Birds again

[erastes]

My front garden is full of birdies. They are getting used to me sitting here at the PC and they take little notice of me except if I move quickly or pull the curtains. Today I have a mob of starlings, coaltits, bluetits, sparrows, my robin and several blackbirds of both sexes which surprises me as I thought they were as territorial as robins. Perhaps they are all from the same clutch, or perhaps they are all just too hungry to care. Eat the pyrocantha berries you lumps! Seeds don't grow on bushes, you know!

Some chap on the radio explained why - if you feed the birds you have to continue to feed them. Apparently the smaller birds particularly can lose a third of their bodyweight overnight(!) keeping warm (why can't we do this - think of what a great slimming club it would make!) and if there's no food for them where they know it should be, they often don't have the strength to find a new source! Talk about guilt trip!!!! *runs out to fill up the feeders*

Comments

[the-sea-to.livejournal.com]

1. I am coming to sleep in your garden. In case I can loose 1/3 bodyweight overnight. Much better than EATING HEALTHILY.

2. Tits! Millions of Tits! (you were expecting high class commentary, I'm sure)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Not from you, that's for sure!!!

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

That girl is tit obsessed.

What's the most exciting bird you get in your garden? We get a sparrowhawk which eats young pigeons.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Puss was watching Dave fill up the feeders yesterday through the patio doors and I said..."Yes, that's Daddy...the birdman." LOL

Blackbirds are certainly taking over. They seem to be doing more running and jumping than flying not to mention scaring each other away from morsels of food.

I adore how the robin's legs are almost invisible, lol.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Our sprarrowhawk (Sporky *cough* - yes, we even have names for them all) is naughty...poor collared doves, what have they done to it but dress up as food?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I think the long-tailed tits were the most exciting, but I've only seen them once, no Sparrow hawks that I know of, thank goodness! My collared doves sit on the table and STARE in through the window if there's no food...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen a thrush for several years, which upsets me, as Lucius ate a couple when I first got him. :(

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

There was someone in the paper linking the demise of the collared dove to the rise of the sparrowhawk.

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

Cheeky sods. I love the long tailed tits.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

It's been a few years since we've seen one in our garden too. They are beautiful birdies.

[aunty_marion]

My birdies are still getting used to the new feeders, and also I worry that a lot of them died over Christmas when it was rather cold; although I filled the feeders before I left, of course they can/could eat right through that in a couple of days. But I've seen at least two sparrows, and the robin, and a couple of tits and the goldfinches. Yesterday I had a crow on the wall! I don't know what he thought he'd be getting... But the starlings have been round, being acrobatic.

[feed-your-muse.livejournal.com]

We get goldfinches, tits of varying kinds, blackbirds, wood pigeons, the occasional thrush, chaffinches, robins, sparrows, and wrens. Haven't seen many starlings this year, though (by year I'm actually thinking from July-now) which is a bit odd as normally we have a huge number around.

When it snowed I had to put some seed out on the wall in the back garden for the larger birds as they can't use the bird feeders - I'd barely gone back indoors before they'd swooped down.
I live next door to a nature reserve so we have a lot of owls, and other predatory birds around but they don't come over to the garden overmuch.

Merry
=^..^=

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

I had a robin...until my cat decided 'he had a flavr'. I found him by the water butt, poor thing! ;_;

The most exciting thing I have ever had is a peacock! Goodness knows where is came from, but one morning, there it was on top of the shed, minding it's own business. My cat saw it too but I could see her mind whirring and she decided not to chance it.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I've had the cats bring in a robin before and they got a BIG shouting at. Luckily there must have been more around as a new one moved in fairly shortly-I can put up with mice catching, but birds, I really won't tolerate. I need to get this new birdtable before Spring so they have a bit more protection, right now it's literally open to the elements where a cat can jump up AND a hawk could swwop down.

My parents had a peacock in their Close a few years ago and they loved it, but some nasty neighbour poisoned it. GRRRRR. I have seen one around here, though - about half a mile from here - I think they are wilder than a lot of people think.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Starlings seem to adore fat balls, so I make my own with lard which makes them very very cheap as the shop bought ones are so dear - and they are easy to squish into the tree bark (the lard, not the starlings!)

I have a lot of owls, as I hear them twit-twooing all night sometimes, I live right on the edge of big fields, but I rarely see anything other than the occasional barn owl if I'm driving in the dusk.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'd love to have a crow- when I lived in Ireland I fed them regularly attempting to get one to tame but never managed it!

[sinick.livejournal.com]

I have hummingbirds, all year round.

Their glass feeder hangs where I can see it out the bedroom window, and it's great being woken by chirps and the buzz of wings.

I buy sugar in 25 pound bags (cheaper that way), for no other reason than to keep the little guys in syrup (I'm dieting, and use Splenda for everything else).

Every weekend I wash out and refill the feeder - talk about your guilt trips, I read somewhere that if a hummingbird doesn't drink every four hours it'll starve! Ain't happening on my watch!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I would adore to have hummingbirds, really - they seem like something magical - if I had them I'd probably beggar myself making them syrup.

PHOTOS!!!

I read somewhere that some idiots actually give them Splenda, and then wonder why they disappear...

[probodie.livejournal.com]

I want to be a bird *pouts*

[sinick.livejournal.com]

Icon is my reaction to the Splenda-feeding morons.

The hummingbirds really are gorgeous. The red feathers on the males gleam like anodized aluminium in the sun, just that bright and metallic looking. The green is iridescent too but subtler. They're fascinating to watch, too: pinpoint precision hovering contrasting with sudden bursts of blurring speed.

Of course that speed means they're the devil to photograph. ZOOM dip dip dip ZOOM! There and gone before I'd have time to even think of getting the camera out.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I don't think you'd have to beggar yourself over their syrup: it only runs to 1/2 a cup of sugar a week.

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

That's really horrible, what kind of a person would poison the poor bird? Fortunately, my two cats stay indoors mostly now, one is old and the other isn't safe with roads, so ther birdy casualties have been fewer. I could just imagine if one of them brought in a bullfinch or something.

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

Oh, they are beautiful! Too bad the UK must surely be too cold for them!

[sinick.livejournal.com]

Yes, they are lovely - I know I'll really miss them when I finally retire back to Australia.

Unfortunately it'd be far too cold for them in the UK - in fact the ones I get here are the only species that's a year-round resident this far north. The other US species are migratory.

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't put out poison ever -- but peacocks do have a horrible shriek, like someone being murdered, and when they cut loose with it in the dead of night it's not an endearing thing.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I'm out in CA central valley area; we tend to have ravens in flocks (particularly in October, which is way too appropriate to the season!) and 3/4 of the year we have hummingbirds. Because I know I'm unreliable on feeding and cleaning, and we have problems with fungus int he hummingbird feeders harming them, I don't feed them except by planting a lot of things that provide nectar, such as Zauschneria and mint-family things like bedding sage and catmint; I think they like to nest in the fairly heavy cover my bushes provide, too.