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[purplenanny]

I would love to volunteer work with hedgehogs, do you have to have any experience/qualifications ?  I must check and see if there is a local one to me
PN x x

[CLKD]

Ring your Vet Surgery?
Do a 'google' for hedgehog/small animal rescue?
Check with Tiggywinkles at Aylesbury to see if they have groups across the UK or ring your local Nature Group who will probably have a hog person ;-)

[Dorothy]

Coming back with the dog down our little lane and saw TWO little owls in the tree by our house, one each side of the trunk.  Only about 5 feet above my head, so got a really close look.  Lovely 

[Taz2]

How lucky to see two. Their numbers are declining which is such a shame as they are very cute as long as you're not a mouse, vole, little bird, worm or a beetle of course...

Taz x

[CLKD]

I saw 3 young ones everysomany years ago - I was alone so couldn't share.  I knew where the nest was and 1 morning there were 3 on various branches, in various states of fledging.  One was fully feathered, the next 1 down was half feathered and the 1 on the fence was still fluffy  - the breeding tree fell over in the gales about 10 years ago …….

Lots of Spring flowers out and the birds are singing!  Nights are pulling out.

[Taz2]

I love the call of the Little Owl - really eerie.

Taz x

[Dorothy]

We see Barn Owls regularly, but haven't seen a little owl up our lane before.

CLKD, it must have been really special seeing 3 young ones at once.  I love the way the memories of special sightings of wild animals and birds stay with you.

[Taz2]

I haven't adopted an owl Sparkle - a pair of Tawny Owls have adopted me or, rather, my tree. It gets very noisy some nights!

Taz x

[Two hoots]

I hear tawny owls sometimes but never see them, I'm so jealous of everyone who gets to see them  , a regular visitor to my bird feeders this week has been a great spotted woodpecker, makes a lovely change to the blue tits 

[Taz2]

They are striking to look at and, of course, blue tit nestlings are their favourite food..

Taz x 

[Taz2]

Yes! At the minute, though, it's the robin who's singing his heart out from the top of my apple tree. I can see him in the light from the street light. He usually starts around 2 a.m. It's absolutely pouring down out there. It is so beautiful without the usual daytime sounds.

Taz x

[Hurdity]

In the night Taz?!!!

I haven't heard a little owl call- must look it up! We had one in a tree just along the lane last year sometimne - was just sitting a few yards above me looking down as I walked and I just stood and stared back at it! We have a tawny in the orchard.

Our birds have more or less deserted the feeders in our small front garden . Our neighbours who have a big garden next to our orchard have got them all! Leaves have fallen from wisteria and some of the bushes in the hedge so maybe it's lack of cover.  At this rate there will be nothing for the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch later this month.... not sure what I can do really. Even this cold weather isn't attracting them. I changed the metal tray thing (under the black whole sunflower seed feeder) for an RSPB perspex one so maybe they don't like that either 

Hurdity x

[Taz2]

It's really annoying when they stop visiting and you can't always see the reason. Mine have been constant all winter but some have been absent - no siskins this year and only the occasional wagtail. The fieldfares and redwings are mostly still in Russia apparently and there has even been sightings of swallow and swifts which are thought to have overwintered here rather than bothering to fly off to their normal winter holiday spots. Which type of seed do you feed and what birds do you want to attract?

Yes Hurdity, the robin sings at night most nights here. There has been a lot of research into this I believe - it's thought that the increasing traffic noise in the daytime means the robin's song travels further during the night time hours and the fact that in lots of places, here included, street lights are on all night has changed the behaviour of robins (Robins are related to the nightingale). If you go into the centre of Reading during the evening and night there are robins sat on many of the lights singing away. The large light fixtures in the middle of roundabouts attract them too. This is a recent article about city robins singing at night http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31505672  and the RSPB view on it http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/funfactsandarticles/watchingbirds/behaviour/nocturnalsong.aspx  It does sound rather poignant but mine didn't shut up until three this morning!

Taz x

[CLKD]

Light pollution causes robins in particular to sing …… here it's from 1.30ish until the early hours with a break before he begins in the day 

Since Sept we have had 3 frosts so far.  I usually buy 2kg live meal worms weekly but stopped in NOvember because the birds were eating them quickly enough - I did put more out on Sat. and the feeders have been emptied. 

We don't have anywhere near the amount or varieties of birds that were here in the 1990s and we had 3 cats and a dog at that time. 

Our wren is back, nipping around the garden pots and nagging from close by ;-)

[Taz2]

I've got less woodpigeons this year due to the milder weather but my bugbear are the doves - twenty three of them today and they are so aggressive and the finches don't get a look in at their sunflower heart feeders. My brother in law has invested in the type which shut down when anything heavy such as a parakeet, pigeon or dove sits on them. They soon get to know that they wont get anything out and so have now given up and his goldfinches are left in peace. I like to feed all of them - they are get hungry after all but it costs such a lot - my feeders get filled two or three times a day depending on whether I'm in or not. Summer is when the cost really racks up though as they feed from five in the morning till nine at night.

Taz x