting again (see picture below). I have still only seen one at a time, but its a start.

I have had quite a busy week and have struggled to get out and watch the birds, but I have still noticed a definite increase in the number of birds visiting. They seem to only take brief visits to the feeder perches, as the great tit video shows below. I haven't seen a Goldfinch for a while, but I hope the other birds encourage them to return. I re-arranged the bird feeders after I took the photos and videos below in the hope that the less popular ones will now get used . I also topped up the tables and feeders so we should get some more visitors. With the cooler, wetter, unsummerish weather we've been having before today, the bird bath has been quiet.

Below is a picture of the solitary male Greenfinch seen over the last few days. It, like everything else at the feeders usually stays for a maximum of about 2 minutes before flying off. I could not get very close to this Greenfinch, and had to take the picture from the house. Chaffinches have continued to visit in reasonably large numbers, spending quite a lot of time feeding at the seed feeder at the end of our garden.

Even the House Sparrows are quite timid, and don't appear very often. I say this but they are still visiting often. I think this one is quite young as it has a slight gape on its beak.

A Sparrowhawk is visiting a lot at the moment, which could have caused this Great Tit to be unusually timid. However, it really wasn't happy with me getting close to film it which was a bit strange. Earlier on in the year, the Great Tits were much more tame, so I'm not quite sure why this one is. The photo is a little dark (even after a bit of editing), and my camera shook around a bit while I took the video, but it still gives you an idea on what is happening. At the start of the film the Great Tit is "hiding" in the bush near our feeders, before eventually hopping onto the feeder perch. Even then, it only showed itself briefly. In part of the video, the Great Tit appears to be nervously peering around the side of the feeder. Very strange behaviour indeed!


I will soon post on our messy, overgrown garden.

All photos and videos above were taken in our garden

A first for everything

Most years, we get plenty of Ladybirds in and around our garden. My dad grows a crop of vegetables every year. The crops attract large groups of Blackfly and Aphids that the Ladybirds would normally eat. This year, the veg is growing as good as ever, and there are thousands of Blackfly and Aphids. But where have all the Ladybirds gone. I have seen only 1 so far this year (which I have pictures of below). I saw it crawling across our lawn. Even this one didn't look very well. It stopped for a few minutes on a dead leaf, which allowed me to fetch my camera.

So where have all the Ladybirds gone. Well, I did a Google search to see if I could find anything of interest. I searched "seven spot ladybird being outcompeted", and clicked on the first result (a Wikipedia page about the Seven Spot Ladybird or "Coccinella septempunctata". Towards the bottom of the article, I saw a little part, which said, "In the United Kingdom, there are fears that the seven-spot ladybird is being out-competed for food by the Harlequin Ladybird". I have proof! And, having seen the picture of the Harlequin Ladybird on Wikipedia, I know that I have seen this type of Ladybird in our garden and shed. I wonder if others have found this pattern too? Leave a comment on this topic if you wish.
Here are the photos:


Harlequin Ladybird. The colours are known to vary widely, so you may not see one like this. Picture from Wikipedia.

Seven Spot Ladybird in garden:

I thought I might just add in a quick note about some interesting and unusual birds seen in our garden over the last week or so. We have had the usual visitors such as House Sparrows, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robins, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, etc. But we also had a Sparrowhawk fly over the garden and land on a nearby greenhouse. It then flew over 2 more times in the next few days (including once today). A Great Spotted Woodpecker also visited and took some fat. I have only ever seen Coal Tits on their own, but yesterday I saw a group of 3 take it in turns to feed. They really don't stay long. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of any of these rarer birds, but I hope they give me another chance by returning.

Garden update

I'm glad I can now post something with some of my own images and videos. The feeders are quite busy at the moment, but larger birds such as Magpies and Wood Pigeons are taking over. The hanging bird table on our feeder pole, and the fat are particularly popular with the Magpies. They are also keen on the peanuts I left loose on the table. I have to admit that they are very entertaining to watch, but they are very intimidating to smaller birds, such as Blue Tits. When the large birds have gone, the smaller ones take advantage, and take as much food as quickly as possible. As I was outside, I noticed the return on the Starlings in our garden. They had a nibble at the fat balls before disappearing.

Male Greenfinch and female House Sparrow:

Young Robin: Collared Dove: Junenile Goldfinch: Starling:

Goldfinch:

Blackbird:

Magpie:

House Sparrow video:

Blue Tit and Coal Tit taking brief snack from feeders:

Birds and animals update

This morning, I went outside to take some pictures and videos of our garden birds and animals to show you. Firstly I would like to mention the strange absence of starlings recently, who used to feed on the fat feeder in large numbers. However, these starlings have been replaced by the slightly more dull and cheeky magpies. The magpies eat the fat balls as much as they can, before flying off with the rest of it in its beak. I took a picture of a magpie yesterday (probably a juvenile) because of its short tail. I am a bit confused though, because whenever I see this scrawny looking bird, the tail hasn't grown an inch since last time. I took pictures of blue tits, house sparrows, robins, wood pigeons and magpies. I also, as promised, got a good shot of 2 lizards basking in the sun. I have seen plenty of lizards lately, and they seem to like overgrown areas, with small open areas too bask in. The seed mix I am using at the moment is much more popular with the smaller birds, such as blue tits and great tits. I also spotted some long-tailed tits in our front garden yesterday. Please click on the images to enlarge them: