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( Current bird count in our garden )

On the route I take home to my parents I cut off a large section of boring fast road by going through the New Forest, which is a little slower but infinitely more interesting. One of the villages I pass through is Landford, and I was unaware of a local tradition until the other day as I was passing though. Every Autumn they hold an autumn ( Read more... )

In addition to a previous post I made about birds I've seen visiting my bird table, I can now add the following: rooks (a whole family of the blighters), collarded doves and thrushes ( Read more... )

The baby blackbirds are now fully-fledged rowdy teenagers! I saw them for the first time yesterday - two speckled, still slightly fluffy, punky youngsters, flapping round the yard still demanding that they were fed by dad despite the bird table being right in front of them! They sat on the fence and squawked while dad flew back and forth with ( Read more... )

We officially have baby blackbird in our back yard! I'm very excited! I can't see them yet, but I have seen mum and dad blackbird going to and from nest with beakfuls of insects and the food I put out for them (I assume bird table food is okay for chicks?). The blackbirds are also getting less and less wary of my - I can be out in the yard ( Read more... )

I went to the gym at lunch time and there were swallows! The first swallows of summer!

Shortly after Christmas I built a DIY birdtable kit and plonked it in the back yard*cough*square foot of conctrete. I put out some hanging feeders, seed, peanut feeder and breadcrumbs, and put some bread on the roof to attract things flying over ( Read more... )

We went for a walk today during what turned out to be a three hour break in the rain, and saw a live mole at the side of the road! He was fine, wriggling about a bit confused. I guess he either dug his way out of the bank and fell down onto the road, or dug his way out the other side and crossed the road (kudos to the little guy if he did!). I ( Read more... )

I've been on three lunchtime runs since last week, and I'm enjoying them a lot! There are some lovely woods not too far from here, full of flowers, birds, butterflies and squirrels. I've seen a jay and a couple of nuthatches, as well as the usual blackbirds, robins, tits (*snigger*), starlings, jackdaws and finches. I've also heard a skylark, ( Read more... )