March 2011 - Bird Story

Bird Story

follow this blog

12 followers

127 daily readers

rank of 119

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Spotlight Posts

MISSING PIGEONS - lost and found

[ more ]

Bird Story - March 2011

Yard Bird Update 32

March 25th 2011 16:50

Today I have some photos of one of our resident thrushes to share with you. The first shot is of our friend running along the lawn behind the rose arch…

This is our friend again, sitting on the stone birdbath this time, shortly after having taken a drink.

And the last two shots are of her on top of the compost heap beside the pond. In fact, this is a favored spot for the blackbirds as well. They often find grubs and worms lurking in the soil here…

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Before getting on with some more photos, I would like to talk about the busy times in the back yard this week. Not only do we have a blackbird nest in the back hedge, but several other interesting sightings have been seen.

I did not think that we had any blackcaps visit us this year. Last year, I was often seeing them pecking the purple berries on my father’s front yard tree - but this year there were no berries. I thought there were no blackcaps either, but I was wrong! I spotted one taking a drink of water yesterday lunchtime in the stone bird bath in the back yard.

I finally had company on my windowsill, after several months of no visitors. I was resting up after cooking dad’s first lunch, and spotted a shiny jackdaw in the tree outside, looking towards me. I soon figured out he had his eye on the chunk of chocolate pudding I placed on the sill. He landed, snatched, and ran - probably to our chimney, as I have spotted a pair nesting up there.

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Yard Bird Update 30

March 17th 2011 16:44

The next couple of photos that I tried to take were of the local sparrows. They sit on the fence top and in the hedge most days - unless it is pouring with rain. Even then, you might find a row of 3-4 sparrows on top the fence or inside the hedge. On a good day, there will be around a dozen.

Below the hedge and fence is my vegie patch - in which these sparrows often dust-bathe or find bugs to munch. They will also often take a small bit of bread from the bird table to the hedge, sit up there and try to eat it - with the result of it often falling to the ground below for another sparrow to grab and run off with. I am still not too used to my new camera’s zoom feature, as you can probably see….

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Yard Bird Update 29 - blackbirds

March 12th 2011 17:26

I took a few shots of the blackbird recently - well, perhaps not recently, they were taken in February. Time has shot forward somewhat….

However, you can see I am still experimenting with my new camera, but beginning to focus a little better, thankfully.

Currently, several weeks on, we have a dominant male blackbird, a female, and what looks like either another female or a youngster parading about the yard - so a couple of the winter inhabitants have grown up or moved on.

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Yard Bird Update 28

March 10th 2011 18:07

It will be no surprise to regular readers that a pigeon photograph pops up from time to time. Once they were show pigeons and city pigeons, but now it is all wood pigeons.

Here is a wood pigeon on dad’s bird table. The general way of doing things is to fly down onto the roof, wait a few minutes, and then flutter-fly inside to munch.

But sometimes they fly onto the poly tunnel instead

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Yard Bird Update 27 - a collection of errors

March 5th 2011 17:12

Well, it is hard to always take a perfect picture - especially of moving creatures like birds. Sometimes, everything goes wrong when you try to take a photo though - such as the telephone ringing and making you jump - as happened in this shot of our resident blackbird.

Or, when you buy a brand new camera and are not quite used to it. That is what happened here, I could not find the zoom in time! I forgot what I was trying to get a shot of, but perhaps this would make a great game question ‘guess where the bird is’…

Once again - another ‘oopsies’ moment in January - I tried to capture a sparrow or two sitting on the fence without properly focusing. You might just be able to spot one on the dirt, one flying off the fence and one on the post, but….

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Yard Bird Update 26

March 2nd 2011 17:50

Well, as I said I managed to get one decent shot of the thrush despite doing nothing different from the last few disasters. The thrush still visit’s the yard. Nearly every day I catch sight of it.

In fact, one day during February I spotted TWO thrushes. I have therefore had to give them names to distinguish between the pair. The resident I call Plate-Face, as its face is slightly plate-like about the cheek. The newcomer I call Thrushie.