Happy New Year

Merry Christmas every one, I'm back ! I went away to Tenerife with my family for the festivities and had a lovely time in the sunshine.
It was a bit of a shock getting off the plane and feeling the bitterness of the cold on my hands and face. As you can see we still have snow. My neighbour has been busy putting out fat balls whilst I was away so the birds haven't gone without. They did look excited when the peanuts and sunflowers seeds appeared again though. Since I've been back I've not seen any of the Squirrels or the Jays. There are lots of Chaffinches, Sparrows, Dunnocks, Blue Tits and Great Tits about. The two Nuthatches and 3 Robins are still about too. Whats nice is they're all getting on. All the chasing and displaying they have been doing over the past few months seems to have taken second place to finding food right now.

Happy New Year Everybody x

I'm back

I'm here, I'm here. Sorry I've not posted for so long but I've been ever so poorly. As always, the garden has been carrying on quite happily without me and now the sun is finally shining again, it's brimming with wildlife. Yesterday I woke up to a hard frost outside and the feeder was completely empty. I put some food out and it took a couple of hours for all the usual birds to turn up. Mr No Tail was here straight away though, singing his heart out as he stood amongst the frosted leaves.The Squirrels have been hiding away throughout the horrid weather but yesterday, as soon as that sun came out, Bernie was back, helping herself to the peanuts. The Jays are still around in force. I think there's a group of 5 living near by. I wonder if they roost together like others in the crow family? I must read up on that. The sun definitely makes the garden look so much more alive. I've even noticed some new growth on a tree or shrub? at the top of the garden, at this time of year? I can't see what it is from the house. This Great Tit looks well fed, unless he was just fluffed up to keep himself warm in the frost. The Blue Tits are loving the sun. I don't think the Woodpecker's have left my garden since I refilled the feeder yesterday. There was a fantastic sky yesterday morning when we had the hard frost. Oh can't forget the Robin's. All three are still here and are still chasing each other. And finally, there's me. I'm still not very well and I'm not going to be around for a while to update my blog. No need to worry though, I'll be back online before the New Year is in I'm sure.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and some of you get to enjoy a lovely Christmas early morning walk, with a bright clear sky.

(There is a button somewhere to click, where you can become a 'follower'. This means you get an email the next time an entry is posted on the blog, to save having to keep looking. I think it's really easy to set up if you're a member of MSN already but a bit of a pain if you're not, or is that a member of Yahoo. Oh I don't know. Sorry, I thought that suggestion might be useful but maybe only try it, if you're not in a rush to do anything else or have a 7 year old nearby to help

;-) I've enjoyed so much having you all reading my blog over the last few months, I hope you all come back after Christmas when I'll be back on form again.

Gloomy day

Everything has felt quite glum in the garden today. Whether its the weather or the fact that not much is growing and the mammals seem to have gone I don't know, but it definitely feels gloomy. It's even been a week since I've seen any of the squirrels, how strange is that? The birds are still about, although they were struggling in the hail and rain today. I have tried some more new food on the birds this week, which I'd not heard of before. Its taken a few days for them to show an interest but today the Blue Tits and Sparrows were well tucking into the new Fruit fat balls. They came without net bags too, which is a bonus. As so little has happened on the mammal front recently, I thought I would route out a photograph from earlier on this year to cheer myself up. I remember feeling so lucky when I managed to take this photograph of the fox and a hedgehog both at the same time. Roll on the spring.

Black Birds

Its been a day of the Black Birds today. Not quite sure what is going on with who although Mr No Tail has come back, which is great news. He turned up this morning with two females then shortly after got chased off by a very fine looking male Black Bird who was a lot bigger than him. Neither of the females seemed impressed by the new boy though and hung around under the hedge until Mr No Tail came back. With all these Black Birds around the Sparrow hawk wasn't far away and I somehow managed to miss a photo of him even though he landed only meters away from me and I had my camera switched on. He didn't catch anything in the garden whilst I was watching I'm glad to say. We had a visit from a Siskin today, it looks like one of this years juveniles. He was loving the Niger seeds I put out for the Goldfinches. Oh I saw Phil the Pheasant fly today for the first time. 'Cheeky' the feral cat (yes he's still about) decided to be adventurous and started to stalk Phil. Next thing I know Phil is squawking his head off in flight and Cheeky is looking rather confused coming out of the hedge. The Buzzards have been flying low over the garden today and being very vocal, didn't manage any good photo's of them though. Could do with some nice sunny days now so I can get some nice photographs again.

Chunks of Cheese

The birds have been loving the left over cheese I put out this morning. I only just managed to get a photo of one of the Jays taking a big chunk of it. Luckily he left some for the Robins who thoroughly enjoyed it. The Blue Tits are still busy clearing my steps for me. The young Nuthatch was behaving weirdly this morning. He deliberately turned and pooped on his favourite feeding post. I can't understand why he would do that? I spotted one of the female Chaffinches drinking from the fire pit, I wonder if that's a sign I need to clean the drinks bowl on the feeder? I've still not managed to beat my record on the suet square but its great to see so many different birds feeding on there at once.

Frustrating Feeder

Its been a couple of days since I've seen a Goldfinch so I ventured outside to see if there was a problem with the feeder. From a distance it still looked a quarter full but on closer inspection I discovered the lowest feeding hole was a good inch and a half from the bottom of the feeder. So, although there was plenty of food in there the poor birds couldn't actually reach it. How frustrating that must have been for them. So I quickly filled it up and within an hour I'm glad to say Billy the Goldfinch was back.

Blue Tits set to work

The Blue Tits have been working hard for me today without realising. Quite a few of them have started to cling onto the moss on the back of the steps and feed on whatever it is they are finding behind there. As they are doing that, bit by bit they are pulling off the moss and saving me a big job when I next have to go out and clean down the steps. Great job. I noticed today that most of the smaller birds can't tell the difference between the crow flying overhead or a Sparrow Hawk. The Crows are spending more and more time in the tree's at the top of the garden which is driving birds like the Nuthatch mad. The poor Nuthatch spends more time calling and warning the others than he does eating at the moment. Even the Great Tits are very nervous and keep an eye on the sky each time they see them move. The only birds who don't seem bothered in the slightest are the Woodpeckers. There are two little Coal Tits in the garden at the moment and they really don't like each other. They prefer to fight and chase rather than eat on different hangers on the same feeder. I've still not managed to beat my Suet Square record for birds yet. It gets ever so addictive though when I start to count. Its hard to pull myself away sometimes.

Clear Sky

I woke up this morning to the most amazing sunrise. The red glow from the sun turned the snow covered mountains a beautiful shade of pink. It was well worth braving the cold in my Jim Jams at 8am to get this photo of the mountains. We had some new visitors again today. A pair of Magpies came into the tree's at the top of the garden along with the Crows. Instead of feasting on the food on the feeder themselves they were sat there waiting for the Jays to fill their beaks, then they would ambush them as soon as they tried to fly away. One poor Jay was chased by both the Magpies and the Crow every time he flew off with some food. Why he didn't just eat it in the garden like he usually does, I don't Know. In the frost today I found this one spot where the frost wouldn't freeze. I wonder if there was something spilt on the grass or if there is something warm underneath, now that has my imagination going. Maybe there's a nest just a few inches under the soil, how great would that be. To match the sunrise this morning, tonight's sky was an incredible shade of blue. No cloud yet so looks like we'll be in for some more frost.