St Abb's Head

We took a short journey down the Berwickshire coastline today, to St Abb's Head National Nature Reserve.

Once we'd arrived and parked the car at the visitor's centre, we decided to take the Discovery Trail which is 2 miles long. We could have walked the Lighthouse Loop as well (an additional mile), but we didn't want to exhaust Birdboy too much!

Noted along the trail: Guillemot, Fulmar, Kittiwake, Shag, Herring Gull, Meadow Pipit and Skylark. And still along the trail, but more inland: Chiffchaff, Robin, Chaffinch, Yellowhammer, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Mallard and Tufted Duck (on Mire Loch), and calling and hooting male & female Tawny Owl.

Further along the trail, north of the lighthouse, Gannet, Razorbill and a small number of Puffin can be observed - a lack of suitable nesting sites means only a dozen or so pairs of Puffin breed there - but as we didn't walk that route today, they'll have to wait for another day.

In an area known as Kirk Hill, part of the land has been sealed off to stop the sheep grazing, which allows the wild flowers to establish themselves and provide a suitable habitat for butterflies - and in particular the Northern Brown Argus. And the best time to find those is June and July!

I called in at the over-priced gift shop (£12.50 for one mug???) and accidently trod mud all over their pink carpet. Stupid place to have a pink carpet, if you ask me :o) And we just had time to squeeze in tea and scones before driving back home. How civillized!

The weather was overcast with a light drizzle but no wind. Ignore the rain which appears on the lens in some of the photos!

Looking towards St Abb's village

If you look really hard, you'll see Guillemots!

Mire Loch

BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch Survey 23-29 April

Our missing Great Tit returned this week but our Blues are still absent. I have seen and heard them from the garden, but for the second week running I haven't recorded one in the garden.

Also back after a couple of weeks absence is the Robin.

On Wednesday, a Song Thrush flew very low over the garden but didn't land, so I can't record it!

I have seen a single House Martin locally, but not yet over our street/over the house.

I noted the first butterfly of the spring in the garden on Thursday - an orange tip - but it didn't stop, instead just fluttered-by!

The highest number of Coal Tits we have ever recorded in the garden at any one time is four, but normally we just have one visiting us. He is called Colin. On Thursday poor old Colin had a very close encounter with our male Sparrowhawk (current score: Sprawk 0; Garden Birds 10). Colin was chased around and around one of our hebes several times. The chase seemed to go on forever and in the end, in a state of panic (save Colin!), I opened the window and shouted something towards the Sprawk. Luckily, Sprawk left the garden southward bound and Colin, after hiding in the hebe for a few seconds, headed off in a northeasterly direction! How the hell will I cope if he ever catches anything?!!! Maybe it would have been easier to watch if it had been one of the numerous Chaffinch or Greenfinch, but not Our Colin! Anyhow, probably a good opportunity for a few pics but unfortunately I was upstairs and the camera was downstairs!

This week's list:

1. Chaffinch (17)
2. Goldfinch (5)
3. Jackdaw (1)
4. Siskin (5)
5. Greenfinch (12)
6. Woodpigeon (3)
7. House Sparrow (3)
8. Blackbird (2)
9. Robin (1)
10. Starling (12)
11. Sparrowhawk (1)
    
12. Coal Tit (1)
13. Pheasant (1)
14. Wren (1)
15. Dunnock (1)
16. Great Tit (1)

Above garden/fly overs

Swallow (2)
Song Thrush (1)
Common Buzzard (2)
Mallard (7)
Herring Gull (2)

Our complete garden life list can be found here.

More information on the BTO Garden BirdWatch Survey can be found here.

Goldfinch

It's been a while since I posted any photos of the Goldfinches, so here are some new ones (which look just like the old ones!)

Same Swallows?

A pair of Swallows appeared above the garden today. They have been patching up a nest which is above the front door of a neighbour's house. I wonder if it is the same pair who nested there last year?

And why can't they nest above our door instead?!!!

Peacock

We had a trip out to the coast at Goswick Sands in Northumberland today. Little was produced in the way of birds. Highlights: Skylark over the sand dunes and golf course, Reed bunting, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Sand Martin and Swallow.

On the way back we stopped off at Rock Midsteads Organic Farm Shop near Alnwick. As we pulled up in the car park I heard the unmistakable call of a Peacock. Peering over a wall, I found this very handsome chap. Unfortunately he didn't display his feathers for me! We have been here a few times now, but this is the first time I've seen a Peacock there.

BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch Survey 16-22 April

A very quiet week in the garden. Our resident Blue Tits and Great Tits were both missing and our resident Robin has now been AWOL for three weeks.

I have seen the Blue Tits busy at the nest box in a neighbouring garden (100m or so away) and I have heard plenty singing and calling, but I didn't record one in the garden (or our nest box for that matter!!)

Brambling was absent for a second week and so should now have migrated; I hope he comes back next winter!

No visit from the Sparrowhawk this week, nor the Yellowhammers.

So here's the list of what did visit the garden this week:

1. Chaffinch (20)
2. Greenfinch (11)
3. Goldfinch (9)
4. Wren (1)
5. Siskin (5)
6. Pheasant (1)
7. Dunnock (1)
8. House Sparrow (2)
9. Woodpigeon (5)
10. Blackbird (2)
11. Starling (2)
12. Coal Tit (1)
13. Jackdaw (1)

The Swallow from last week is the one and only to be seen over the garden so far, but I have seen quite a few at various places around the Borders. Still no House Martins above the garden!

A Little Bit of Heaven

... as long as you don't mind a little bit of bird shit ...

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - Grey Squirrels

We spent this afternoon in Edinburgh at the Botanic Gardens. The weather wasn't too bad but it did get rather windy just as we were leaving. Lots of images today, all of which were taken by Birdman.

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - Fauna

Male Mallard
Mute Swans

Blue Tit

Common wasp

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - Flora

Drumstick Primula primula denticulata

trillium rivale

rhododendron erosum
Unidentified
Wild Cherry prunus avium
Unidentified Orchid (?)

They're Back!!!!

The Swallows have arrived!!

At last, I have just seen my first Swallow of this spring flying over the garden.

Many more to arrive over the next few days, hopefully.

BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch Survey 9-15 April

Overall, it has been another quiet week in the garden.

Record numbers of Siskin were recorded on Sunday (flock of twelve). Also on Sunday was the reappearance of the male Brambling, but he wasn't seen for the rest of the week. Has he really migrated this time?!

A male Yellowhammer showed on Wednesday, as did a male Sparrowhawk who left the garden hot on the heels of a Greenfinch.

A Pheasant has not been recorded for the first time in twenty one weeks.

1. Siskin (12)
2. Greenfinch (14)
3. Goldfinch (6)
4. Chaffinch (30)
5. Woodpigeon (6)
6. Brambling (1)
7. Blackbird (2)
8. House Sparrow (2)
9. Blue Tit (1)
10. Jackdaw (3)
11. Coal Tit (1)
12. Carrion Crow (1)
13. Yellowhammer (1)
14. Wren (1)
15. Sparrowhawk (1)

Fly overs

Swallow (1) 7.20PM Saturday!
House Martin (0)

Nest Cam is Up

And here it is! It's up, but not quite running - Birdman is currently fiddling with PC video capture cards and a laptop. The box is basically 'plug and play' but it comes ready to plug into the TV rather than a PC, so Birdman is just sorting that out for me!

New Nest Box - With Camera!

I've maybe left it a bit too late for this year - but I've just bought a nest box with a miniature colour camera inside (it also has audio). Birdman is going to put it up this weekend, but it may not be connected to the PC straight away - getting it fixed on the wall is the most important thing at the moment before we really do run out of time.

The standard size of the entrance hole is 32mm but it comes with a 25mm reduction plate. As we are so late on in the season, it will go up this year with the 32mm hole, which may give us a better chance to get something nesting.

I noticed a male House Sparrow trying to get inside a Blue Tit's nest box in one of the neighbouring gardens today. Although the Sparrow couldn't fit through the hole, one of the pair of Blue Tits occupying the box was close-by and defended it bravely!

I placed some sheep's wool in the garden today (as you do), and I don't think any has been taken yet, so maybe the Tits aren't as far advanced with their nests as they normally would be by now? I have seen a Blue Tit taking moss and straw into the box in the neighbouring garden, but nothing for the actual nest cup where the eggs are laid.

Once the nest box is up and running, if anything happens inside, I will post the images here.

Anyhoo, I haven't posted many actual bird photos this week, so here's a male Siskin ...

(I took this one sat down!)

(And this one was taken stood up!)

Seven-spotted Ladybird

I found this chap/chappess whilst attempting to tidy the tangled, messy clematis (nelly moser). This is the first ladybird of spring for me! I Couldn't get in to get a decent photo, and I didn't want to disturb him, so this is the best I could get for now.

The Garden is Waking Up

It hasn't been the best day to practice with the macro lens. Although it has been a bright and sunny day, it has also been ridiculously windy.

Ceanothus 'Blue Sapphire' - my favourite shrub in the garden. It will soon be covered in clusters of tiny deep blue flowers.

A very young elder; sambucus nigra
Ice-plant (sedum)

Search Engines

Peggy, The Very Lazy Gardener, has inspired me to post some of the stats that are recorded by my sitemeter. If I log into my account it tells me the search terms people have used which have brought them to my blog. Here are a few of my favourites:

"chaffinch leg"
"stuck wellies"
"jenny wren bird"
"birds tits"
"yellow hammerhead"

The most popular search which brings people to my blog seems to be "female siskin" and another rather popular one is a search for any type of wallpaper border with a bird design on it!

I used to be top of the list on a Google search for 'female siskin', but for some reason Google hasn't crawled my blog at all this month and I've slipped right down the first page. Google usually crawls every three days or so. Not sure what's happening there!

A few weeks ago, I had a visitor who had found me on page 68 of Turkish Google, unfortunately I cannot remember the search term and it is no longer stored in my stats, but I think it was something to do with Greenfinches. I thought he deserved a medal for going through 68 pages of search results - I rarely look past the first page! And I hope he found what he was looking for!

Reply from Gardman

On 12th March I posted about a Greenfinch we found trapped by the leg between the hooks of one of our Gardman twin hook hangers. I emailed Gardman to find out if anything like this had been reported before. Today I finally received a reply:


"Firstly let me apologise for the lateness of reply to your email regarding the twin shepherds hook. I am very concerned to hear about
the bird that had its leg caught between the hooks. We have made an extra piece to enable the two hooks to be joined at the area of
contention and all of our double Shepherd Hook's are sold with this small attachment, however it seems that yours did not come with this extra piece.

If you advise me of your address I will ensure that the relevant piece is sent to you with our compliments. This piece slides down between the hooks and is clipped to the stems.

I hope this solves your problem and we will try to ensure that in future upsetting accidents like the one you have brought to our
attention do not happen again.

Yours sincerely
Gardman Limited"

It's a bit strange how this "extra piece", which was supposedly missing when we bought the shepherd's twin hook hanger in question, was also missing when we bought the other two twin hooks we have. We have had two of these twin hook hangers for five years and the third was bought this year. None of them have this extra piece. I've never seen this extra piece on any of the hangers that have been on display in garden centres, either.

So, they have either spent the last four weeks designing and making this extra piece since I sent them the email, or we have been incredibly unlucky with our purchases!


UPDATE: Since receiving this reply from Gardman we have (in May/June) started to see this extra piece appearing in the shops with the hangers.

BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch Survey 2-8 April

Following my presumption that most of our Chaffinches had migrated for the summer, they were back with a vengeance on Monday when a flock of forty turned up following a hail storm and snow shower, but they were only here for a few minutes before vanishing again. The garden then stayed rather quiet until Friday.

There was very heavy snow falling in Newcastle this afternoon while we were doing a little bit of shopping. The weather has gone bonkers; you'd have thought it was January!

The Siskins were very bold today. I went out to refill the sunflower heart feeders: as I opened the back door everything flew off, as usual, apart from a pair of Siskins who stayed put on the nyger seed ... I got to well within six foot of them and they still didn't budge so I had to wait until they were finished!

I've moved the hanging feeders which are normally in front of the kitchen window as far away from nest Box 1 as I can, but still keeping it close enough to be able to take some photos. They are now at the bottom of the steps in front of the French doors. I'll be surprised if the box is used ... The garden is too busy. Birdman is going to put Box 2 up tomorrow (round the side where it's quieter) but it's probably too late. Most boxes have been claimed by now. Still, it won't harm to put one up. My Dad's nestbox wasn't used until April 18th last year, so it's still possible.

Here's the list for the week:

1. Chaffinch (40)
2. Greenfinch (28)
3. Blackbird (2)
4. Goldfinch (6)
5. Blue Tit (2)
6. Siskin (9)
7. Starling (3)
8. Coal Tit (1)
9. Pheasant (1)
10. Woodpigeon (4)
11. House Sparrow (3)
12. Great Tit (2)
13. Dunnock (1)
14. Wren (1)
15. Yellowhammer (2)
16. Jackdaw (1)

Swallow (0)
House Martin (o)

Table for Fifteen?

It has been busy in the garden for the first time all week. The weather has been mixed; sun, rain, hail and it's been very windy all day.

The millet spray has been used by Siskins, Goldfinch and Greenfinch so far.

There is still no sign of any Swallows or House Martins. Waiting patiently!

I put the ground feeder out in the afternoon, and it was soon full:

A windswept Goldfinch feeds alongside a male Greenfinch:

Nice mixture. Greenfinch, Goldfinch and two Siskins:

We had nine Siskins again today:

Grumpy looking Greenfinch and hungry Goldfinch. Time to fill up the feeder:

The millet gets some attention from a Greenfinch:

Surprise Visitor

I thought our Brambling had left us for the summer as it wasn't seen in the garden last week, but as I looked out of the window this afternoon whilst making lunch, I noticed a very bright male Brambling in almost full summer plumage. A nice surprise.

As usual, the photos have been taken through glass, so the brightness of the orange isn't really apparent.

I Want One!

Taken from Bird Munchies.com.au

World's Largest Bird Munchie



When the owners of Vortex Industries Pty Ltd decided to exhibit in the highly successful Pet and Animal Expos, they knew they needed an attention getter, but what?

"How about a giant Bird Munchie," someone said, "Oh yeah sure" came the reply, then............"Why not?"

Three weeks later, what started out as a joke became a 650Kg Bird Munchie ready for the Sydney Pet & Animal Expo held at the Sydney show grounds. A Guess the Weight competition was run offering $1,000 first prize for the closest correct entry and the crowds loved it. The exhibit went so well, it was taken to Brisbane a few months later for the 2nd Brisbane Pet & Animal Expo held at the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre. The people of Brisbane joined in to make it a memorable and brilliantly successful event.

UPDATE:
The shows are over, the people have all gone home and what do you do with a 650Kg bird seed ring then.
A couple of the locals had a few suggestions and here they are. This was taken in a local park near Canberra in Australia. It has taken only a few short weeks to reach this stage. Another few feasts and it will just be a skeleton. Still, it was good fun.

Yellowhammers Visit Garden Again

I glanced out of the window this afternoon and noticed the male Yellowhammer at the main feeding station, and I actually saw him feeding this time (sunflower seed), which was a first. I then noticed the female was with him.

They are still not playing ball when it comes to getting an even half decent photograph but I'll keep trying! Again, they seemed nervous around the other birds.

Male & Female Yellowhammer:

Female lands on mesh fence near the young honeysuckle:

Male and female near one of the buddleias:

From the Garden

It has been a quiet start to the week in the garden (recording begins on a Sunday), even though fourteen species have already visited. Chaffinch numbers are still down, apart from a forty-strong flock for a few minutes on Monday following a hail storm and snow shower.

Siskin and Goldfinch are still arriving in slightly larger than normal numbers.

I saw my first bumblebee of spring at the weekend but he didn't stop to pose for a photo.

No butterflies yet; nor any ladybirds.

Swallows and House Martins are still to arrive.

On Sunday, Birdboy (just turned three-and-a-half) sowed some Sunflower seeds which will be planted outside in a few weeks time.

I picked up a few sprays of millet whilst in a pet food shop (looking at sunflower heart prices!) at the weekend. As far as I know, there have been no takers yet. A female Siskin has landed on it, but she was just waiting her turn on the sunflower seed!

Male Siskin (I'll have to change the blog title to Borders' Siskins, if I'm not careful!):

Crocus:

Local Patch

I mentioned in a previous post about the scrub behind our house having recently been planted with lots of trees. Today, I finally got round to having a closer look.

Soon came to a sign stating the footpath ahead was closed due to tree felling, so it turned out to be a rather short walk. The thirty minutes produced only the usual suspects: Rook, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit, Yellowhammer, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Goldcrest, Pheasant, Blackbird, Nuthatch and a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker.

BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch Survey 26 March - 1 April

The blue sky of Wednesday didn't last long - it was closely followed by rain, rain, rain and more rain - but it did, however, provide Birdman with the opportunity to give the back lawn it's first cut of the year!

I've weeded the bottom border again this weekend as the dreaded couch grass makes a return; the damn stuff is all over the place. I need a solution - I don't want to spend the entire summer pulling up couch grass (yawn!).

We need to finish the edges of the lawn, too; they need shaping properly and I want to make some of the borders wider, and join a couple of them up, too. We need the lawn to dry out a bit first though - it's like walking on a sponge at the moment so we can't spend too much time on it.

Back to the birds:

Even though the garden is still busy, there is a certain calm to the normally hectic feeding stations; we have seen a massive drop in Chaffinch numbers - I presume a large number of the Chaffs were winter visitors who have now migrated back. Also, as our solitary Brambling, who first turned up on 19th January, hasn't been recorded this week, I guess it too has migrated back for the summer (Scandinavia/Siberia bound, along with the Chaffinch!). Some of our Greenfinch may have travelled down south for the summer.

The drop in Chaffinch and Greenfinch numbers seems to have made way for more Goldfinch and Siskin - we've had record numbers of both species this week. Also, I noted that a Coal Tit was making regular trips every day to the mixed seed. Although he is a regular to the garden, he's been around a lot more this week.

I am yet to record the familiar song of the Chiffchaff from the back garden; a regular sound last summer.

Here's the list for the past week. As always, the figure in brackets shows the highest number recorded together:

(Our complete garden list can be seen here)

1. Woodpigeon (5)
2. Goldfinch (14 - new record)
3. Chaffinch (15)
4. Greenfinch (25 - 25 recorded Saturday, 12 rest of week)
5. Siskin (9 - new record)
6. Starling (4)
7. House Sparrow (2)
8. Coal Tit (1)
9. Blue Tit (2)
10. Sparrowhawk (1)
11. Robin (1)
12. Blackbird (2)
13. Pheasant (1)
14. Pied Wagtail (1)
15. Great Tit (1)

AWOL this week: Brambling, Yellowhammer, Wren, Dunnock, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, BHG.

Would like to see return: Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Tree Sparrow and Goldcrest!

Wish list: Long-tailed Tit, Blackcap and Chiffchaff.

Garden Life List: 29 (garden will be one-year old in May this year)

Garden Year List: 26