What have you seen
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Wintersweet from our garden, lovely scent, we also have pink Camellias out, the ever reliable St Ewe from Cornwall. Surprising what is appearing from the wintery gloom.
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As well as the birds I listed visiting the feeders on site, today there were Yellowhammers and a Marsh Tit.
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Saw this tonight!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63747838
What a sad state of affairs that us ‘ordinary’ folk have to resort to this.
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We rarely see Bulfinches but when they appear they like our winter honeysuckle which is out just now.
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Lovely photo brue ours is also out and had many bees even a bumble bee on it New Year's day.
Birds are busy on the feeders the window stick ones have just been topped up, last week we noticed we had a Great Tit about twice the size of the other ones on the feeder have checked it out when on window feeder and appears to be in good health but does like its food so we have called it the Billy Bunter of the Tit family.
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We like to see the bumble bees out too, surprising what you can grow all year round to attract them. There is an interesting cover with bumblebees on this month's RHS magazine and an article about food sources. I've been reading about the warm temperatures recently, but am wondering if we'll also get another cold snap?
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Watching a treecreeper scramble down/diagonal on a tree looks very odd when first seen🤔🙂
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Hi brue I am waiting for the next RHS magazine to come as I still belong to the RHS and usually try to use my card for different gardens when we are in the UK.
Have had Nuthatch on the window feeder and it stands no nonsense with the Goldfinches who try to hog the feeder but they do not like to argue with the Nuthatch and its beak and it takes about 3 seeds in one go.
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Spotted a huge flock of Canada Geese feeding by a flooded field near the site yesterday, perhaps 200+ and today a large flock of Fieldfares and Redwings.
Came across this recording, which should appeal to all those interested in birds. The Dawn Chorus by John Spillage
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=obkPZGgIVFU
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A few more winter flowers in our garden which attract insects although beware the winter Heliotrope it's a plant thug...
(though has a lovely scent) 1 -
Out this morning with Flyte and a fully grown female Roe deer crossed the path in front of us. She walked up a bank and then started to grass, and as we walked past she just looked up and watched us pass no more than 30 m away. She was still there when we returned 10 mins later, not at all bother by others walking on the path.
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Look North Yorkshire featured Robert Fuller releasing two rescued stoats last night. He is a fabulous artist, as well as wildlife saviour. Link here to his interesting website which has lots more information, videos and his online shop.
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What have I seen?, a cheeky Squirrel sat on a bird feeder(tray type) chomping his way thru the mornings offerings the saucy beggar😂. I had 5 feeding stations, but noticed the Goldfinches being made unwelcome by the tits & sparrows now the Squirrel spooking all the birds. So I’ve increased it to 10, the wire uprights x2(peanuts), the wire uprights within wire round cage x2 (fat balls), wire uprights wide mesh x2 (fat balls) free standing 1’ suspended hanging trays x2 mixed feed, long clear plastic tubes with open feeding slots x2 (1 sunflower hearts & 1 mixed feed). It seems to be harmonious thus far. I’m loathe to discourage the Squirrel but if he/she creates continuing issues I’ll enter the ‘make it hard for the Squirrel to feed’ battle on at least 8 of the feeders & isolate them from the others so no jumping over to the other feeders games-we’ll see👍🏻
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Paid a visit to Burton Mere RSPB reserve.
Didn't see anything unusual, apart from a couple of Cetti Warblers but we were royally entertained whilst eating our sandwiches in the main reception/Hide by a young lady of 2½ who was also there with her Grandad. She had her own set of binoculars and a never ending supply of questions for an unfortunate reserve assistant who engaged her in a chat.
"Which one is the mummy duck?" " Where are the baby ducks?" "Why has that duck got a funny bill? (Shoveller)" "Do you feed the birds every day?" "See how I can use my binoculars" etc, etc, etc. Chatty Kathy.
Assistant relieved whenGrandad came back from making a cuppa and getting little ones orange juice.
Lovely to see one so young being so inquisitive.
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Every winter we still see our sole Fieldfare visitor, he's been around this week in the cold, eating the old apples we store for the birds.
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Have had the male Hawfinch on the window feeder today and the Goldfinches have to get out of his way and then later the male Middle Spotted Woodpecker turned up on the fat balls and he really has got a great red punk top not on his head. The birds are busy with all the feeders difficult to keep them topped up. Minus 6C this morning brr.
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Male Buffinch chasing female around when I went outside. My sudden presence seemed to startle them and they flew off to opposite sides of the garden. Despite trying to escape the advances of the male it was the female who flew across to join him.
There was also a lovely little Goldcrest flitting hither and thither, never still for longer than it took to peck at some minute tasty morsel.
Of course, these birds never visit the garden during RSPB birdwatch weekend do they?
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We saw our first lambs out on the fields today as,we headed towards the motorway. I guess others have seem them already, but there are none out yet around us. There was also field with a large flock of Lapwings, great to see so many.
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Many gardens have Snowdrops in them around our area, and a few with Daffodils and even the odd Crocus too.
We had Bullfinches in the trees behind the caravan this afternoon and there are lots of Grey Squirrels around, including one with a black head, which I have not seen before. We saw 3 GSPs on our morning walk and this afternoon on the mere, among the many gulls, Lapwings and ducks there were 3 pairs of Goosanders, a pair of Widgeon, and numerous long billed, streaked brown, plump waders, which I took to be Snipe. However as they are supposed to be solitary birds, and hard to spot, so I'm not sure. Help needed, so tomorrow's visit might help to clarify that!!😄
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Our visiting lone Fieldfare appears to have rejoined the flock, we are seeing them overhead most days and can hear them in the trees, they are quite noisy. I feel the same about winter Fieldfares as I do about summer Swallows. Always pleased to see them arrive and sad to see them go. I've been looking up Fieldfares on the BO site as I wondered how long our lone visitor might survive the journey, it appears the oldest ringed Fieldfare found so far has been 14 years plus.
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I’ve had 5 Goldfinches on the nuts & sunflower hearts today. 4 chaffinches on the mixed seeds on the floor. 2 collared doves that follow each other around gingerly pecking away in a big seed tray until the wood pigeons rock up & shoo them away. The cleaning crew-dunnock & wren skulk around the garden near the feeding stations mopping up errant food🤷🏻♂️😊
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