Birds Birds Birds

It's been a rough few days here in birdy land.

On Sunday we found the remains of a dead bird, it did take a bit of identifying until I found the head (sorry I know it's gruesome) and it was obviously an adult Bullfinch. My initial assumption was that it was my male. There were no obvious rose feathers, but after closer inspection their belly feathers aren't pure rose, they have colour bands with rose on the tips.

I had seen the female in the morning, so I assume this was when the male was caught and I couldn't see the cat - or I disturbed it without realising because there was still some 'meat' left on a leg and it was quite, 'fresh'.

Things have been rather quiet in the garden for the last week or so has anyone else got this problem? I'm assuming it's because the birds are now all in hiding waiting for their feathers to moult? I hope so at least as I can still hear them in the trees, but I guess I shouldn't complain because they were getting through obscene amounts of seeds! :D

Last night however, I saw something on the feeder and got my camera as usual (it makes a handy set of binoculars) and it was a pair of Bullfinches! So it would seem that perhaps I was actually seeing two different finches before and that's why I saw the male so frequently or the female has managed to find another male already!

Somewhat relieved, however still gutted that I was the reason there's one less in the area, especially since they're not the most common bird around. But it does sound like there must be a very healthy population in the area.

Rant

I realise this is pretty much redundant but I need to rant it anyway.

I was asking a work colleague whether they knew where to buy nematodes from because I don't want to put down slug pellets as I have a feeling the foxes eat the snails - we have lots of snail shells around and although I have seen song thrushes, I'm yet to see one in the garden, so I'll assume the foxes get them.
Anyway, as I was saying…

I don't fancy poisoning the birds or the foxes.

My colleague has never heard of using nematodes, oh well, I'll have to try elsewhere as B&Q don't appear to have them.

Only my other colleague decides to pipe up telling me foxes are vermin.

Yeah, cheers for that I know they're vermin, but I happen to like them, just as I like squirrels, rats, mice, magpies etc.

But you know what, I didn't ask for your opinion on how to get rid of the foxes did I, just because they're a 'nuisance' to some, doesn't mean they're a nuisance to me, and it also doesn't mean they deserve to die!! (you could argue here whether or not the slugs and snails also deserve to die, I've tried so long not to do anything but it's a losing battle right now until I build a pond and can attract frogs and toads to eat them for me)

Going by that trail of thought I think I had best go shoot the cats that come into my garden because they, in my eyes, are a nuisance.

Seriously, if I wasn't at work he might just have had a few choice words thrown at him. How dare he imply that the fox deserves to die, if I was so bothered about them coming into the garden I'd block its entrances, not exactly rocket science.

The sooner he leaves, the better. Seriously I can't stand him for much longer. I've already been looking at jobs this morning, I am so bored here and apparently surrounded by arrogant, idiots that think nothing of speaking over you. Does my head in - that's a rant for another day that I've already been wound up on a comment my line manager made in our team meeting yesterday. (which was why I was looking for a new job)

Beautiful Day

Well, today has been fantastic.

I was woken around 6:30 by the sun shining through our curtains, it's amazing how it instantly puts you in a good mood - yesterday was ok too, but nothing like today.

By 10am you could tell it was going to be a scorcher.

Most of the day was spent in the garden, trimming hedge and such, my parents came round to survey the water damage and to lend us dad's ladders.

I wish I'd gone to the botanical gardens as originally planned. They had a plant sale on but as I'd already bought some on Saturday I decided not to. I imagine it would've been jam-packed and beautiful.

The ice cream man came around 6pm, perfect weather for one so we sat out on the grass :)

Bullfinch sightings:

5 (I suspect he was here more as I did spend a good couple of hours indoors around midday and entertaining the 'rents.)

Bully

Today has been rather interesting...

Ok, so not too interesting in the grand scheme of things but;

So far I've seen Mr Bullfinch 4 times!

4 TIMES!!!

I can't believe it, it just shows how much you miss when at work doesn't it? Although I've never seen him that frequently all the other weekends and such but, still, exciting stuff. However I have seen the female only once and that was yesterday, so far she's not been today.

With any luck she's on eggs or feeding chicks and he's stopping off between hunting for live food and we'll have babies soon enough :D

Goldfinches are by far the most frequent visitors to the garden at the moment, barely a minute goes past where there isn't at least one here. Shame they're not in as large numbers as the Sparrows though... * wow, I typed too soon, within minutes of pressing publish I have a whole flock on the feeder, most I captured were 6, but I could see more birds in the trees around, I just don't know if they were sparrows though.

Nothing else incredibly exciting to report other than had a trip to B&Q (evil, evil place, I seem to live there at the moment) bought some more plants and sorting out insurance for the kitchen.

Doh!

Arrgghhhh

Why did I bother buying a house?

It's so not worth it, really, is it?

Just found out that the washing machine has been leaking, not sure how long for but it'll explain:

The laminate lifting up slightly, maybe a millimetre
Hinge on door popped off last night - this was how my boyf discovered the leak

and...

that ever so ominous 'tick ticking' sound I've been hearing when sat at the table on the laptop.

So, we've had the internet at home around 3 weeks, that's when I moved to sitting at the table with the laptop and estimate that I've been hearing it for around 2 weeks, although not constantly (whether that's because the tv was on or not, who knows)
The plaster on the wall is wet - which made me think we'll definitely have to get insurance out to make sure the wall is ok then. Plus the unit has soaked up the water and has warped out of shape thus popping the hinge off.
The laminate will have soaked up the water like a sponge, well the underlay will have. The laminate runs totally from the kitchen through into the living room and entrance hall, so that's going to be fun.

Doesn't sound like the little hiccup I initially thought, so Pete'll be phoning insurance tomorrow to get them out on it as I won't be able to do it today, plus I don't have documentation and such to know any account numbers or whatever it is we'll need.

So, the lesson to be learnt is:

Whenever there's a weird ticking sound, don't assume it's a clock.

Yet another!

This is fun [:

Another new bird, a Song thrush sat on someone’s chimney singing away this evening. I think it was a song thrush as it was quite brown and didn’t look menacing like a mistle thrush and had an obvious orange bottom beak, photos are poor as it was the chimney across the cul-de-sac from us and evening so lotsa grain.

We also had the Bullfinches twice tonight, first was the male then he came back around an hour later with the female. Very pleased. Hopefully they will have chicks by now and we may see them tagging along soon :D

Blue Tit
Coal Tit
Long Tailed Tit
Sparrow
Starling
Collared Dove
Woodpigeon
Feral pigeon
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Bullfinch
Robin
Dunnock
Magpie
Blackbird
Crow (never seen land in the garden, but they are around)
Swift (again, never seen actually landing, but they are overhead)
Wren
Blackcap
Song Thrush
Great Tit