Topic: Wow...birds are busy..

[goodlife]

I had pleasure to spend 1/2'n hour watching what our resident birds are up to. And boy they made me feel tired They were all darting about...pulling, tucking and trying to break off all manner of twigs and greenery....busy busy busy.
We have sparrow couple who always nest under our roof and are spending time over winter there too, just next to our bedroom window. They are very used to us and we can stand a yard away from their 'front door' and they are not bothered..they happily sit on the edge of guttering..knowing that we are just other side of the glass looking at them.
And then we have this female black bird, building a nest on neighbouring conifer tree... she has already finished all the construction part of the nest and now bringing in all the bedding...moss, greenery etc....while the male is sitting on top of neighbouring tree keeping watch...just typical!..let the girls do all the work..
Recently we've hacked back our 'jungle' and there is still plenty of pruned bits lying around...and dozen or so sparrows have been collecting nest building material...and to make their job even easier and feeling sorry for them...I fetched some chopped straw from chickens shed to give them some 'bedding'...something softer that they might find useful in later stages...
Must keep bird bath clean and filled up...leave plenty of 'snap' to keep little ones fuelled up..they will need it and hopefully I'm rewarded the sight of little 'clown mouthed' 'babies' in the garden in few weeks time. So fluffy and so young...AWWWWW! Things one must do for her birds.....

[Borlotti]

I know this may be boring to some, but watching my friendly thrush, that is now a blackbird, is so fascinating, she picked up the straw and am sure measured it in her beak, some is rubbish, some is good.  Just thinking how long to build a nest, she is still working hard. hopefully tomorrow I will see her, hopefully the nest will be finished soon.  She does seem to trust me, and likes to watch me digging, two lady workers together. Luckily, or not, we have loads of straw and grass on the allotment, and the birds are enjoying it.  Good luck to them I say.  Birds cannot go to Mothercare and buy a designer pram for loads of money, bless them.

[pumkinlover]

The birds were busy in my garden too
Love watching them at meal times. Some were taking the fluff from my angora bunny which I put out for them and the rest just tucking in.
I saw 4 black birds all together yesterday - would that be a family? Usually black birds chase off any other blackbirds unless their own?

[goodlife]

I know this may be boring to some, but watching my friendly thrush, that is now a blackbird, is so fascinating, she picked up the straw and am sure measured it in her beak, some is rubbish, some is good.  Just thinking how long to build a nest, she is still working hard. hopefully tomorrow I will see her, hopefully the nest will be finished soon.  She does seem to trust me, and likes to watch me digging, two lady workers together. Luckily, or not, we have loads of straw and grass on the allotment, and the birds are enjoying it.  Good luck to them I say.  Birds cannot go to Mothercare and buy a designer pram for loads of money, bless them.

  yes...I'm sure we are boring some...but I can't help it...I could talk about it for ages, it is so incredible how they get on with their lives and just to be able to see glimpses or their daily life can be quite amusing to watch.
We only have teeny little garden at the back of our house...and behind the boundary is the allotments...and so much is happening just in our small garden  ..never mind keeping eye on what is going on the plots. We are lucky to have such a variety of birds and other wildlife..maybe typical for urban setting..but even then, nothing to sniff at. I don't need to go hiking to 'wilderness'..it is quite 'wild' just in my own garden

[goodlife]

The birds were busy in my garden too
Love watching them at meal times. Some were taking the fluff from my angora bunny which I put out for them and the rest just tucking in.
I saw 4 black birds all together yesterday - would that be a family? Usually black birds chase off any other blackbirds unless their own?

They are taking your bunny's fluff?! Interesting...
I've got bits of raw wool all over the garden and allotment and I haven't seen them making use of it...part of one particular sheep's ..Herdwick..but their wool, particularly kemp is something birds seem to like for their nest.
Other year they took loads of Ambers 'hair'..I left her brush in garden and later on sparrows came and cleaned it off.. That was fun to watch..they pulled and plugged until there wasn't single little bit left..and then I brushed Amber for some more... 

[pumkinlover]

They do take it but not as readily as I would expect!

[Silverleaf]

I watched blue tits taking hair I'd brushed off my Labrador a few years ago.

And this morning I saw a female blackbird with a huge amount of moss and dead grass in her beak. I was surprised how much she could carry, it was almost as big as her body!

Watching birds is lovely. :)

[galina]

Watching birds is lovely. :)

I also love listening to their songs.  I know our local blackbirds and thrushes by their melodies.  Always nice to hear the same bird come back the following year.  Also how they 'learn' new elements.  We had a burglar alarm go off in the vicinity several times and the sound of this was incorporated into the local songthrushes repertoire, as well as the rather loud ring tone of a neighbour's phone when they are in their garden.  There are family resemblances in their songs, but this year I was surprised by a songthrush who had none of the familiar melody elements - an entirely new song.  Possibly not a relation of last year's birds, who had not come back perhaps?

[Silverleaf]

Watching birds is lovely. :)

I also love listening to their songs.  I know our local blackbirds and thrushes by their melodies.  Always nice to hear the same bird come back the following year.  Also how they 'learn' new elements.  We had a burglar alarm go off in the vicinity several times and the sound of this was incorporated into the local songthrushes repertoire, as well as the rather loud ring tone of a neighbour's phone when they are in their garden.  There are family resemblances in their songs, but this year I was surprised by a songthrush who had none of the familiar melody elements - an entirely new song.  Possibly not a relation of last year's birds, who had not come back perhaps?

Some song thrushes do migrate from the Continent, so that's probably why your "foreigner" is there!

I believe they learn songs from their parents, and they definitely have dialects in different areas. I once heard a fantastic recording of a blackbird who made the noise of one of those old dial-up modems...

Learning to identify birds by their songs and calls is definitely worthwhile, and it's a skill I'm very glad I picked up because it alers me to birds I would otherwise miss. It helps a lot to know there's a wren around somewhere, or that the bird that flew over too fast for me to see properly was a goldcrest, or whatever.

There was a gorgeous male bullfinch in my orchard this morning, first eating pear buds (I don't mind sacrificing some buds to him!) and then perched with some tiny thin twigs in his beak. I really hope they are going to nest close by! I've also worked out where yesterday's blackbird hen is building her nest - in my beech hedge. :)