Garden Stuff!

Just a few photos from the garden. New rose buds are opening everyday and the colour is stunning.


This plant was here when we moved in, I don't know what it is but we love the bright yellow flowers, my little one always has to stop and smell them when we go past.


Same with this plant, it has pink and purple flowers, they don't last too long though, especially in this wind and rain we've had recently!



This is one of the Buddleia bushes we bought, still quite small but i'm hoping it has a growth spurt before it flowers.


My stepsons got their Dad a bird bath for Fathers Day so we now have that in the back garden too. Haven't seen any birds on it yet though! We have had 6 Collared Doves in the garden this evening hiding out from the storm in the tree before venturing into the garden for some food, I don't think we have had that many before. There is still juvenile Goldfinch, Blue Tits, Blackbirds, House Sparrows and Starlings visiting the garden often.


So that will be my last post for at least a week or so as I have some minor surgery booked in for Thursday for an ongoing problem. I'll be out of action for a while but it means I should be able to do quite a bit of garden bird watching so that's a bonus!

Goldfinch Juveniles

Managed to pull a few photos off the video I took of the juvenile Goldfinch, the first three are on Sunday, the young pair sat in the tree the whole time then tried to get food from one of the parents. The last couple are from Tuesday where one of the young decided to have a go at the feeder on his own!






Not brilliant shots and a little blurry as the video was taken by hand out the bedroom window!

Goldfinch

Just a quick post this evening. There has been a family of Goldfinch in the garden this afternoon. Two adults and two young, the adults have been on the feeders quite a bit and the young just close by in the trees.

The youngsters finally decided to fly down to the shed and beg for some food from one of the parents before they all flew off. I got some great footage on video so I need to figure out how to put that on the PC - will need hubbys help for that! The Goldfinch have all still being hanging around including a third adult which has caused some squabbling between all the adults.

There are also 5 Swifts flying quite low over the houses and garden right now making the most noise i've ever heard from them, not sure what is causing it but you certainly can't miss them right now!

Yeadon Tarn

Yeadon Tarn or Yeadon Dam as we know it in our family is somewhere I have visited regularly since I was tiny. My brother and I played here a lot as we grew up and it was great for watching frogs, snails and ducks.

We went yesterday and it was busy as it usually is on a sunny day. There were quite a few boats out too. These don't seem to bother the birds in the slightest. Neither do the planes, as part of Leeds Bradford Airport runway runs down the top end of the tarn! There was a Pied Wagtail in the car park when we pulled up.

There were lots of Canada Geese there and of course Mallards, a couple of the Mallards had young. We also saw a Moorhen and a couple of Coots on nests. There was one Coot baby, still with a red head so that must have been quite young. No Swans though today, which is quite unusual, I can't think of a time i've been recently when we haven't seen at least one.


There was a lone Great Crested Grebe at the top end of the tarn, I saw my first one here and this one for a change didn't spend the whole time ducking under water.


Usually the place is plagued by Gulls but not today for some reason, if fact all I saw was a Common Tern, which was already flying away when we got there. The top part of the tarn has been left to go a little wild and is full of Buttercups, Yellow Lillies and lots of other shrubs that I can't identify!






It does have the requisite island in the middle which has quite a bit of vegetation and lots of Canada Geese and Mallards on there, quite often there are Grey Herons too but not today. I didn't get a great shot of the island, but didn't realise till I checked back home.



A great little place to visit and a nice walk even in winter (if you are wrapped up warm - the wind is biting round there!) with frost and ice everywhere, it's very pretty.

More from the Garden

It appears the Starlings are going further afield, we still have 7 or 8 visiting at a time but not as many as the past couple of weeks. Most of the Starlings are fledglings and there are only a couple of adult birds. The Goldfinch are back after after a few weeks where we rarely saw them. I've had to top up their feeder for the first time in a while. There are two Blue Tits now that come together instead of the one and the Robin sneaks in between the squabbling Starlings.

We have several House Sparrows, a couple of Dunnocks and 4 shy Collared Doves. There were two Woodpigeons fighting over the seed tray this afternoon, one was actually hitting the other with it wing, it won and the first bird flew off.

There has just been a juvenile Blackbird in the garden late this afternoon with a very noisy male, we have a regular female Blackbird too. I've seen the Coal Tit just once over the past few days and there were two Greenfinch sat at the top of the tallest tree at the back of the garden.

I haven't been able to get any decent shots of the birds but have got some of the other visitors to the garden.

You can just about see this bees back leg heavy with pollen, it was tough to get and didn't stay still for long.



This is my Clematis now the flowers have gone


My climbing Rose has it's first flowers with lots more buds yet to open. It does have greenfly though and any suggestions other than using a bug gun would be appreciated or do I just leave them alone?? Not had to deal with them much before.

Dartmouth Park

We haven't been out and about much the past week apart from to the local park a couple of times. It's only a 20 minute walk from home and the nicest of the three in our little town. It does have a play area for kids so of course we take my daughter often but always take time to walk around too.

There are plenty of birds - many Thrushes, both Song and Mistle, Blackbirds, Robins, Woodpigeons, Collared Doves, Crows, House Sparrows and Chaffinch. In winter there are always plenty of Tits about especially Long Tailed and Coal. Lots of squirrels too, which are always fun to watch.

Today we saw a couple of Swallows flying low over the playing field and half a dozen House Martins near the bandstand. As it's been so windy there were plenty of pine cones for the little one to hunt and we came home with several.

There are plenty of trees and windy paths, with lots of flower beds, some well tended and others not so much, which is quite nice.


The following pic is of the Botanical Garden, which appears to have been abandoned but is almost like a secret garden with its little paths some gorgeous flowers which spring up here and there.




The park does have a bandstand, it even had a brass band playing in it today, which i've not seen before.


Here are some of the other flowers and trees we've spotted around the park over the past week.