We take quite a keen interest in the wildlife around us and like to
think we're reasonably observant of what is going on in our garden.
About a week ago, I was woken, panicking, by terrific scrabbling noises
outside our bedroom window at about 4.30am. I jumped out of bed,
peered out, saw nothing, shut the window, back to sleep. Next morning,
I took a harder, closer look and where I had often seen what I thought
was just a rather dumb and dozy pigeon, sitting around being a pigeon,
there was a nest with two little heads poking out of it! They cannot
be more than 4' away from our opened window but they are in among some
quite heavy growth of a climbing rose and are well sheltered from
weather and predators, I would think. The babies now sit up and look
around all the time but seem unfazed by us opening or closing the
window, or walking past it and chatting to each other. I noticed
tonight that they're stretching and fluttering their wings, so I
imagine it won't be long before they leave the nest. I am still just
astonished that all this was going on so close to our noses and until
recently, we hadn't even seen it! Now we know why that irritating
pigeon spent so many mornings outside our window, making a helluva
racket.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 01/09/2013 23:30, Sacha wrote:
We take quite a keen interest in the wildlife around us and like to
think we're reasonably observant of what is going on in our garden.
About a week ago, I was woken, panicking, by terrific scrabbling noises
outside our bedroom window at about 4.30am. I jumped out of bed, peered
out, saw nothing, shut the window, back to sleep. Next morning, I took
a harder, closer look and where I had often seen what I thought was just
a rather dumb and dozy pigeon, sitting around being a pigeon, there was
a nest with two little heads poking out of it! They cannot be more than
4' away from our opened window but they are in among some quite heavy
growth of a climbing rose and are well sheltered from weather and
predators, I would think. The babies now sit up and look around all the
time but seem unfazed by us opening or closing the window, or walking
past it and chatting to each other. I noticed tonight that they're
stretching and fluttering their wings, so I imagine it won't be long
before they leave the nest. I am still just astonished that all this
was going on so close to our noses and until recently, we hadn't even
seen it! Now we know why that irritating pigeon spent so many mornings
outside our window, making a helluva racket.

Slightly surprising. We have had them nest in our clematis and hydrangea
petiolaris most years and the nest is almost silent. They didn't seem to
care about proximity to the front door at all.

Not so the large roost of starlings in our hedge at the moment which is
starting to make it smell a bit funny. They all panic and fly off to the
village hall roof every time anyone closes the door with a bang. The
hedge makes an interesting cacophony of starling noises when they are in
residence.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 2013-09-02 06:33:37 +0000, Martin Brown said:

On 01/09/2013 23:30, Sacha wrote:
We take quite a keen interest in the wildlife around us and like to
think we're reasonably observant of what is going on in our garden.
About a week ago, I was woken, panicking, by terrific scrabbling noises
outside our bedroom window at about 4.30am. I jumped out of bed, peered
out, saw nothing, shut the window, back to sleep. Next morning, I took
a harder, closer look and where I had often seen what I thought was just
a rather dumb and dozy pigeon, sitting around being a pigeon, there was
a nest with two little heads poking out of it! They cannot be more than
4' away from our opened window but they are in among some quite heavy
growth of a climbing rose and are well sheltered from weather and
predators, I would think. The babies now sit up and look around all the
time but seem unfazed by us opening or closing the window, or walking
past it and chatting to each other. I noticed tonight that they're
stretching and fluttering their wings, so I imagine it won't be long
before they leave the nest. I am still just astonished that all this
was going on so close to our noses and until recently, we hadn't even
seen it! Now we know why that irritating pigeon spent so many mornings
outside our window, making a helluva racket.

Slightly surprising. We have had them nest in our clematis and
hydrangea petiolaris most years and the nest is almost silent. They
didn't seem to care about proximity to the front door at all.

Not so the large roost of starlings in our hedge at the moment which is
starting to make it smell a bit funny. They all panic and fly off to
the village hall roof every time anyone closes the door with a bang.
The hedge makes an interesting cacophony of starling noises when they
are in residence.

It was just starting to get light, so I'm assuming either mother was
about to fall out or they were! Or, of course, it was some predator,
which I don't like the idea of at all! At present the two babies are
still in the best but as you say, totally silent, except for the wing
flapping practice. They're so huge I can't imagine how they still fit
in there now!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

"sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-09-02 06:33:37 +0000, Martin Brown said:

On 01/09/2013 23:30, Sacha wrote:
We take quite a keen interest in the wildlife around us and like to
think we're reasonably observant of what is going on in our garden.
About a week ago, I was woken, panicking, by terrific scrabbling noises
outside our bedroom window at about 4.30am. I jumped out of bed, peered
out, saw nothing, shut the window, back to sleep. Next morning, I took
a harder, closer look and where I had often seen what I thought was just
a rather dumb and dozy pigeon, sitting around being a pigeon, there was
a nest with two little heads poking out of it! They cannot be more than
4' away from our opened window but they are in among some quite heavy
growth of a climbing rose and are well sheltered from weather and
predators, I would think. The babies now sit up and look around all the
time but seem unfazed by us opening or closing the window, or walking
past it and chatting to each other. I noticed tonight that they're
stretching and fluttering their wings, so I imagine it won't be long
before they leave the nest. I am still just astonished that all this
was going on so close to our noses and until recently, we hadn't even
seen it! Now we know why that irritating pigeon spent so many mornings
outside our window, making a helluva racket.

Slightly surprising. We have had them nest in our clematis and hydrangea
petiolaris most years and the nest is almost silent. They didn't seem to
care about proximity to the front door at all.

Not so the large roost of starlings in our hedge at the moment which is
starting to make it smell a bit funny. They all panic and fly off to the
village hall roof every time anyone closes the door with a bang. The
hedge makes an interesting cacophony of starling noises when they are in
residence.

It was just starting to get light, so I'm assuming either mother was about
to fall out or they were! Or, of course, it was some predator, which I
don't like the idea of at all! At present the two babies are still in the
best but as you say, totally silent, except for the wing flapping
practice. They're so huge I can't imagine how they still fit in there
now!
--

I also didn't notice a blackbird's nest right near my kitchen window in the
buddliea until the day I noticed the female with some food in her beak. The
babies fledged that day.
Duh! and I call myself a birdwatcher..

Tina

On 2013-09-05 21:00:01 +0100, Christina Websell said:

"sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-09-02 06:33:37 +0000, Martin Brown said:

On 01/09/2013 23:30, Sacha wrote:
We take quite a keen interest in the wildlife around us and like to
think we're reasonably observant of what is going on in our garden.
About a week ago, I was woken, panicking, by terrific scrabbling noises
outside our bedroom window at about 4.30am. I jumped out of bed, peered
out, saw nothing, shut the window, back to sleep. Next morning, I took
a harder, closer look and where I had often seen what I thought was just
a rather dumb and dozy pigeon, sitting around being a pigeon, there was
a nest with two little heads poking out of it! They cannot be more than
4' away from our opened window but they are in among some quite heavy
growth of a climbing rose and are well sheltered from weather and
predators, I would think. The babies now sit up and look around all the
time but seem unfazed by us opening or closing the window, or walking
past it and chatting to each other. I noticed tonight that they're
stretching and fluttering their wings, so I imagine it won't be long
before they leave the nest. I am still just astonished that all this
was going on so close to our noses and until recently, we hadn't even
seen it! Now we know why that irritating pigeon spent so many mornings
outside our window, making a helluva racket.

Slightly surprising. We have had them nest in our clematis and
hydrangea petiolaris most years and the nest is almost silent. They
didn't seem to care about proximity to the front door at all.

Not so the large roost of starlings in our hedge at the moment which is
starting to make it smell a bit funny. They all panic and fly off to
the village hall roof every time anyone closes the door with a bang.
The hedge makes an interesting cacophony of starling noises when they
are in residence.

It was just starting to get light, so I'm assuming either mother was
about to fall out or they were! Or, of course, it was some predator,
which I don't like the idea of at all! At present the two babies are
still in the best but as you say, totally silent, except for the wing
flapping practice. They're so huge I can't imagine how they still fit
in there now!
--

I also didn't notice a blackbird's nest right near my kitchen window in
the buddliea until the day I noticed the female with some food in her
beak. The babies fledged that day.
Duh! and I call myself a birdwatcher..

Tina

I just wonder how long it is before they fly the nest. Every day we
wake up, expecting them to be gone, because they're so large their
living conditions must be very uncomfortable! But while there's a lot
of wing flapping and so forth going on, and one of them hopped out onto
a branch yesterday, they're still in the nest and this morning, mum was
feeding them! This must be the avian equivalent of teenagers emptying
the fridge and leaving wet towels all over the floor before they leave
home. I am *fascinated* that they sit there and watch us through the
window and appear entirely unworried or afraid. Do you know how long
it is before they fly? They appear to be fully fledged. I'll try to
get a photo of them but the overgrowth of the rose makes it very
difficult to make a clear photo of the birds which indicates their
distance from our window.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 2013-09-06 09:06:36 +0100, Martin said:

On Thu, 5 Sep 2013 21:00:01 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


"sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-09-02 06:33:37 +0000, Martin Brown said:

On 01/09/2013 23:30, Sacha wrote:
We take quite a keen interest in the wildlife around us and like to
think we're reasonably observant of what is going on in our garden.
About a week ago, I was woken, panicking, by terrific scrabbling noises
outside our bedroom window at about 4.30am. I jumped out of bed, peered
out, saw nothing, shut the window, back to sleep. Next morning, I took
a harder, closer look and where I had often seen what I thought was just
a rather dumb and dozy pigeon, sitting around being a pigeon, there was
a nest with two little heads poking out of it! They cannot be more than
4' away from our opened window but they are in among some quite heavy
growth of a climbing rose and are well sheltered from weather and
predators, I would think. The babies now sit up and look around all the
time but seem unfazed by us opening or closing the window, or walking
past it and chatting to each other. I noticed tonight that they're
stretching and fluttering their wings, so I imagine it won't be long
before they leave the nest. I am still just astonished that all this
was going on so close to our noses and until recently, we hadn't even
seen it! Now we know why that irritating pigeon spent so many mornings
outside our window, making a helluva racket.

Slightly surprising. We have had them nest in our clematis and hydrangea
petiolaris most years and the nest is almost silent. They didn't seem to
care about proximity to the front door at all.

Not so the large roost of starlings in our hedge at the moment which is
starting to make it smell a bit funny. They all panic and fly off to the
village hall roof every time anyone closes the door with a bang. The
hedge makes an interesting cacophony of starling noises when they are in
residence.

It was just starting to get light, so I'm assuming either mother was about
to fall out or they were! Or, of course, it was some predator, which I
don't like the idea of at all! At present the two babies are still in the
best but as you say, totally silent, except for the wing flapping
practice. They're so huge I can't imagine how they still fit in there
now!
--

I also didn't notice a blackbird's nest right near my kitchen window in the
buddliea until the day I noticed the female with some food in her beak. The
babies fledged that day.
Duh! and I call myself a birdwatcher..

We ddn't notice a blackbird's nest within a foot of the kitchen door
until my daughter saw it long after the bird had flown.

That happened to us one year but in the angle of a kitchen window to
the house wall. It was only when someone happened to notice the bird
move slightly as it was sitting on the eggs, that we realised it was
there, inches from our noses! We had to tape up the window and put
"don't open this" notices on it, because doing so would have crushed
the nest.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-09-05 21:00:01 +0100, Christina Websell said:

I also didn't notice a blackbird's nest right near my kitchen window in
the buddliea until the day I noticed the female with some food in her
beak. The babies fledged that day.
Duh! and I call myself a birdwatcher..

Tina

I just wonder how long it is before they fly the nest. Every day we wake
up, expecting them to be gone, because they're so large their living
conditions must be very uncomfortable! But while there's a lot of wing
flapping and so forth going on, and one of them hopped out onto a branch
yesterday, they're still in the nest and this morning, mum was feeding
them! This must be the avian equivalent of teenagers emptying the fridge
and leaving wet towels all over the floor before they leave home. I am
*fascinated* that they sit there and watch us through the window and
appear entirely unworried or afraid. Do you know how long it is before
they fly? They appear to be fully fledged. I'll try to get a photo of
them but the overgrowth of the rose makes it very difficult to make a
clear photo of the birds which indicates their distance from our window.
--
All pigeon babies look big quite quickly once their feathers have grown.
The parents will feed them for 4 weeks at least (in or out of the nest),
wood pigeons are very good parents.
I'm guessing that yours are around 3 weeks old and will fledge very soon.

All pigeon babies look big quite quickly once their feathers have grown.
The parents will feed them for 4 weeks at least (in or out of the nest),
wood pigeons are very good parents.
I'm guessing that yours are around 3 weeks old and will fledge very soon.


Just right for the pot.
Squabs; or milk fed pigeons were a delicacy

On Thu, 5 Sep 2013 21:00:01 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

I also didn't notice a blackbird's nest right near my kitchen window in the
buddliea until the day I noticed the female with some food in her beak. The
babies fledged that day.
Duh! and I call myself a birdwatcher..

Our gardener accidentally cut through a blackbirds nest while cutting
the hedge. He was very upset because the nest contained eggs. It was
quite difficult to put the hedge back together but we managed to fool
the birds.

Steve

--
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. http://www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. http://www.justnn.com

On 07/09/2013 09:57, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:
On Thu, 5 Sep 2013 21:00:01 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

I also didn't notice a blackbird's nest right near my kitchen window in the
buddliea until the day I noticed the female with some food in her beak. The
babies fledged that day.
Duh! and I call myself a birdwatcher..

Our gardener accidentally cut through a blackbirds nest while cutting
the hedge. He was very upset because the nest contained eggs. It was
quite difficult to put the hedge back together but we managed to fool
the birds.

Steve

All scrambled to help?

On 07/09/2013 11:09, Martin wrote:
On Sat, 07 Sep 2013 10:47:35 +0100, David Hill
wrote:

On 07/09/2013 09:57, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:
On Thu, 5 Sep 2013 21:00:01 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

I also didn't notice a blackbird's nest right near my kitchen window in the
buddliea until the day I noticed the female with some food in her beak. The
babies fledged that day.
Duh! and I call myself a birdwatcher..

Our gardener accidentally cut through a blackbirds nest while cutting
the hedge. He was very upset because the nest contained eggs. It was
quite difficult to put the hedge back together but we managed to fool
the birds.

Steve

All scrambled to help?

whilst hedging his bets with duct tape.

No use, they were Blackbirds

On 2013-09-06 23:53:40 +0100, Christina Websell said:

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-09-05 21:00:01 +0100, Christina Websell said:

I also didn't notice a blackbird's nest right near my kitchen window in
the buddliea until the day I noticed the female with some food in her
beak. The babies fledged that day.
Duh! and I call myself a birdwatcher..

Tina

I just wonder how long it is before they fly the nest. Every day we
wake up, expecting them to be gone, because they're so large their
living conditions must be very uncomfortable! But while there's a lot
of wing flapping and so forth going on, and one of them hopped out onto
a branch yesterday, they're still in the nest and this morning, mum was
feeding them! This must be the avian equivalent of teenagers emptying
the fridge and leaving wet towels all over the floor before they leave
home. I am *fascinated* that they sit there and watch us through the
window and appear entirely unworried or afraid. Do you know how long
it is before they fly? They appear to be fully fledged. I'll try to
get a photo of them but the overgrowth of the rose makes it very
difficult to make a clear photo of the birds which indicates their
distance from our window.
--
All pigeon babies look big quite quickly once their feathers have
grown. The parents will feed them for 4 weeks at least (in or out of
the nest), wood pigeons are very good parents.
I'm guessing that yours are around 3 weeks old and will fledge very soon.

They've gone! We drew back the curtains this morning and empty-nest
syndrome hit us. We feel quite bereft. My guess is they took off very
early this morning.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 2013-09-07 09:03:43 +0100, David Hill said:


All pigeon babies look big quite quickly once their feathers have grown.
The parents will feed them for 4 weeks at least (in or out of the nest),
wood pigeons are very good parents.
I'm guessing that yours are around 3 weeks old and will fledge very soon.


Just right for the pot.
Squabs; or milk fed pigeons were a delicacy

There is one lovely old colombier left in Jersey at Samares Manor and
there is another near here on a farm that used to be long to the family
of one of the Nursery team. They're things of real beauty, imo. They
were a sort of larder for the houses they belonged to, and as you say,
squabs were a dish for the master's table!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 2013-09-07 11:17:02 +0100, Martin said:

On Sat, 07 Sep 2013 11:14:25 +0100, David Hill
wrote:

On 07/09/2013 11:09, Martin wrote:
On Sat, 07 Sep 2013 10:47:35 +0100, David Hill
wrote:

On 07/09/2013 09:57, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:
On Thu, 5 Sep 2013 21:00:01 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

I also didn't notice a blackbird's nest right near my kitchen window in the
buddliea until the day I noticed the female with some food in her beak. The
babies fledged that day.
Duh! and I call myself a birdwatcher..

Our gardener accidentally cut through a blackbirds nest while cutting
the hedge. He was very upset because the nest contained eggs. It was
quite difficult to put the hedge back together but we managed to fool
the birds.

Steve

All scrambled to help?

whilst hedging his bets with duct tape.

No use, they were Blackbirds

If blue tack works for tits, what is Scotch tape good for?

Stop grousing!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

Our gardener accidentally cut through a blackbirds nest while cutting
the hedge. He was very upset because the nest contained eggs. It was
quite difficult to put the hedge back together but we managed to fool
the birds.

Steve

All scrambled to help?

whilst hedging his bets with duct tape.

No use, they were Blackbirds

If blue tack works for tits, what is Scotch tape good for?

Holding your Kilt down