Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[CLKD]

I don't know how I would feel about parakeets …….. they are a pest elsewhere  .  Lovely to see birds Oldsheep?  Chaffinches can have a lovely 'song'.  Squirrels 

Damsel flies still emerging from our bottom pond.  As soon as I stepped from the camper yesterday the starlings were here, squawking.   Loudly.  But I don't have many meal worms until the new delivery arrives.  They are mugging the sparrows/tits coming out of the caged feeder!

[oldsheep]

just seen 2 small green faces peeking out of the vent. They waited about 10 mins, then mum arrived and fed them. As they are fully green, (parakeets!), I think they'll probably fly away soon. Glad I saw them though.

[CLKD]

Noisy I bet 
Found 5 more damsel flies leaving the pond this morning  : up from the water, out onto a stem, dried and flown away in 3 hours.

[Taz2]

My baby starlings are so noisy but so cute to watch. I'm sure my neighbours hate me this time of year as they flock to the bird table! The first one arrived, as usual, on the 13th May and today we had seventeen youngsters. Five were in the frying pan birdbath having a good splash around. Love to watch them having their first bath!

Taz x

[CLKD]

Baby robins are speckled all over.  They also gape at the parent as it approaches.  We can see a pair of blue-tits in and out of the new nest box on the sdie of the house with meal worms, they kill them first before flying up to feed.  Hopefully we will be here when they fledge 

No damsels this morning 

[CLKD]

When they have moulted their baby feathers  - if you do a search for robins you'll see the various stages.

Well we bought a small dog crate this morning on the premise that the small birds could get in and out to reach live meal worms.  WRONG  - within a few moments robin had sussed the way in/out - apparently the starlings were watching as before I knew it, 5 were inside the cage.  However  - some wire will be required 

[Taz2]

It's difficult but starlings do need help CLKD - they are more endangered then the small birds although when you have a flock of around forty visiting your garden like I have it can be difficult to believe!

Sparkle - the male robin will feed the female robin before mating. Maybe this is what you saw?

Taz x

[CLKD]

Starlings get fed too but they would clear out the meal worm feeders if allowed …….. they mob when when I walk out of the door  - the robin seems to be on stand by as when I go out quietly, he gives a whistle; then the starlings arrive     

[Taz2]

I've just been reading an article about the Avian Pox virus. It is important to track it's spread across the country and report any affected birds. Details here http://www.gardenwildlifehealth.org/files/2013/09/Garden-bird-Avian-Pox-factsheet_GWH.pdf

Taz x 

[honeybun]

Fortunately not seen that on any of my garden birds.

The garden is very busy and we have a lot of starlings....such busy birds. They have dug up what seems like every worm under our grass. They are obviously feeding chicks as they are eating a few and then collecting more and flying off with beakfulls of worms.

Great to watch.


Honeybun
X

[Taz2]

I love starlings too! They are just sitting on their second lot of eggs down here in the South. So many babies around - nineteen today. Three familes of three babies each having a bath. So funny to watch.

Taz x

[CLKD]

They get leather jackets too.  Green woodpeckers are good to watch too …….. we see them regularly in the fields in the next village 

Do they queue up for the water Taz?

Chickens suffer with a similar tumour formation on their claws.  (name escapes me right now  ).  Usually caused when they have a graze/cut under the foot which then becomes infected …….. why can't I remember the name  oh got it, bumble foot!

[Taz2]

Sparkle - that will be the bumble foot that CLKD has mentioned in her post. Mine have it too but it doesn't shorten life which is good. One winter there was one with a really huge wart taking up the whole of the left leg. We had a very sharp frost one night and it appeared minus the leg! It got on much better without it. I can only think that it froze and dropped off during the night! http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/wildlife/m/wildlife/597264.aspx

Taz x

[CLKD]

Poultry are treated with antibiotics.  Or boiled, cooled, salted water.

[Taz2]

Sparkle - found this for you http://www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwildlife/advice/expert/previous/robinfeedingmate.aspx

I've just returned from the wildlife hospital after taking a young starling. It hit the window this morning and got grabbed by next door's cat as it hit the floor. I raced out to try to get it - bare feet and dressing gown (wonderful look) and managed to scare the cat away. It dropped the bird who disappeared into the "wildlife" section of the garden. So, there I was, knee-deep in forget-me-nots and that sticky stuff that grows around everything. I must have looked a right sight!! Finally located the bird totally tied up in the sticky stuff (sweethearts?) and I thought it was dead - it was so still and cold. Brought it in and put it in one of my trusty shoe boxes on a nice piece of fluffy towel and sat the box on a hot water bottle in a dark room. One hour later it was beginning to come round and an hour after that it was beginning to shriek. I took it out of the box but his right leg wasn't gripping - beak was though!! I had a good look around the bird and found a wound on the inside of his leg right at the top where it attaches to the abdomen which isn't good as it may have severed the muscle attaching the leg. Nothing for it but to take it to the hospital. So, a round trip of fifty miles later, I've left him sitting on a heat pad full of painkiller, antibiotics and food. Hope he'll make it.

Taz x