Tag: Coal Tits

Cold day in Edinburgh, ISA updates for new season, more DIY, and a few extra birds!

Itā€™s Monday so that means a very busy day updating the best interest rates for ISAs, Savings Accounts and deals on Credit Cards, ISA season has started for the tax year of 2013/14 and thereā€™s a new allowance, so do try and make the most of your ISA by getting in early, you can find the best interest rates here: saverscene.com/isa-individual-savings-accounts/Ā (now closed as I move into gardening as a profession) – hope that helps, if you do have any questions do feel free to ask!

Due to the changing of the tax year ISA season has beenĀ incrediblyĀ busy for me, very few birds were seen today, but I did notice that the female bullfinch was only around very briefly and that it was much skinnier (may have been a different bird) than the one I saw last week, the male continued to forage by itself. Ā Does anyone know; Do femaleā€™s loose a lot of body size after laying eggs? Ā I sure hope theyā€™re nesting near by!

The Garden bird list was pretty much all the usual suspects, plus I saw a couple of Jackdaws from the car in Corstorphine Edinburgh, not far from the house, plus a pied wagtail when I was out at Hermiston Gait getting even more paint and other DIY tools, always feels odd when I donā€™t have the right tool as I had everything I needed back in Australia, but due to carpal tunnel Iā€™ve not done as much mending as I would normally and my dad keeps asking whereā€™s this or that and end up going to buy one, once again Iā€™m rambling but hereā€™s my garden bird list:

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 3
  3. Bullfinch x 2 ā€“ the female looked a lot smaller than last week! Hope that means sheā€™s laid some eggs somewhere.
  4. Carrion crow x 4 fly overs
  5. Coal Tit x 1
  6. Dunnock x 3 ā€“ really showing mating behaviour.
  7. Jackdaws x 2 ā€“ from car in Corstorphine
  8. Long-tailed tit x 2
  9. Magpie x 2
  10. Pied Wagtail x 1 ā€“ Car park Hermiston Gait ā€“ West Edinburgh, once again back at B&Q for more DIY gear!
  11. Woodpigeon x 1

Sunday 7th of April Garden Bird list, went to see Chris Addison last night.

Another very busy Sunday with DIY and out to comedy last night, saw Chris Addison a regular on Mock the Week, good fun! Ā Was exhausted when I got home so hereā€™s yesterdays list of birds:

  1. Blackbird x 1 ā€“ singing from 5.30am today
  2. Blue Tit x 2 ā€“ getting very territorial
  3. Carrion crow x 1
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Dunnock x 3 ā€“ also very territorial.
  6. Long-tailed tit x 2 ā€“ thought I was going to miss the charming couple that visit the garden, but they showed up about 5pm :D
  7. Magpie x 2
  8. Woodpigeon x 3

Festival of the Spoken Nerd, Garden Bird list & night time visitor.

This first entry was from last night on the way to an Edinburgh to see a Science Festival show ā€“ we went to see Festival of the Spoken NerdĀ and on the way there I spotted a common buzzard just near Murrayfield Stadium. Ā The show was excellent full of fun science ideas and a good amount of comedy.

  1. Common Buzzard ā€“ seen on side of road.

Today wasnā€™t a great day for birdwatching instead a lot more DIY and when not doing that trying to stay off my feet as my ankle tendons are popping out a little too often, all very frustrating! Ā On arriving home last night I took chewie out for a final visit to the garden and heard the wonderful call of a tawny owl. Ā Hereā€™s my garden bird list for today:

 

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 2
  3. Carrion crow x 2 flying over
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Dunnock x 3
  6. Long-tailed tit x 2 ā€“ they were around almost every time I was outside today.
  7. Magpie x 2
  8. Tawny Owl x 1 -heard only
  9. Woodpigeon x 4

Garden bird list for the 5th of April, noticed the LTTs were getting bossed by the BTs

Finally back on form and getting my bird list up earlier today, once again itā€™s from my garden, I really have to get out to a few places, my ankleā€™s are slowly improving, hereā€™s my Garden Bird List for April 5th:

  1. Blackbird x 1 ā€“ was singing from 4am, but I was up anyway due to Chewie my dog being very ill. Poor guy!
  2. Blue Tit x 2
  3. Coal Tit x 1
  4. Dunnock x 3
  5. Long-tailed tit x 1, it was feeding on the RSPB Suet Cakes, I also noticed that the Blue Tits were chasing it off the fat.
  6. Woodpigeon x 3

Garden Bird list for 4th of April 2013. RSPB Ā£4 off Suet Cakes.

Iā€™ve beenĀ incrediblyĀ busy, the Edinburgh Science festival is on and a few friends have been up from England for it and keeping me out late at night when I normally get my bird updates done. Ā I had great sightings of the Long-tailed tits, Iā€™m pretty sure theyā€™re nesting in the hedge, or in the neighbours garden, I saw them collecting nesting materials and were back and forth through the hedge very quickly! Ā If you do have Long-tailed tits visiting they love RSPB suet cakes, thereā€™s currently Ā£4 off them for the next few days, Iā€™ve done a post about them here:Ā RSPB Ā£4 off Suet cakes – check the latest RSPB Sales they just love them!

Also had much better views of a Common Buzzard, one was much lower today, still getting mobbed by gulls, also pretty sure blackbirds are nesting in the garden! Ā Nothingā€™s taken up the nest box Iā€™ve put up yet.

In sadder news I was getting the greenhouse ready for some plants, was left by previous owner of the house, very helpful for salad growth over the winter! Ā However as I was looking around I found a frog had baked in there from the heat, I have started checking it every time Iā€™m outside and going to try and find a way to get a bit of regular water in there!

Now for the Garden bird list for the 4th of April ā€“ sorry itā€™s a bit late, again!

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 2
  3. Carrion crow x 2 ā€“ flyovers.
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Common Buzzard x 1
  6. Dunnock x 3
  7. Long-tailed tit x 2
  8. Magpie x 2
  9. Woodpigeon x 3

Bird list for April 3rd 2013, and British Bees need help!

Sorry my bird list is a day late, been very hectic with my parents over from Australia, theyā€™ve been wanting to see a fair few things, and Ā get a lot done around the house, also with UK ISA season happening at the moment Iā€™ve been answering a lot of emails trying to help people save and make the most they can out of ISAs (itā€™s not great out there at the moment!), as well as keeping up to date with the Australian finance pages:Ā Saver Scene Australia: FinanceĀ (now closed as I move into gardening as a profession) so far just got the savings done for this week, but about to start on credit cards and best bank accounts. Ā These websites will hopefully only be something I run while Iā€™m injured, as I really want Ā to Ā get back to photography, but had to do something to earn money as I couldnā€™t get into any jobs with my ankle tendons and the carpal tunnel strikes bad at times, I wouldnā€™t feel right asking an employer to pay me when I knew I couldnā€™t do the work at 100%!

My parents are enjoying the UK, have already ducked off to Paris where they said it was freezing cold, worse than Edinburgh! Theyā€™re looking forward to more travel and Iā€™ve been trying to teach them the UK birds that visit my garden, thankfully a few of them have been very obliging and 2 long-tailed tits landed less than a foot away from my dadā€™s face while he was in the garden yesterday, they sang for a bit and then moved on quickly, as LTTs always do!

Garden Bird list for April 3rd:

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Bullfinch x 1, 1xF
  4. Carrion crow x 2
  5. Coal Tit x 1
  6. Common Buzzard x 1 ā€“ very high overhead, once again gulls mobbing it
  7. Dunnock x 1
  8. Long-tailed tit x 2
  9. Magpie x 2, looks to be the same pair collecting twigs off the front trees for their nest, theyā€™ve pretty much stripped the top of one tree of itā€™s leaves.
  10. Robin x 1 ā€“ great to see the robin back!
  11. Woodpigeon x 1

This was posting on the Lothian Birds News yahoo group:

British Bees need help:
ā€œThereā€™s mounting evidence that some pesticides are killing bees. But the UK Environment Minister recently refused to support a European vote to stop the pesticides being usedā€ There is just a few weeks to change the Ministers mind before he votes again

85,000 people have already signed a petition to demand that he protects our bees. The target is to reach 100,000 signatories. You can get involved @ https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-bees.

Bees and other insects pollinate about three quarters of our food so are incredibly important. Bees are dying in great numbers.

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.

More snow, magpies really getting their nests ready.

More snow in Edinburgh today, not as much as yesterday and didnā€™t seem to force the birds into the garden, the starlings are start to gather in a slightly bigger group of over 30 today, was great to see, also watched as Magpies broke twigs off the trees in the front garden to build their nest in the monkey puzzle tree (this link may take you to the archive.org website due to change of host) that I photographed a few weeks back. Ā It was a day of a fair bit of work, finally starting to get the finance section for Australia together the credit cards section done, which can be seen here: best credit card deals in Australia (now closed as I move into gardening as a profession), not a big list, but great to see the birds flying across the sky:

  1. Blackbird x 2, 1xm, 1xf
  2. Carrion crow x 50+ fly overs
  3. Coal Tit x 1
  4. Collared Dove x 1
  5. Magpie x 2 ā€“ theyā€™re making their nest in the monkey puzzle tree
  6. Starlings x 30+
  7. Woodpigeon x 2 ā€“ my parents are shocked at the size of these pigeons in the UK

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