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Post by SueA on Feb 1, 2013 16:56:00 GMT
We'll have to re-christen you 'Dr. Doolittle' Sweetpea!  |
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Post by Cherry on Feb 1, 2013 20:26:10 GMT
I just had a look a photo of a big black chook which flew on to my shoulder. I look quite terrible in it so I won't post it. I don't even like chooks, but this particular one took a liking to me and followed me everywhere. It came running to me when I went out.
I had a currawong (Australian raven) friend which would whizz past our ears and sit on the verandah railing. It brought a baby to show me and I got to like them, then when I went to my other daughter for a few days, I got a message that my currawong got run over in the drive. This was quite upsetting, even though it is an ugly bird and not well thought of on the Island.
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Post by sweetpea on Feb 2, 2013 16:43:28 GMT
Not quite an Aussie raven cherry but this is my little black friend:  This one got alarmed when the camera shutter went off.  |
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Post by sweetpea on Mar 25, 2013 14:27:31 GMT
they do get quite tame:   |
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Post by SueA on Mar 25, 2013 21:44:57 GMT
Aww, they're lovely Sweetpea, they look very healthy (& well fed!), not like the poor little scruffy things you see in the city centre here. We don't get pigeons in the garden, only the odd lost racing pigeon & the woodpigeons.
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Post by sweetpea on Mar 25, 2013 22:59:38 GMT
The trouble is that word has spread in the columbine community and it is getting a little out of hand.
Once the better weather arrives (we live in hope) we will have to cut back on the largesse and hope that they will mostly go back to what they did to survive previously.
I do like to have ALL the birds made welcome in the garden but because of their numbers many of the smaller and more timid birds are getting squeezed out.
Even the jackdaws are being intimidated however I try to ensure that food is available for all especially during this bitter weather.
The pigeons cannot manage the peanut and seed feeders although some of them have tried but the small birds and the jackdaws do manage quite well.
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Post by SueA on Mar 26, 2013 19:44:35 GMT
The pigeons like the corn in bird food mixes which the smaller birds tend to leave (well they do here, the sparrows throw it all over the ground from the seed feeders ;D ), maybe you could sieve that out & put it all in one area for the pigeons & they might leave the other seed for the smaller birds?
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Post by sweetpea on Mar 27, 2013 17:31:08 GMT
We noticed one sitting on the gutter on the house well after the others had gone off to roost. It didn't seem too well so I got the ladder out and went up and picked it up and put it in one of the large cat baskets. placed it indoors overnight with some food and water. it seemed a bit prkier this morning so took it into the walled garden where if it could fly it could leave and if not then I could catch it again but it flew up onto the roof so seemed ok.
Doubt if it would have lasted the night if we had just left it though.
never a dull moment round here.
Unfortunately it is back again and after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to catch it it is now out of reach. Will check later and maybe get it in but it looks like nature will be taking its course.
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Post by sweetpea on Apr 4, 2013 17:23:46 GMT
My latest avian companion is a wren. very unusually it cavorts round where I am working in the garden. Out in full view apparently not a care in the world.
I am more used to robins and blackbirds following me in the garden but a wren? usually they are so secretive keeping to cover but not this one.
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Post by SueA on Apr 4, 2013 18:31:06 GMT
We've had a wren over the last couple of weeks too Sweetpea, I've not seen it when I'm out in the garden though but when I'm in the kitchen it's come close to the window investigating the clematis & is always popping in & out of the shrubs quite low down. I'm a bit worried about that as one of the local cats has a habit of hiding in the shrubs in ambush, I haven't seen the robin for a few weeks & think it might have flown into a waiting mouth!
Did that pigeon you were watching make it?
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Post by sweetpea on Apr 4, 2013 19:09:27 GMT
We've had a wren over the last couple of weeks too Sweetpea, I've not seen it when I'm out in the garden though but when I'm in the kitchen it's come close to the window investigating the clematis & is always popping in & out of the shrubs quite low down. I'm a bit worried about that as one of the local cats has a habit of hiding in the shrubs in ambush, I haven't seen the robin for a few weeks & think it might have flown into a waiting mouth! Did that pigeon you were watching make it? I think it must have as it disappeared from the garden and tbh it is sometimes difficult to tell one from the other unless they have some distiguishing feature. |
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Post by SueA on Apr 5, 2013 14:12:57 GMT
Good, it's nice to think you helped it anyway. We have a couple of huge fat woodpigeons visiting the garden at the moment, sitting on one of the feed trays on the 'pole' & pecking at the hanging seed feeder beside that, their beaks are a bit big for the holes though & it takes them ages to get a decent meal! ;D
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Post by Geranium on Apr 6, 2013 6:12:01 GMT
Yesterday at about 6 -ish when we came in for a cup of tea, a female chaffinch repeatedly flew at the side window of the garden room - even though we both tried to shoo it away, it came back and wouldn't stop. The only thing we could think of was that it could see right through the room to the bird feeders at the other side of the garden room on the fence post. Luckily it didn't seem to hurt itself, but what a determined (and stupid) bird!  |
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Post by peony on Apr 6, 2013 12:24:54 GMT
Yesterday at about 6 -ish when we came in for a cup of tea, a female chaffinch repeatedly flew at the side window of the garden room - even though we both tried to shoo it away, it came back and wouldn't stop. The only thing we could think of was that it could see right through the room to the bird feeders at the other side of the garden room on the fence post. Luckily it didn't seem to hurt itself, but what a determined (and stupid) bird! Last year we had a dunnock which kept flying into our patio window and a friend who is a keen bird watcher said it could probably see its own reflection and thought it was a rival bird and was warning it off |
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Post by SueA on Apr 6, 2013 20:34:56 GMT
That's strange isn't it, my O.H. follows Michael Owen (the footballer) on Twitter & he showed me a photo Michael had tweeted the other week of a bird flying at the window! He was in a hotel & said this little bird kept banging into the window time & time again & he couldn't figure out why, it looked like it might have been a chaffinch or something similar, it was a bit of a blurry pic.
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Sept 6, 2018 17:58:08 GMT
Sept 6, 2018 17:58:08 GMT