Round and about

Just a few notes from the past month around the garden and local parks.

We've had an influx of Long Tailed Tits recently up to 11 flitting around the garden a couple of times a day, you can hear them calling long before they appear.

A couple of Blue and Great Tits visit the feeder regularly and a Robin has started making an appearance again. A caught a couple of Warblers in the trees on two separate occasions Chiffchaff for one and possibly Willow for the other but I didn't get great views. The Magpie family I noticed earlier in the year are all still around I hear them in the trees and they spend a lot of time in the disused factory across the road.

A spider took over the bug house for a while.

Walking in the park about a month ago it was already looking a little autumnal.

We got caught in a rain shower there and saw Bees and a Pellucid Hoverfly, quite lovely.

A couple of visits to the urban woodlands near the end of August before work and I was surrounded by birds in large numbers, Blue & Great Tits, Warblers, Blackbirds, Bullfinch, Woodpigeons, Robins and a rat along the path. It was a lovely moment and certainly a great way to start the day.

There have been a few moths around.

Including this one in the bathroom at work (for which I was mocked mercilessly when I headed in there with my camera, however everyone did concede it was pretty!).

The garden is filled with cobwebs and sun catches them beautifully.

I even managed a little birding at the West Indian Carnival watching a Buzzard of all things above the trees in Potternewton park. The BBQ smoke looked quite stunning in the sunlight.

Up until Sunday there were still a lot of Speckled Woods in the garden, the most we've ever had this year......

....and a couple of weeks ago the first ever Painted Lady i've seen in the garden was sat right outside the front door .

Then this morning leaving for work a charm of around 30 Goldfinch flew overhead, I don't think i'll ever tire of hearing them.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch & Garden birds

This weekend saw the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, which was as frustrating as ever when finally getting my hour and the birds fail to show! It would have been better to make up my hour in 20 minutes stints over the whole weekend I think!

I ended up doing my hour on Sunday morning and these were the results submitted

Blackbird 2
Blue Tit 2
Robin 2
Great Tit 2
House Sparrow 1
Bullfinch 1

Despite these low results my garden has been flourishing bird wise in recent weeks in fact about half an hour after i'd done the Birdwatch, it was hit with 11 Long Tailed Tits and 2 Coal Tits. Typical.

The result i'm most pleased about is the Bullfinch, which showed up for the first time ever in my garden on Saturday with two others - 2f & 1m. They hung around on and off all day & I was hoping they'd still be here today, in the end only 1 of the females was but still, it was good of it to make an appearance during my hour.

I'm regularly getting the above birds along with Goldfinch, Collard Doves, Sparrowhawk, Magpies. I used to get Dunnocks and Woodpigeons but have seen neither in quite some time.

Here are a few photos taken this year, all through the window (which needs a good clean) and yes the feeder does have a bit of a lean thanks to a battering from next doors cat making a leap for some lunch (and luckily failing)!

In the garden

The garden has been lacking in birds a fair bit recently to say the least. We've had the odd visit from hedgehogs, squirrels, bats and foxes. A Sparrowhawk still lurks overhead now and again and the Swifts left early this year.

Tonight I heard tweeting and recognised the sound of Long Tailed Tits, a half a dozen of them flitting around the gardens, with a lone Blue Tit. I only managed a few shots before they were off again.

They are birds we get often but after a bird dry spell it was almost exciting to see them! 

Fairburn Ings

As usual my blog has been neglected with life taking over and blogging heading way down to the bottom of the to do list. 

So i'm making an effort and throwing up a few posts covering some nature reserve visits over the year. Maybe.......just maybe this might just get me posting a bit more regularly!

First up is Fairburn Ings back in early February, we didn't stay that long, it was so cold but as always it's a joy to wander around.

There were plenty of birds on the feeders and we even managed to catch a couple of Kingfishers through the screen.

At the lake the Black Headed Gulls were out in full force along with a few ducks.

From there we headed home to warm up!