Tag: Blue Tits

Garden Bird List, what do you do with your RSPB Coconut halves?

It was a lovely sunny day here in Edinburgh but I was inside most of the day doing updates for the finance site about ISA, Savings and Credit Cards over onĀ www.saverscene.co.ukĀ (now closed as I move into gardening as a profession) I still managed to be out with Chewie (my dog) as 2 Long-tailed Tits flew into the garden, heard them a long time before we saw them, as always fantastic birds, happy to be very close to me as they fed on the coconut fat halves from RSPB ā€“ Box of ten Coconut halves.Ā  The birds love them, when theyā€™re finished and taken as much as they can I put them on the ground and the fox cleans them out. Ā I then face them down onto the ground under compost heaps and let them sit; the amount of wildlife that gets under them is amazing, worms, woodlice, slugs, and many other grubs ā€“ turn the soil into lovelyĀ fertileĀ soil and help with the rest of the compost, you just have to remember where they are before putting a fork into the ground!

Hereā€™s my diminutive bird list for today:

  1. Blackbird x 1 ā€“ heard only
  2. Blue Tit x 2
  3. Carrion crow x 13+ flying over at dusk
  4. Dunnock x 2
  5. Long-tailed tit x 2
  6. Woodpigeon x 1

Edinburgh Garden bird list for 29th of March 2013

My list for my garden in Edinburgh for Friday 29th of March 2013:

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Carrion crow x 20+ flying over at dusk
  4. Dunnock x 2 ā€“ think thereā€™s a fair few more as I can see movement in the hedge, hope theyā€™re building nests.
  5. Feral Pigeon x 1
  6. Long-tailed tit x 2
  7. Magpie x 2
  8. Woodpigeon x 3

Nice and sunny in Edinburgh today, birds were out enjoying it!

Had a good chance to be in the garden today, nice and sunny, although snow was on the ground to start it thawed very quickly and there was actually some warmth in the sun! Ā Flying high over head I could hear geese and got a short glimpse of 6, but not sure what type and once again a common buzzard being mobbed by gulls, I wish I could identify the gulls better as thereā€™s been a few overhead of late, look like herring, common or lesser black backed, but not 100% sure, the black-headed ones are thankfully easy to identify! Ā Will get my bins out soon to get a better view, Iā€™ve let my neighbours know that Iā€™m a keen birder in case they wonder what Iā€™m up to ;)

Hereā€™s my garden bird list for today:

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Bullfinch x 1, male ā€“ hoping the femaleā€™s sitting on eggs somewhere!
  4. Carrion crow x 1 in garden ā€“ about 15 flying over.
  5. Common Buzzard x 1 ā€“ flying high!
  6. Dunnock x 2
  7. Long-tailed tit x 1 ā€“ pretty sure I could hear more flying past.
  8. Magpie x 1
  9. Starlings x 6
  10. Woodpigeon x 2

New birds for the year and the cold takes itā€™s toll.

As I looked out the window this morning I saw that a poor wood pigeon hadnā€™t made it through the night, a real shame. Ā Iā€™d put out a fair bit of fat and apple cores to try and help the birds through the cold snap.Ā  Sadly the weather was just too much for this poor bird. Ā I hope it wasnā€™t one that was mating yesterday, be a real shame to loose a partner so early in the breeding season!

In other news added two new birds to my year list, mallards and goosanders that were on the water of Lieth when I was out of the house for a bit.

Garden:

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Carrion crow x 3 ā€“ flyovers
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Dunnock x 3
  6. Magpie x 1
  7. Woodpigeon x 1, and sadly one dead in the tree.

Water of Leith:

  1. Mallard x 5, 3 male, 2 female
  2. Goosander x 5, 4 male, 1 female.

The Goosanders were beautiful it was on slow dark water with sun hitting their white breasts and wow they were vibrant and reflected off the dark water!

It was of course Monday; there were many updates for the finance pages and donā€™t forget if you havenā€™t used your ISA limit for the year over on Saver Scene Iā€™ve got the latest best interest rates.

Woodpigeons mobbing magpies & Long-tailed tit back!

The magpies are still building their nest in the monkey puzzle tree opposite, however I noticed that the woodpigeons are mobbing the magpies, anyone else seen this behaviour?

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Carrion crow x 2 ā€“ fly over
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Dunnock x 2
  6. Long-tailed tit x 1
  7. Magpie x 2
  8. Woodpigeon x 3 ā€“ I noticed one of these was mobbing the magpies as they were making their nest. Anyone know if this is normal? Iā€™ve seen it in song birds before but not woodpigeons.

Sunny with a few snow flakes in Edinburgh today. Garden Bird List.

Had another busy day getting the finance pages updated for the Australian website, Aussies often have to pay for standard bank accounts but they can get a bank account for free (I did the whole time I was living there) if they just look around such as: best Australian bank accounts, no fees (now closed as I move into gardening as a profession). Ā The reason I mention this is because I was so busy doing that and the savings account updates I didnā€™t get a great bird list today, not even coal tits! Ā However here is the list from the garden andĀ skiesĀ above during a pretty clear and sunny day in Edinburgh:

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Carrion crow x 20+ fly over
  4. Collared Dove x 2
  5. Dunnock x 3
  6. Magpie x 2 ā€“ my parents were surprised by the colours and striking look of magpies in the UK, and were also pleasantly surprised to hear they donā€™t swoop you during breeding season, Iā€™ve had my ear lobe ripped open by an Aussie one – Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) Not a Corvid like European Magpies. Ā My hand has been hit pretty hard by a Tern here in the UK, but nothing like the Aussie magpies!
  7. Starlings x 15 fly over
  8. Woodpigeon x 3

Snow, Snow and more Snow, the Goldcrest was back.

First time Iā€™ve seen the goldcrest since the last big hit of snow on January 13th: Goldcrest Tag it was once again in the front garden, Iā€™ve been watching that more as my parents are now staying in the room that gave me the view out into the back garden, sadly means less sightings generally. Ā Hereā€™s the front garden list for today:

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Goldcrest x 1
  4. Starlings x 30+ ā€“ the were doing a very nice, but smallĀ murmuration for about half an hour, was so great to see!
  5. Woodpigeon x 20+ ā€“ a big flyover of these birds today, not sure where they were all off to, but their big bulkyĀ silhouettes were nice to see across a snow falling sky.

Another new species for the year, not in the garden though.

Mondayā€™s are always busy as I do the finance updates on the best ISAs, Savings & Credit cards on www.saverscene.co.ukĀ (now closed as I move into gardening as a profession) and everything in the Individual Savings Accounts have pretty much changed as we come to the end of theĀ financialĀ year.Ā  But today I had a appointment for my carpal tunnel, then I got home to find that my mum just over from Australia had a freezing cold shower, she thought sheā€™d done something wrong but it seems that the new boiler installed a week and a bit ago had stopped workingā€¦ Ā My Dad an electrician decided to have a look and found one of our fuses (probably from the 1950s) had burnt out, but that wasnā€™t affecting the boiler.

Deciding to try and find the old style gear to fix it; we wandered into a industrial estate near The Gyle Edinburgh and saw my firstĀ Rook of the year! Ā We managed to find a few parts and then bodge some of the older ones together, he looked at the state of the rest of the fuse box and said itā€™d last another 50 years compared to the new ones in the electronic stores which he gave maybe 10. Ā  So itā€™s almost all working and the boilerā€™s back up and going, after all this we get a letter Ā saying the plumbers want an extra Ā£720 for the work took longer than they estimated, when I got the estimate I was told 5 days, it took 5 daysā€¦ So hmmm not happy! Ā Anyway I got a good look at a rook digging around in the ground, fantastic looking birds, I guess most people probably donā€™t feel that way about Rooks, but I like them.

Sorry to go on, just like to keep people up to date on how much time I have to watch birds, today was very little but I still got a decent list:

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Bullfinch x 2, 1xm, 1xf
  4. Carrion crow x 1
  5. Coal Tit x 1
  6. Dunnock x 3
  7. Magpie x 1
  8. Rook x 1 ā€“ not in my garden, between The Gyle Edinburgh and Corstorphine.
  9. Starlings x 11
  10. Woodpigeon x 2

A new species for the garden today! Rain, Rain, some sun, Rain!

Finally my current profile picture matches the day with my pint of Guiness and St Patrickā€™s Day hat,Ā Happy St Patrickā€™s day!

A new bird has shown up in the garden today, 2 siskin 1 male and 1 female, very pleased with that! Ā Also 4 bullfinches and the males were looking superb! Ā Even with the rain they shone brightly in what light there was this morning.

The DIY is almost complete, a bit late as my parents arrived today, great to see them over from Australia been about 18 months since I last saw them and 5 years since they last saw my wife. Ā  Now onto the birds:

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Bullfinch x 4, 2 x m, 2 x f
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Dunnock x 3
  6. Great Tit x 1
  7. Robin x 1
  8. Siskin x 2 ā€“ 1 x m, 1 x f
  9. Woodpigeon x 1

I donā€™t know if this will be of interest to anyone but a user on the Australian Saver Scene has put out a challenge:Ā (UPDATE: saverscene now CLOSED due to moving to carer in horticulture hope to have my gardening website up early 2019) thereā€™s already a few good money saving ideas, so if you have one feel free to add it over there, I always feel money saved means more bird seed and when I can walk better more money for petrol to go birding and camera gear photographing (Iā€™m hooked on wildlife! Ā But hope to be back doing landscapes soon), so try hard to do a lot of the saving ideas.

What a day of rugby! Snow here in Edinburgh and birds sheltering.

Wow 3 great matches today, there were some great plays! Ā The birds were all in hiding today, there were seven woodpigeons sitting high in the trees looking very very wet, hereā€™s the bird list for 16th of March 2013:

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Coal Tit x 1
  4. Dunnock x 3
  5. Robin x 1
  6. Woodpigeon x 7