Frantic activity here in our garden now from many different birds
We also have a new visiting Song Thrush as well who is being chased off by
the male Blackbird
(greedy *^%£"*)

How's Yours?

**** Merry Christmas ****

--
James (ukjay)
http://www.ukjay.co.uk

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PhEaSaNt PLuCKeR wrote:
Frantic activity here in our garden now from many different birds
We also have a new visiting Song Thrush as well who is being chased off by
the male Blackbird
(greedy *^%£"*)

How's Yours?

**** Merry Christmas ****

We've got various male and female Blackbirds chasing each other around
the garden, a Robin getting fractious at some of the tits (Blue and
Great) for some reason, male Bullfinch, a couple of Chaffinches but the
most exciting thing was a couple of weeks ago, two male Goldcrests
running rings around each other. Still have the usual Collared Doves
and Wood Pigeons and a fly-in by a Sparrowhawk which now finds it
difficult to hide!

Still got the hen Pheasant coming in and cleaning up the barley that
nothing else wants and now it's looking around the other gardens now
that it's feeling brave. Has anyone got an old live cock Pheasant they
don't want ?


Richard.

"Richard Brooks" wrote in message
...


We've got various male and female Blackbirds chasing each other around the
garden, a Robin getting fractious at some of the tits (Blue and Great) for
some reason, male Bullfinch, a couple of Chaffinches but the most exciting
thing was a couple of weeks ago, two male Goldcrests running rings around
each other. Still have the usual Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons and a
fly-in by a Sparrowhawk which now finds it difficult to hide!

Still got the hen Pheasant coming in and cleaning up the barley that
nothing else wants and now it's looking around the other gardens now that
it's feeling brave. Has anyone got an old live cock Pheasant they don't
want ?


Richard.

Your garden sounds a bit busier than mine Richard LOL
I guess now that it's colder they feel more vulnerable, and protective ....
Great Entertainment!


--
James (ukjay)
http://www.ukjay.co.uk

Garden WebCam
http://tv.earthcam.com/channel/video.php?channel=823164

Garden WebCam Guestbook/Message Portal
http://ukjay.kicks-ass.net/cgi-bin/guestbook.pl

PhEaSaNt PLuCKeR wrote:
"Richard Brooks" wrote in message
...


We've got various male and female Blackbirds chasing each other around the
garden, a Robin getting fractious at some of the tits (Blue and Great) for
some reason, male Bullfinch, a couple of Chaffinches but the most exciting
thing was a couple of weeks ago, two male Goldcrests running rings around
each other. Still have the usual Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons and a
fly-in by a Sparrowhawk which now finds it difficult to hide!

Still got the hen Pheasant coming in and cleaning up the barley that
nothing else wants and now it's looking around the other gardens now that
it's feeling brave. Has anyone got an old live cock Pheasant they don't
want ?


Richard.


Your garden sounds a bit busier than mine Richard LOL
I guess now that it's colder they feel more vulnerable, and protective ....
Great Entertainment!

I've just shot a rat that looks the size of an adult rabbit! Serves it
right for digging under the compost frame.

Richard.

"PhEaSaNt PLuCKeR" wrote in message
...
Frantic activity here in our garden now from many different birds
We also have a new visiting Song Thrush as well who is being chased off by
the male Blackbird
(greedy *^%£"*)

How's Yours?

usual visitors sparrows, blackbirds, robins, blue tits, coal tits, great
tits, greenfinches, chaffinches, yellowhammers, occasional gold finches and
collared doves.

Cheers.

"dylan" wrote in message
...

"PhEaSaNt PLuCKeR" wrote in message
...
Frantic activity here in our garden now from many different birds
We also have a new visiting Song Thrush as well who is being chased off
by
the male Blackbird
(greedy *^%£"*)

How's Yours?
Here our most exotic visitors are the ring necked parakeets which depend on
the generosity of the garden bird table suppliers of food to keep them
throughout the winter.
The sparrows are making a come back after their sharp decline of recent
years and anything I throw over the adjoining field for the crows attracts
the seagulls though they do not come into the garden but stay out in the
field.
When feeding, do not forget water which they need and which can be in short
supply when frozen.
Jim

In message , Padger
writes

"dylan" wrote in message
...

"PhEaSaNt PLuCKeR" wrote in message
...
Frantic activity here in our garden now from many different birds
We also have a new visiting Song Thrush as well who is being chased off
by
the male Blackbird
(greedy *^%£"*)

How's Yours?
Here our most exotic visitors are the ring necked parakeets which depend on
the generosity of the garden bird table suppliers of food to keep them
throughout the winter.
The sparrows are making a come back after their sharp decline of recent
years and anything I throw over the adjoining field for the crows attracts
the seagulls though they do not come into the garden but stay out in the
field.
When feeding, do not forget water which they need and which can be in short
supply when frozen.
Jim


We've had all the usual birds today - greenfinches, blackbirds,
siskins, sparrows, starlings, goldfinches, et all. But - this morning
an adult male yellowhammer was perched just by the bird table, within
6-8 feet of our window. We've never seen one before - a stunning bird!
We still can't quite believe it, but we do have a photo to remember it
by.
Happy New Year to everybody
Susie
Isle of Arran

--
Susie Thompson, Isle of Arran
SPAM BLOCK IN OPERATION! Replace "deadspam.com" with "arrandragons.co.uk" to
reply by e-mail.

Here our most exotic visitors are the ring necked parakeets which depend
on
the generosity of the garden bird table suppliers of food to keep them
throughout the winter.
The sparrows are making a come back after their sharp decline of recent
years and anything I throw over the adjoining field for the crows attracts
the seagulls though they do not come into the garden but stay out in the
field.
When feeding, do not forget water which they need and which can be in
short
supply when frozen.
Jim



Water put out this morning, although it was -6deg C out there so not sure
how long it was water.

We've had all the usual birds today - greenfinches, blackbirds, siskins,
sparrows, starlings, goldfinches, et all. But - this morning an adult
male yellowhammer was perched just by the bird table, within 6-8 feet of
our window. We've never seen one before - a stunning bird! We still can't
quite believe it, but we do have a photo to remember it by.
Happy New Year to everybody
Susie
Isle of Arran

Very nice bird, good to see, but you do think they have escaped from
somewhere though !.

pics at www.knighttrain.freeserve.co.uk

Cheers

"Padger" wrote in message
. uk...

"dylan" wrote in message
...

"PhEaSaNt PLuCKeR" wrote in message
...
Frantic activity here in our garden now from many different birds
We also have a new visiting Song Thrush as well who is being chased off
by
the male Blackbird
(greedy *^%£"*)

How's Yours?
Here our most exotic visitors are the ring necked parakeets which depend
on
the generosity of the garden bird table suppliers of food to keep them
throughout the winter.

The parakeets here are a damned nuisance, so I have to devise ways of
preventing them getting at the stuff I put out for the smaller birds.

Hanging peanut feeders within a foot of the ground seems to deter them,
but I did manage to get, from Squires, a completely round hanging basket,
which is a bit like a ball, about 15 inches in diam, put the seed feeder
in that, and none of the larger birds can get at is, I forgot to mention
the pigeons, our garden seems to have something they cannot resist, and
they make a real mess of the veg garden when they destroy all the
seedlings I plant.

That's my moan over!(:-)

Alan

In message , SusieThompson
writes

We've had all the usual birds today - greenfinches, blackbirds,
siskins, sparrows, starlings, goldfinches, et all. But - this morning
an adult male yellowhammer was perched just by the bird table, within
6-8 feet of our window. We've never seen one before - a stunning bird!
We still can't quite believe it, but we do have a photo to remember it by.
Happy New Year to everybody
Susie
Isle of Arran

Hi Susie. Happy New Year to you too. I have never seen a yellow-hammer
either. The only birds I have seen today are crows, wrens and kestrels,
although we have had green woodpeckers in our park for many years.

PS After the January tax return rush, I shall give you a ring.
--
June Hughes

"PhEaSaNt PLuCKeR" wrote in message
...
Frantic activity here in our garden now from many different birds
We also have a new visiting Song Thrush as well who is being chased off by
the male Blackbird
(greedy *^%£"*)

How's Yours?

**** Merry Christmas ****

--
James (ukjay)
http://www.ukjay.co.uk

Garden WebCam
http://tv.earthcam.com/channel/video.php?channel=823164

Garden WebCam Guestbook/Message Portal
http://ukjay.kicks-ass.net/cgi-bin/guestbook.pl


Latest News of the day
Another New visitor who nearly scoffed the lot was a Wood Pigeon
unlike the Blackbird he/she ignored other birds while eating the goodies.
The Coal Tits came back and flitted about from all the feeders, and a Wren
also made
a guest re-appearance.
A female Chaffinch also turned up for the party along with Sparrows.
We also had two Field Mice, which was very amusing to watch.
(just worried about 2 becoming 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2++)
Nice pose from the Robin who was perched on the branch of our 30' Christmas
Tree
(damn, I sold my telephoto lens)

Great to hear about your Garden activity too

**** Merry Christmas ****

James


--
James (ukjay)
http://www.ukjay.co.uk

Garden WebCam
http://tv.earthcam.com/channel/video.php?channel=823164

Garden WebCam Guestbook/Message Portal
http://ukjay.kicks-ass.net/cgi-bin/guestbook.pl

"dylan" wrote in message
...
snip
Water put out this morning, although it was -6deg C out there so not sure
how long it was water.

Know what you mean. Our bird bath supplemented by a disused wok gets frozen
solid and has to be emptied out and refilled daily. Actually more like
broken out than emptied.
It always amazes me just how hardy our garden birds are.

btw Yellowhammers were quite common in my part of Scotland in the '50s.
Never kept in aviaries to the best of my knowledge.
Jim

"Padger" wrote in message
. uk...

"dylan" wrote in message
...
snip
Water put out this morning, although it was -6deg C out there
so not sure
how long it was water.

Know what you mean. Our bird bath supplemented by a disused wok
gets frozen
solid and has to be emptied out and refilled daily. Actually
more like
broken out than emptied.
It always amazes me just how hardy our garden birds are.

btw Yellowhammers were quite common in my part of Scotland in
the '50s.
Never kept in aviaries to the best of my knowledge.
Jim

And still VERY common thank goodness

Hope you are enjoying the southern heatwave?
For the benefit of our English cousins, can I be parochial (me?)
In Braemar as recently as 1982 temps dropped to -27.2
And for Feb of that year temps in my garden hardly rose above -17
I also seem to remember in recent years the criteria for fuel
payments would kick in if the temp dropped 2 degrees below the
seasonal norm.
In the West Country it may mean a pensioner would get the
allowance if it were 2 degrees if 4 was the norm.
While in the Braemar area it may be have been -14 and a pensioner
would not get the allowance.
I suppose the balmy, sorry, colder weather you are having down
there is a novelty?
This over reaction was noted a few years back when some
colleagues had visited New York.
They had to return via London where they were grounded by a
dusting of snow, they could not go anywhere as the transport was
at a standstill. Eventually they go back to Stockholm where the
snow was lying about a metre deep and everything was flowing as
per normal.
Bill....

On 29/12/05 4:30 pm, in article ,
"SusieThompson" wrote:

snip

We've had all the usual birds today - greenfinches, blackbirds,
siskins, sparrows, starlings, goldfinches, et all. But - this morning
an adult male yellowhammer was perched just by the bird table, within
6-8 feet of our window. We've never seen one before - a stunning bird!
We still can't quite believe it, but we do have a photo to remember it
by.
Happy New Year to everybody
Susie
Isle of Arran
Happy New Year, Susie! How lovely to see you posting again. Hope you're
well settled in.

--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)