At the park

Had an early morning walk around our local park today, spotting plenty of birds and squirrels amongst other things along the way.

Some early blossom.

Autumn

Squabble!

Some kind person dropped their chips across the road from our house yesterday. It lead to quite a raucous fight between a lone Magpie and up to a dozen Black Headed Gulls. The Magpie stood it's ground though and came away with the most chips!

It's the first time i've seen the Gulls right outside the house like this, it's rare they get so close here.

Scarborough

A few pictures from a recent trip to the East Coast.

Wordless Wednesday

Garden update

The fledglings have been few and far between after last years high numbers. We have still had plenty of young Starlings and House Sparrows but only a couple of Goldfinch and only 5 Blue Tits. There have been a couple of Great Tits and a brief visit from a Robin. There have been no Blackbird youngsters in the garden at all. Some of the pictures are taken through the window!

We are still having plenty of visits from all our usual birds but it's been a shame we've had so few juveniles.

The Sparrowhawk is still around (which may explain the lack of young birds!) and I've watched it flying high over the houses on quite a few occasions. There are the usual 7 Swifts at the moment too - always a joy to sit and watch. Speckled Woods have been in the garden in abundance - never when I have the camera though We watched a dozen Tortoiseshell's almost dancing with each other over the gardens.

This afternoon my daughter spotted a grasshopper on our chair and I managed a couple of photos before it leapt off into the roses!

Wordless Wednesday

Starlings

We had our first young Starling in the garden this morning - just the one so far though!

Around the garden

It's been a while so I thought i'd do a little garden update.

Our Swifts arrived on the 10th a couple of days later than usual and I heard them first before spotting a couple over the house - there are 6 around at the moment. Lovely birds to sit and watch - I spent a lot of time in the evening doing that last year and no doubt will this year too.

The birds in the garden had been a little quiet until the past week or so. We had our first youngsters - House Sparrows at the beginning of the week and they are making short work of the bird seed on the feeder. Most seem to be feeding themselves or at least having a go but certainly aren't turning down anything offered by a parent!

We have a pair of Blue Tits who are almost eating the fat balls single handedly (beakedly!?), so I guess we have a brood of chicks close by as this happened last year resulting in some lovely scenes when the chicks fledged so fingers crossed we get them same this time.

Other than that we have been lacking in activity - no sign of any young Blackbirds, the Coal and Long Tailed Tits have disappeared and the Goldfinch are down to maybe 4 or 5. We do have a Great Tit now and again, several Starlings - no youngsters there yet and plenty of House Sparrows. Dunnocks, Woodpigeons, Collared Doves and a Robin round off the garden visitors at the moment.

There are the usual Black Headed Gulls overhead and we do get Crows and Magpies in the trees around.

One thing I did notice in my garden - most of my flowers appear to be blue/purple, I didn't realise until a lot of them seemed to flower at once! Most of them were there when we moved in so maybe a conscious thought on the previous owner?

Of course my favourites don't adhere to this and are a glorious red and now just about frame my door and windows after a bit of thorny work at the weekend!

Now i'm off to check out some of the blogs i'm following - i've missed a lot!

Wordless Wednesday