Any keen bird feeders out there?

Gers

Saw the red squirrel again this afternoon - sitting on my low garden wall munching away at a suet ball. I didn't get to my camera in time so I've now left it in the kitchen ready if I get another chance. Today it took two suet balls so I guess it must be storing up the food for winter.

Meanwhile the birds are happily eating the peanuts and sunflower hearts I keep their feeders topped up with. There's also a little feeder with nyger seeds in though I haven't seen any goldfinches since I came back from my holiday (about two weeks now). Plenty of various tits and other finches.

Happygreen

Doing the washing up last night a SparrowHawk flew over and landed on the guttering above me. I could see his tail and body, must have been munching on something it has caught on the way over. I get excited about stunning wildlife so near!

Primrose

About a year ago I watched a spartowhawk come down and kill a wood pigeon on our lawn. The kill was so fast there was nothing I could do to save the wood pigeon so I steeled myself to watch the consequential awesome sight of seeing its feathers torn off and scattered everywhere while the hawk tried to get at the bird's flesh . After about twenty minutes it appeared to have had its fill and then dragged the rest of the carcass into a shrub sheltered border. It then returned to the hiding spot the following morning to scavenge what was left of the carcass.

It wasn!t a particularly pleasant sight to watch, but with the binoculars I was able to have a rare close up view of nature in the raw.

Gers

Gers wrote: »

Saw the red squirrel again this afternoon - sitting on my low garden wall munching away at a suet ball. I didn't get to my camera in time so I've now left it in the kitchen ready if I get another chance. Today it took two suet balls so I guess it must be storing up the food for winter.

Got it!

Looked out my kitchen window and saw the squirrel in the act of eating the evidence.







It then carried the suet ball to the low wall again.



I took these pics from behind my kitchen window on high zoom but am still delighted at them.

The squirrel tried to take the ball up the spruce tree, I saw the ball fall but it landed at the back of the tree so I couldn't get anymore shots.

:j:j

firefox1956

Very lucky person to see this...........
If it was my fatball it would have been a bl**dy great big grey squirrel.

Primrose

Lucky photos! He was either trying to take it up the tree to avoid being spotted feeding his face by his mates or to cache it in some nook and cranny for hungry times.

TravellingAbuela

Oooh lucky you GERS. Only dratted grey squirrels around here too. We once saw black squirrels in Switzerland, they were so cute. But we were informed they are actually red squirrels which are increasingly changing to black! I wonder if that will happen here.

We have been having strolls up to the moors this week and the telegraph wires down to the farm in the valley have been full of swallows getting ready for the big migration. I always think it's a sad sight as so many of them will not survive the long flight.

Gers

Primrose wrote: »

Lucky photos! He was either trying to take it up the tree to avoid being spotted feeding his face by his mates or to cache it in some nook and cranny for hungry times.

He's been taking two suet balls a day so I suspect he's stashing some though there was leftovers in two places the other day. The birds swooped on them and soon hoovered them up do they aren't going without.

Gers

He's been back. I hadn't put out any suet balls today so he's been at the peanut feeder.





As for birds - I thought I saw a robin today for the first time in ages. It stayed right at the end of the garden so I couldn't get a picture though I am fairly certain.

TravellingAbuela

I had my first Robin back yesterday, not had one since the end of last winter. Still waiting to spot the return of the Goldfinch on the niger seeds but they are usually a bit later than this.