What's flying near you?

Had Goldfinches in the garden today.

Unusually, we have one solitary long tailed tit visiting the fatball feeder. Normally they arrive in flocks. I'm hoping the solitary one is nesting nearby. A pheasant kept me company in the garden when I was in the GH, making an awful racket.

This might explain what happened all my cherry buds last year. There are always bullfinches in my garden.

When I was making my morning cuppa at 7am today, I spotted not one but two jays in the hawthorn tree - I guess our neighbourhood rogue has a mate

I did a bit of googling to find out how best to feed them - apparently they like peanuts, but are quite shy for corvids. So when I was in the garden centre this morning I was very pleased to find a handy mesh feeding tray that I could put in the tree where they'll hopefully feel safe.

   

I was able to fasten it round an almost vertical branch and bend it a little so it was level, then I filled it with peanuts and suet pellets. Hopefully they'll find it and stop raiding the small hanging feeder for the cracked corn!

A farmer's been muck spreading nearby and when I went for a walk there were literally hundreds of seagulls in 2 fields. Never seen so many even at the seaside. Must have been good stuff he was spreading.

The jays have discovered the mesh tray I bought about a week ago - this lunchtime I went out to do some work in the front garden and caught one of them eating the peanuts I'd put in it

Then while I was stretching my back after being bent down sieving compost, I spotted a pair of long-tailed tits on the suet block feeder. There was often a whole little flock of them on my neighbour's feeders in the summer, but he's sold his house and moved down south to be near his daughter, so I've taken up the baton!

An amazing sight today, at least thirty Griffin vultures climbing a thermal right above the house. We rarely see them except when up in the mountains.

I've had to put tights on my wing mirrors - doesn't everybody?
The sparrows have been attacking the mirrors and pooing all over the doors, while they wait for their turn to chase off their "rival" who looks surprisingly like them!!
First time I saw them a couple of days ago I was fascinated - today, having to scrub off their mess, I am not quite so enchanted.

My socks weren't big enough to go over the wing mirrors so I had to rummage around for a pair of tights (pop-socks actually)!! Hope it works but I must remember to remove them before I drive anywhere - I can imagine the comments.

Not heard of that happening before Veggie but I can imagine how much mess they leave behind

I've had to put tights on my wing mirrors - doesn't everybody?
The sparrows have been attacking the mirrors and pooing all over the doors, while they wait for their turn to chase off their "rival" who looks surprisingly like them!!
First time I saw them a couple of days ago I was fascinated - today, having to scrub off their mess, I am not quite so enchanted.

My socks weren't big enough to go over the wing mirrors so I had to rummage around for a pair of tights (pop-socks actually)!! Hope it works but I must remember to remove them before I drive anywhere - I can imagine the comments.

I'm just glad the current generation of blue tits hasn't learned (yet) to peck through milk bottle caps. Early in last year's lockdown we started getting our milk delivered three times a week, to cut down on trips to the supermarket, and it comes in returnable glass bottles with foil caps, just like when we were kids!