New garden friends and book giveaway winners

 We have had some new visitors to our garden over the last few weeks so I thought I would share them with you, they have been a source of entertainment and I never tire of watching them.

We now have a pair of Thrushes come every day

And they do like to make use of the spar facilities while they are here

Bert, (named by Bonnie, although I'm not convinced he is the original Bert,)  is usually the first one to arrive in the morning, and if I haven't yet filled up the feeder he stands and stares at the kitchen window!  He is quite brave and is back down most times before I've even walked away.

Although I have to say, he is like that person at a buffet who piles their plate sky high, (there is always one isn't there, lol)

I've started to put a bit of cheese out and he wants it all!

Mrs Bert has better table manners.

It looks like she's giving him that look here, lol

We had another greedy flock last week, six juvenile starlings swooped in.  That bird feeder was almost half full when they arrived and they ate the lot within half an hour.

They haven't got all their plumage yet, but still so pretty, I'll forgive them their greediness because I loved watching them 

I had to look this one up, its a female House Sparrow, they have a yellow beak in summer but it turns dark in Winter.  

We still get loads of Tit's to the feeders everyday, especially in the morning and early afternoon, and these last few weeks there have been more Dunnocks too.  I probably spend way too much time each day standing watching them through the kitchen window, but It makes me smile to watch their comings and goings so I'm not going to stop.

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Book Giveaway

 Marlene was the only one who said she would be interested in Lockdown by Peter May.  I already have your address Marlene so will get it in the post to you by the weekend.

Two people were interested in Away With The Penguins so I used Wheel of Names.com to pick the winner and the name that came out was Jean from the blog Shrimpton and Perfect. 

Jean, If you can drop me an email with your address i'll get it in the post to you.

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My favourite waste of time

One of the things I like best about our house is the kitchen window.  I can see all of our back garden from this window, it was one of the things I loved when we came to view the house and I still love to pull up the blind each morning to look out there.

We have both enjoyed watching our many feathered friends visit this year, perhaps they always visited but I was at work and didn't get to enjoy them, but since I've been at home, watching the birds come to the garden each day has become one of my favourite things to do.  I could spend hours just watching the comings and goings 

We have all the various tits visit the feeder, but the blue tits have been the more regular this Spring and Summer, mum and dad bought their babies to feed, that was so lovely to watch.

We have two robins that come at the moment, this is the skinny one, very cheeky, he is the one that comes down close when we are cutting the grass or weeding, I always say hello to him, I bet the neighbours think i'm mad!

And one a bit plumper, he's a bit more shy.

We also have some of the bigger birds visit.  Mr Magpie loves it when I put cheese on the feeder and will keep coming back until it's all gone!

The crows love the mealworms, but are also partial to cheese too.

We also have a Jackdaw that comes who is also fond of mealworms, it doesn't take long for the bigger birds to clear the table, basically they keep coming back until it's all gone, lol

My blackbird is usually the first one to visit, if he come down and there is no food for him he stands and looks towards the kitchen window as if to say, come on it's feeding time, so funny

I wasn't sure what this one was so asked on fb and was told it was a Dunnock, we have probably had these before but I've mistaken it for a sparrow, which I've noticed we don't have very many of.

The woodpecker comes a couple of times a week, once he's fed he sits up in the tree for a while

I've been trying to encourage the Goldfinches for ages, but although I hear them only one year have we been lucky enough for them to come to the feeders.  I put all the right sort of food out but they don't seem to want to come.  This is the closest we had this year. (Can you spot him in the middle?).  They came on and off all that day, so there must have been something they liked there.

But the ones we were excited to see this year, (they have never visited before) were the Nuthatches.

For a few day's I kept seeing a different bird but it was so quick I couldn't get a picture, then one Sunday we noticed half a dozen or so of them in our oak tree, mainly on the trunk of the tree but they would fly back and forth to the feeder.  I finally managed to get a photo and we used good old google to find out what it was.

They came for a good three or four weeks, although I think they have now moved on. 

Although I used to feed the birds when I worked I never got to enjoy them really, so there are some advantages to being at home :-)

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