Colourful visitor in the garden

Yesterday we had a very colourful visitor in the garden,

Male Bullfinch

His partner was there too, although she is not as colourful as him.

Female Bullfinch

Tony thought he had seen them a couple of days before, so when I showed him the pictures he was glad to know he hadn't imagined it.

The Starling babies are still making themselves heard. They just stand in the garden and shout until a parent flies down and puts food into their mouth.

Young Starling

Young Starling being fed by parent.

The Blackbirds are onto the second brood of chicks. Mr Blackbird is rushing about looking for food for them. He is always glad when I go into the shed, it means he has meal worms for the chicks.

Male Blackbird gathering meal worms.

The young birds from the first brood of Blackbirds are looking after themselves now. They are in the garden eating the shredded suet and meal worms everyday. I did notice today that Mr Blackbird has started chasing them, so I think he is telling them it is time to leave the garden and find their own space.

Young Blackbird from first brood.

The three baby squirrels are growing quickly. They come into the garden every day now. Usually two come together and the last one comes with Mum. Mum sits up in the tree keeping an eye out for cats while they play and eat in the garden.

One of them climbed onto the shed roof to try and eat the sunflower seeds in the ball feeder. He just could not reach and ended up falling off. Luckily like a cat he ended up landing on his feet so he didn't appear to hurt himself! His latest thing is trying to get the peanut butter out of the jars put out for the birds. The jar is fastened on to a wooden board, with small round wooden perch's for the birds to sit on. This is then fastened to the wooden frame near the greenhouse.

The Squirrel has to hold on to the frame, hang down, try to curl round, and reach round to the jar.

Squirrel trying to steal the birds peanut butter.

He only just manages to lick the rim of the jar. He did however manage to do this without falling off.

We had a bit of a shower while I was in the shed, most of the birds and the squirrels disappeared. There was one Starling that stayed s/he sat on top of the concrete post, lifted up it's head and began to sing.

Starling singing in the rain.

There is nothing else to tell, we have not been anywhere for a few days. Oh except for this morning, I had a dentist appointment (horrible places, but when needs must), I have to go back on Wednesday. I need 2 small fillings replacing.

Until the next time...

The week we lost the greatest boxer of the world. (in my opinion)

I was sad to hear of the passing of Muhammad Ali. I have never really liked boxing , but I did like Ali. I think it was his showmanship more than his actual boxing that I liked.
Ali engaged with the whole room, whether you came to support him or the competitor, he won you over. Ali ruled the room. He danced around the ring playing with the other boxer. Tiring the opponent out without even throwing a punch. Then when the punch did connect the other boxer would wobble and fall to the floor with a thud.
  "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee", "I am the greatest Muhammad Ali".


 Muhammad Ali, circa 1970.
 Photograph: Chris Smith/Popperfoto/Popperfoto/Getty Images
 “Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd”.

Of course his last and longest fight was with Parkinsons Disease. 

Muhammad Ali died on  3 June 2016  at the age of  74years  after battling a respiratory infection and Parkinson's disease.  

My heart goes out to his family that is left behind he has left a big void in their lives, but so many memories.



Now just to lift the mood a little,

Tony and I went to Junction 32 on Thursday. While we were there I took some photo's.
Because it is school half term they had a "farm petting corner" for the children.
There were chickens, bunnies, a pony, 2 pigs, a goat, a donkey, a calf, 2 sheep and 2 llamas.
I didn't get pictures of all of them. There were too many children and parents about, so getting pictures without children was difficult.

Calf

Goat

Donkey

Sheep

Llama

Llama

Llama being cheeky.

Until the next time...

More new beginnings in the garden

The garden is a hive of activity, there are new babies appearing almost everyday, most of them are Starlings. However we have some new faces as well.

A very loud Thrush calling for a parent to come and find him/her.

The youngster had come into the garden to eat some suet and had not realise that the parent bird had left without them.

A very small baby Sparrow, we don't seem to have many of these yet this year.

However if the Sparrow Hawk visit a couple of days ago becomes a regular event, we might not. The hawk swooped into the garden and took a Male Sparrow from the fence to the ground. The hawk plucked the sparrow, then flew away with the carcass, no doubt to feed some hungry chicks somewhere. Tony took a video of most of this, if you want to see it you can go to his flickr site

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shutbug/

We have new baby squirrels, very small baby squirrels.

This one is very shy and will not come down to the garden alone, Mrs Squirrel is always somewhere close by.

She was watching from the wall at the end of the garden hidden in the ivy today.

She did find time to help herself to some hazelnuts from the sink.

Before jumping up into the tree where she could keep a closer eye on her baby and awatch for any cats coming.

The Blue Tits have been busy flying in and out for food but still no sign of any family.

Same with the Coal Tits plenty of activity but no little ones to be seen.

Mr Blackbird is taking it easy. I think they are between broods. The first ones have gone and the second have not arrived yet.

He is having fun while he can, he even looked like he was dancing today. That wont last long when the next eggs hatch he will be busy again.

The first born of the Starlings are all old enough to see to themselves now. There are squabbles and fights breaking out all over the garden.

The next brood has begun to appear though so there is still the eternal shout of the baby starling demanding food from the ever patient parent.

I found this plant growing in the garden behind the bird table. I thought it looked quite nice, so I decided I would try and find out what it is.

I am begining to wish I had not bothered. I found a website that showed a picture that I am almost sure is the same plant.

Lilac Oxalis  (O.Incarnata)

 It says it is a pest. That it should be removed or it will take over the garden. I will keep my eye on it for the time being and see what happens. I think it is pretty. So I will do a bit more research before I do anything drastic. Of course if anybody knows anything about the plant please do let me know.

Until the next time...

Unusual sights, rip off car wash and more babies.

This week has proved to be quite entertaining.
Monday the younger daughter came to visit, she did not look too good when she arrived. She was trembling from top to toe. As expected it was not long before she had a seizure, then before coming round from that one she had another, then another. She still did not come round properly so I decided it was time to ring for the ambulance. I went off to Pinderfields with her, she began to come out of the seizures properly on the journey to hospital. The Dr on A&E threatened to keep her in because of the amount of seizures and the fact that she had not recovered between them, it was classed as "Status Epilepticus". This can cause brain damage or even prove fatal. However as Lynsey seemed back to her normal self the Dr agreed she could leave. So we had a guest for the night.
Tuesday morning we took Lynsey home, made sure she was OK, saw that the house , Pepper and Biscuit her two cats were OK then set off back home.

Tony and I took the car into one of the car washes that are popping up every where to get it washed ready for its MOT this week. We have used a few of these and have always been happy with them.
The lads have washed the car, charged us the same rate as a normal car, (ours is a small 4x4). Or have always checked the price is OK before starting.
The one we went to this week we had never tried before, but the prices were on the wall. We thought OK the most we will pay will be £5, hand wash, wax & air freshener.

When they had finished one of the lads knocked on the window, "£6 sir" to which Tony said " no it says £3 up there £5 at the most"  The young lad called one of the others over. "It's big car sir £6" Tony laughed at him "it's not a big car" "Yes sir big car" so Tony pointed at the board "where does it say £6?" The man did not know what to say. Tony said to him " I will pay you your £6 but I will let everybody know that you are not fair". The man replied "No no sir here you pay £3 ". It was too late Tony gave him the money got back into the car and drove away. The two men stood hiding their faces from the camera.

We never did get an air freshener!

While out and about in the car this week a couple of things caught my eye, one was a street name.

I have seen a few name signs that have amused me, I think I will have to begin taking pictures of more and finding out the origin of them.

We saw this lady standing at the bus stop and thought she was a bit over dressed for a week day afternoon.

However when she looked up we got an even bigger surprise,

He was definitely over dressed for a week day!

One other picture I surprised myself with, I had been taking a photo of something on the road. However I had managed to take myself in the wing mirror.

Back home in the garden we had a new baby to add to the list.

The Starling babies have begun to appear.

The trouble is now one has arrived the garden will soon be taken over by the screeching of the young Starling shouting at the adults birds for food.

I think this one was hoping the full grape it was trying to push down its youngsters throat might shut it up for a moment or two.

Tony made a holder for a jar of peanut butter for the garden, because everything that visits the garden loves it. After a bit of a struggle they finally managed to use it.

Then we found some in a shop, so I bought a couple. I took down the log in the affro bush and replaced it with a jar.

It wasn't long before the Starlings were queueing up to use it with noisy babies shouting for them to hurry up.

Mrs Squirrel just didn't know what all the fuss was about!

We have more baby squirrels in the garden who are very quick on their toes, they have learnt to out run and jump the cats. However the cats are getting very close.

Until the next time...

More news from the garden

There is another baby in the garden, much to my surprise it is a Robin. They are usually the last to appear.

The first time I noticed him/her it was a very shy appearance.



A quick peep round the side of the water bath.

The next in full view and what a beauty the baby is.

There are no other babies yet, they seem to be very slow this year. I am not sure any Blue Tits will appear from the nest box on the sycamore tree. Since the new school opened they seem to have disappeared.


Squirrel found the new hiding place for nuts, I think it is a new squirrel too.

S/he seems to just launch themselves over the wall and into the sink.

The nuts do seem to be appreciated though, they look quite comfy in there.

Then of course the squirrel just had to make sure I had seen that the nuts had been found. Just so I would leave some more.

We have two beautiful Song Thrushes visiting the garden at the moment.

We also have a Mistle Thrush but I have not managed to capture that on film yet.

Baby Robin is taking flying lessons but forgets to let go of the branch!

We have Mr and Mrs Woodpecker calling in so we hope to see young ones soon.

Until the next time....