These two are regular visitors to my garden.
Nice pictures Pauline. They are pretty birds.
Do you ever have Nuthatch visit your garden? I have just asked Eric.
:D :D :D
Two Nuthatches have visited the feeders in the garden every day for months. They take whole peanuts and sunflower hearts rather than eat them in the garden.
Last year a pair used a nest box I put up, but although it was cleaned out I don't think they will use it again this year.
Lucky you TS. One day I am sure I will get them. They ahve been absent from this area until recent years and now they are spreading north.
Apologies to Pauline for changing the subject.
;) ;)
Lovely - but we can't sleep after 5am for all their different & foghorny calls!
I have never seen any nuthatches here and we don't seem to have tree creepers either. There were were both where we used to live on the edge of the New Forest.
I've got a couple of collared doves which do make me laugh trying to access the hanging bird table. they sit and consider their flight path for a few few minutes before taking a deepth breath, jumpng on the roof, another deep breath, jump, hovver, and lurch into the table.
then sit right in the middle of what they're eating. comical.
;D
Mine have been attempting to get on the peanut feeder. ;D ;D ;D
Aah they are so pretty Pauline :) Have two that are regular visitors to the garden ...
problem is we also have a nearly resident 'sky rat' who chases them off whenever he thinks that he will loose any grub >:(
Please excuse my ignorance flowerlady but what is a "sky rat"? :o
flying vermin, rat with wings, ......... common old garden pigeon. the bully of the table that sh{ts everywhere.
i'm trying to learn to like them but i'm finding it hard. i've had to stop putting seed on the static table as i was encouraging more and more of the things into the garden.
now they just peck around the floor taking all the scraps from the feeders.
still one of god's creatures but not one of my faves.
;D
Thanks for that info MrsKP. When you say the common old garden pigeon, are you talking wood pigeons or the type that are found in towns and cities?
i get both, but the feral ones (just looked it up ;D) are the worst offenders. i'm hoping once i've reduced their food supply a bit that they'll forget where i am and move next door.
but flowerlady's "rats" might mean something totally different to her ;D
magpies are also in abundance around here and can be a bit bullyish but don't often come into the garden and rarely go to the tables. there have been two regular visitors lately however who have been hopping around the ground pulling wee bits of grass and stuff, presumably for nests. they are quite fun to watch.
;D
Mrs KP I get both too and the magpies.
The self appointed resident is the gigest fatest garden pigeon that ever was. >:( He now roosts inside the little feed house >:( Think I will have to stop putting food there for a while.
I also put food on the ground at the end of the garden for the magpies,(and for him!!) bright critters they are, if the food gets too hard they take it to the bird bath and dunk it ;D
i wouldn't mind if only they'd "share". the feral pigeons just gorge themselves stupid as if it will be their last meal on earth (pass the gun :P).
and it has been known for me to be jumping up and down like a maddie, waving my arms and anything else i pick up trying to shoo them off, and they just sit and stare at me as if i'm daft. as you say, they're not silly lol.
;D
I don't know how I missed this before Pauline - what a lovely pic. ;D I've never had collared doves in my garden, just a couple of wood pigeons. You are very lucky.
G xx
Hi Pauline, :D
Thanks for the pic. Now I have been able to positively identify the pair of birds that have taken to sitting on my satellite TV dish and Freeview Ariel (the outside of my kitchen looks like Jodrell Bank). We are four floors up and a pair of doves have taken to sunning themselves in the morning. I`m trying to get a good picture and Hailey (the cat) is helping!
They may try to nest and as long as they don`t interfer with my TV reception I`ll let them as birds are getting a bad press at the moment and need all the tolerance they can get.
Col
We have a pair of collared doves nesting in a conifer at the bottom of our garden and they regularly visit our bird table - there are also wood pigeons nesting in the same conifer - but the collared doves are the 'bosses' and they chase the wood pigeons off the bird table.
We've also got a pair of blackbirds nesting in the ivy - the young have hatched and the parents are busy all day long in feeding them. Just hope the Magpies don't discover the nest, as they did last year when the blackies nested in the conifer hedge, and they lost all their 'almost ready to fly' chicks within minutes.
Pauline. I have collared doves!! Didn't know what they were until I saw your pic (sshh..don't tell anybody) I also looked them up on British Birds site. AND today I am 99% certain that I had a female greenfinch . Seemed a bit slimmer than the sparrows and didn't have those markings on its back which a sparrow have. Certainly had a greenish front. By the time I got the binoculars she(?) was gone.
My blackbirds, especially MR are getting quite tame, they fly away when I walk up the path to the greenhouse but once I am in the greenhouse back they come.
Things are looking up ;D
All good news Lorna. ;D ;D I hope it was a greenfinch that visited and that you get many more. Sometimes they don't stay long enough for an identification. I have binoculars on the coffee table in my lounge but by the time I focus them, the bird has often flown.
I had a visitor today that I couldn't identify. I believe it was a finch because of its beak, but it had a pale lemon chest and a light coloured stripe above the eyes. It was bigger than a siskin and definitely different. I only had 30 seconds to look at it and then it flew away. I waited another 15 minutes but it didn't come back so had to return to my task for the day which was to finish digging one of the plots. Perhaps I will see it again tomorrow. :D
Quote from: Carol on April 04, 2006, 23:48:32
Nice pictures Pauline. They are pretty birds.
Do you ever have Nuthatch visit your garden? I have just asked Eric.
:D :D :D
Iwas at Clumber Park yesterday with the kids, and there were lots of small birds flitting about in the treetops. One of them had a call sort of like one of the mid-80's telephone ringtones, you know the first ones after the original 'bell' ringer. I followed the noise until I found it (took a while) and lo and behold, a nuthatch! Quite a while since I've seen one. There were 2 or 3 of them about as well.
Not to mention the thirty-odd squirrels that were tame enough to feed. The kids were fascinated.
And I forgot the camera!! >:( >:(
Starlings also imitate telephones but a different ring to the nuthatches. The nuthatch trill can be heard on here. http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/ ;D
Pauline. I know I am off subject...collared doves BUT was just in the garden with a friend who is doing some gardening for young Lorna AND a greenfinch (thingy bird) arrived at the feeding station. Keith confirmed. Yipee....I am sure he thinks I am mad.. was so excited LOL.
OMG. Shouldn't have put that.... should have put MALE bird
If anyone would like to set up a breeding colony of Collared doves,just let me know and i will pack up my 20+ birds and send them courtesy of Royal Mail.
As long as they are not like homing pigeons and come back again.................
I do love them really, just not QUITE so many all in one go......and still they breed, every year, all year, all of them.............. :-\
Lorna, I am so pleased for you. A female greenfinch yesterday and now the male. I was trying to think what word you typed in that was changed to "thingy" then I realised you must have said c-o-c-k. This forum never fails to amuse me especially when we use such innocent words such as k-n-o-b of butter etc. It's just not the same when it gets altered to thingy of butter. ;D
Did you get your coconut fat feeder and have you seen any blue tits yet?
Pauline. Sorry for delay in replying. Have been gallivanting (oh what it is to be retired ;D) I didn't get the coconut until Monday (usual shop didn't have ) It is on the feeder so hopefully will get results. Haven't seen the green finches since but then again haven't been here much to stare out of kitchen window :)
Bestwishes Lorna.
fab pics P7 :)