Posted in Birds, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, Nature, weather, winter on January 19, 2013 | 25 Comments »
Song thrush (Turdus philomelos) in the snow…
Snow is a rarity here in Cardiff, as it is a city warmed by trade and industry on the soft south coast of Wales. So when we do get snow, I am soon out in the garden with my camera – even though there is not a lot to see.
The snow fell yesterday, but I saw it in the garden only as (more…)
Posted in Birds, Nature, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged birds, Carmarthenshire, wildfowl on January 11, 2013 | 14 Comments »
Mr and Mrs mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) at Llanelli WWT, late December 2012
Although we are now starting a colder and drier spell – maybe with snow on the way – we have had nothing but rain for months. Ideal if you have webbed feet!
So we recently made one of our regular trips to the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust reserve in Llanelli. At this time of year the (more…)
Posted in Birds, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, seagulls on November 27, 2012 | 15 Comments »
This seagull was interested in the crow’s meal…
I don’t usually do short posts, but I just wanted to share this picture, as it was such a surprise.
On Sunday I heard a crow making a lot of noise, so grabbed my camera with a longish lens and went to find out what all the fuss was about. All I could see was the crow on a neighbour’s roof, with some scavenged food. So I pointed the lens through the window and snapped, just hoping to get a reasonable portrait.
I swear that as I pressed the button, the seagull wasn’t there, or even on my radar, but I saw a flurry of wings as it went click!
So that’s why the crow was making so much noise…
Posted in Birds, Gardening, History, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, dorset, Gardening, wildfowl on October 12, 2012 | 14 Comments »
Upton House in Poole, Dorset – now the setting for a small country park
My childhood holidays in the late 1950s and 1960s were spent in Upton, a suburb on the northern edge of Poole in Dorset. My mother was born in Poole and Upton was where her mother and sister still lived in those days.
But Upton House was unknown to me until a few years ago, as it was in private hands. In fact my cousin now tells me that when she was little the local lady of the Upton manor would go around distributing largesse to poor families like ours!
In this blog post I intended just to show the pictures I took of the lovely flowers in the walled garden and some of the wildfowl you can see from the shore at the bottom of the garden, but (more…)
Posted in Birds, Nature, tagged birds on August 10, 2012 | 6 Comments »
This blackbird (Turdus merula) flings itself at the bird fat and pecks off chunks…
What’s that they say about the Olympics? Faster, higher, stronger?
This blackbird in my garden has got into the Olympic spirit, exercising on the bird fat for weeks in the run-up to the London 2012 Games. Its technique is to hurl itself at the fat and knock pieces off, then drop to the ground to eat them. I think it’s a method copied from the magpies.
Many of the (more…)
Posted in Art & Design, Birds, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, design on June 24, 2012 | 10 Comments »
This beautiful swan and its reflection is available as a fine art print from Fotoviva – click on the image…
I think it’s time we looked at another iconic bird, this time the swan. You may already have seen my earlier posts on the design appeal of penguins and peacocks and owls.
What makes a swan? It’s big, usually (more…)
Posted in Birds, Gardening, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, Gardening, Nature on June 17, 2012 | 6 Comments »
Time for an update on Cotoneaster, full-moon maple, Euphorbia and starling…
It’s time to follow through on a few things I mentioned in earlier gardening/nature blog posts, so here goes. The headings are (more…)
Posted in Birds, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, Nature, starlings on May 27, 2012 | 11 Comments »
A baby starling (Sturnus vulgaris) on the bird table in May 2012…
Over the last few years, since I have been feeding the garden birds in summer as well as winter, we have had a bunch of starlings visiting, just for a month or two.
This year the first one arrived on April 27 and soon there were about seven of them. I know (more…)
Posted in Birds, Gardening, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, Gardening, Nature on May 11, 2012 | 16 Comments »
A dandelion clock in my garden…
The other evening, around 6.30, I looked out of my window towards my neighbour’s garden and was surprised by a small spot of red. You know how it is, you notice the smallest thing if it is brightly coloured – and especially if it is moving.
My heart beat faster – wow, it was a goldfinch! That’s Carduelis carduelis in Latin. I never see those in our garden, next to a wooded park. I have only ever seen them in open, rough countryside, usually where there are thistles and teasels, as they love the seeds.
We often have chaffinches. Then we have greenfinches when there are tiny seeds on the Cotinus and once a year we see a bullfinch. But not a goldfinch, despite my once putting out nyjer seeds, which were ignored.
I hastily reached for my camera…
The goldfinch on my neighbour’s decking…
I took quite a (more…)
Posted in Birds, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, Nature, traditions on April 19, 2012 | 22 Comments »
Not just black and white - a beady-eyed magpie among the ash trees...
OK, I know it’s a bit controversial, since they snatch the eggs of smaller birds, but I really do like magpies. Some things just aren’t all black and white, you might say.
They are beautiful, big and comparatively easy to photograph, surprisingly colourful and very entertaining.
Until about six weeks ago, I used to throw away the skin of scrambled egg that sticks to the surface of my “non-stick” pan. But now I have found it is one of the magpies’ favourites!
Cold water loosens the egg, which I then scrape off with my fingernails and place in a pile, where I can see it from the kitchen window.
Usually the magpies (more…)
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