At last: a Rye heron pic

Firstly I would like to say that at the moment, I have been very busy with coursework, exam revision... etc. I am 14 and my GCSE's are mostly next year, but a few more minor ones have already taken place. This is mostly why I haven't been posting very often this month. I just haven't had as much time to gaze out of my bedroom window while the birds come and go. Also, I would like to apologize for not replying to comments very fast - I do read them all. You may notice that the posts will be a little shorter too.

Ah, I'm glad I've got all the depressing stuff out of the way. Now to something much more cheerful- our local park' s wildlife in the morning (again). I was much luckier with my latest trip to the Rye park in terms of bird sightings. It was surprising too as I was there at around 12:00 which meant that it was busy. The Grey Heron isn't a particularly rare bird, but a fantastic one to watch. In the case of the park, there is only one or two that visit, but they are regular visitors. Please forgive the washed-out photos. Considering they are large birds they aren't very tame, so the photos are taken from quite a range.

I also saw some of the usual birds. One of these is the Tufted Duck. They are fantastic to watch and this time I managed to get a close-up picture of one. The males are more striking but I have taken a picture of the female too. They don't demand bread like the Mallards do so they tend to stay away from the path which runs along the river. At a distance these birds look like they are just plain black and white but the pictures I took show some interesting colouring on the back of their necks.

All photos taken at my local park.

Garden changes

Our garden is really looking different now to what it did in the summer. It is now mid-November and autumn is well underway. I like to see autumn as the time when the garden is preparing itself for a potentially cold winter to come. Our garden is definately showing signs of this and I couldn't resist taking pictures of the brilliant colours our garden has to offer at the moment.

One of the most obvious changes is the falling of leaves from the trees in the garden. We have an apple tree and an apricot tree in our garden, and it is very interesting to see the differences in the colours of leaves from these 2 trees. The apricot tree leaves turn a brilliant yellow colour at this time of year, where the apple tree leaves turn a browny-orangy colour. I must say that I prefer the apricot tree for its colour. If only it produced more than about 5 apricots per year in the summer! I took the photos of the apricot tree a week or so ago and now pretty much all the leaves have fallen off now.

The leaves falling off the trees mean that it is a lot easier to see the birds. Our apricot tree is a very popular place for the Coal, Blue and Great tits to break up the sunflower hearts in the feeder. The birds probably feel safer in our evergreen conifers at the end of the garden at this time of year. Dunnocks are birds that also use the trees for cover and I have been able to see them a lot more recently. The conifers do look a bit out of place at the moment too, where everything else is changing colour.

One of my favourite colours in our garden at this time of year is the red-orange colour of the Goosberry plant leaves. They really stood out, and I thought it looked nice with the blurred bird table in the background. We only have one of these plants, so again, in the summer we don't get much fruit from them.

The colour really makes up for it though and makes the plant look amazing. Another berry plant in the garden is the Blackcurrant plant. This has spread over the years, and now is a large feature in the garden. The colours that this plant produce are very different to that of the Goosberry bush. The leaves appear "washed out". The photo is above. The last fruit bush I am going to talk about is the Rasberry one. This produced similar colours to the Goosberry plant, as you can see from the red and pink in the photo below.

I wonder what all your gardens look like at this time of year. Our garden probably varies greatly to all of yours.

Sunday birdless gardenwatch

Firstly I would like to say that I did realise that it isn't Sunday today... just! I would also like to say that I am exaggerating a little when I say that the garden was birdless. So actually the title for this post is a little misleading-never mind! There were a few around but the feeders weren't exactly filled with birds. I am happy to say that our main feeder has been half-emptied today. Just my luck that its Monday, I missed the action while I was at school and it was nearly dark by the time I had got home. Nevertheless I saw enough yesterday to post about and enjoyed going outside to look for the birds for a change.

So, why were our feeders quieter yesterday. As Shirl correctly mentioned in her wildlife blog, it is probably due to the more mild weather we had then. Today, it was absoloutely freezing, and low feeder levels matched this dip in temperature. Tiny Coal Tits were a feature in our garden yesterday. I talked about these last week too but I must say that I couldn't resist talking of them again. Blue Tits and Great Tits were also present in numbers but the Coal Tit is a bird that is a bit rarer and more fun to photo.

The Dunnock is a bird that will visit when every other bird isn't around. In fact, I think they prefer visiting the quiet feeders. There were 4 of them at the end of our garden and they flit in and out of cover. They are quite shy, but as long as you are careful, they allow you to go nearer to them. I find that they tend to prefer the seed mixture that we have in one of the feeders and the bird table.

There weren't many of the usual dominant Greenfinches or Chaffinches, so it gave an opportunity for the smaller birds to come in and feed. The Dunnocks don't tend to feed on the fat feeders but some of the others have been very busy feeding. Coal Tits, Blue Tits and Robins have been taking food from them. In the winter I find that it is important to provide some high-calorie foods that will help the birds keep their energy levels up through the cold winter months.

Its interesting to see what has been going on in Shirl's garden. The chaffinches she saw yesterday weren't in our garden in such large numbers but I'd love to see them in our garden this weekend. Although our feeders were quiet yesterday, the Jay has visited again. Every time it comes, it gets closer to our bird table. Fingers crossed that I will see it again soon. The Blackbirds aren't really feeding on our lawn as much as last year but there are definately more of them around. They have been in numbers in bushes either side of our garden.

All photos taken in my garden on 9/11/08