And here is the evidence.
What? you say.
You know that I have a soft spot for the little birds in general, and in my garden in particular, since I attract them with food in order to enjoy watching them and taking photographs of them. In my previous post on Monday I outsmarted the cats, but today my brain short-circuited, it did not perform any better than a lump of jelly.
Alerted by commotion in the garden I looked out from the kitchen window and saw a bird of prey on top of a struggling woodpecker. What did I do? I rushed upstairs for my camera, which had the short standard lens on. I thought there would not be time enough to switch to the 300 mm lens. So I took two pictures from an upstairs window. And here comes the real brain meltdown. Since I saw that the victim was still alive and kicking, literally, I ran down to scare the predator off, hoping it would leave the poor juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker alone on the grass.
When I had come out through the kitchen door on the side, I took only two steps before the Sparrowhawk took off with its load firmly in its grip. (Here ought to follow a long sequence of very offensive words, but I have edited them out before having written them.)
Lessons learnt:
1) Always keep the 300 mm lens on when in house.
2) Preferably keep camera on same floor as oneself.
3) If you think you are a good photographer, think again!
I should of course calmly have taken the 30 seconds it takes to switch lenses, then positioned myself in a suitable window, and I should have put the camera in continuous shooting mode in order to get as many pictures as possible of this rare occasion, a Sparrowhawk tearing its victim apart. I would have had images of strings of bloody flesh being pulled by a natural-born killer. I had a fantastic opportunity to catch a real wildlife situation in my own garden, but my heart took over. How stupid can one get? Keeping cats out is one thing, but you cannot do anything about birds of prey.
Instead I had to resort to looking at the two blurry pictures, consult the bird book to confirm it was a female Sparrowhawk and then curse myself for being so soft-hearted. D’oh!
Just a quick post about something that happened this afternoon.
I heard a terrible commotion from the dense hedge at the bottom of the garden. Birds were shrieking in the nearby trees, and there seemed to be some movement in the hedge. First I thought there was some sort of fight taking place, but when I went down to investigate I found this young jackdaw on a weak and wobbly branch. It did not fly off, just moved further away from me. I did a quick tour of the web and found out about this bird. I believe it had just left the nest (in one of the tall trees above) and more or less fallen down into the hedge. Since it was not quite ready to fly just yet, it had to stay there while the parents were calling from all around. And they are loud!
The younger they are, the bluer the eyes. Are they not beautiful?
As you could see in a previous post, a male adult was slaving away trying to keep up with the offspring’s food demands. The day after I saw a female Great Spotted Woodpecker doing the same with her young one. It was a different individual, because the red patch on the head did not look the same.
But this mother had also had enough of it, or rather, thought it appropriate to encourage the youngster to start finding its own food. She bullied it off the branch they both were sitting on, trying to chase it away, so it ended up hanging upside down by its sharp talons for a long while, not knowing what to do.
This is often how you can tell the youngest ones apart from the adults, this “lost” behaviour. They can be spotted sitting still for long periods of time, looking bewildered, trying to take it all in. They seem to be thinking hard about what to do next. I can fly, so I must be a bird, but what am I supposed to do all day? I can eat, drink and fly, but then what?
They can look totally lost, but also fluffy and dead cute! Like these young ones, a blue tit and a willow warbler.
Since we got back from holiday I have seen many birds feeding their young. The parent normally comes to my feeding station and then flies off with its beak full of food to the impatient young bird, sometimes a very short distance away.
I have seen the usual great tits and blue tits caring for their offspring, but also nuthatches and even tree creepers, who normally prefer to stay down the bottom of the garden. But the best spectacle on offer are the woodpeckers.
You are often alerted to what is going on by the calling of the hungry youngster. Its helpless and clumsy behaviour reveals its youth. It is very common that the young bird is as big or bigger than the parent, but the colours on the woodpecker’s head gives it away. The adult male has got a red patch at the back of the head and a juvenile at the front or all over the head. The female’s head is all black. The adult in the sequence below was working his little cotton socks off to satisfy the culinary needs of his offspring. Recognise yourself anybody?
(Photos taken through a bedroom window with a heavy 300 mm handheld lens!)
I am puzzled by a garden mystery. Every time we leave to go on holiday, all the birds who frequent my little feeding station have to fend for themselves once the feeders are empty and the strings with empty green plastic nets are fluttering in the wind.
Depending on how long we have been away, it takes a little while before they are back in numbers. After a 17-day Easter break I expected the return of my feathered friends to begin in earnest after three or four days. But still three weeks after our return there are not that many birds around the food despite the abundance and variety on offer. The spotted woodpeckers come frequently to feast on the fatty balls with seeds in them, the nuthatches swoop down on the nut containers like greased lightning and the blackbirds, who are building a nest in the nearest cherry laurel, are almost residential.
The greenfinches, normally the dominant species, turn up every now and then, but only in small numbers. I have seen great tits and blue tits on the odd occasion. There are normally dozens of birds. Where have they all gone?
I have been through several theories about their unexpected absence:
- Is there something wrong with the food? Hardly, because visiting birds seem to like it.
- Has there been a bird epidemic of some sort? Maybe they have perished for medical reasons? I have no way of finding out.
- Have the many predatory domestic cats caught them? Neighbours’ cats are constantly on the prowl, hiding in the shrubbery to jump on the gullible little birds, but I have not seen any evidence of any mass slaughter like a couple of years ago when I found fifteen carcasses under and around the nearest shrub. Then again, they might of course have run off with them.
- Then there are the squirrels, who normally feed side by side with the birds, but they do squirt a lot to mark their territory (I believe). Does that contain a bird-repelling chemical? They have always squirted, so why now? I don’t think I can blame the squirrels.
- Are they all busy reproducing, nesting or feeding young ones with proper baby food like maggots, worms and juicy, flying insects? Possibly, but surely at least one of the parents would occasionally be free to come to the open bar for a well-deserved, healthy snack?
- So, I have only one theory left; they do not like me anymore. They are finally protesting against the inconsistent supply of that extra nutrition they have come to demand. Please come back, I even promise to top up the water at least twice a day!
All of a sudden they are just there, so I had to get some good shots of one of the tall lilies standing guard at the front of the house. Close up they are so beautiful, like poetry, like a love song… There’s colour, shape, texture …
There is only one thing I find slightly disturbing, or am I merely being a bit naughty now, but is the lily sticking out its tongue(s) at me with a yellow hedgehog on it?
It is almost a month since we arrived at our French retreat to enjoy some tranquility. The garden was peaceful but not quiet; birds were singing, there was a constant humming of insects in the air and the flowers and trees exploded in the hot spring temperatures. The birch developed its little mouse ears into full-sized leaves and the apple tree attracted intense attention from all kinds of insects. Now spring has advanced to these somewhat more northern latitudes in Germany with the same force and energy, so we hope to enjoy a relaxed time in the garden this weekend.
To remind myself and to share with any passing blog surfer, I post these three photographs from Normandy.
We have had 15 degrees today and wonderful sunshine. I could not resist the temptation to try my luck with some close-up images of the forsythia outside our front door. Little insects were whizzing and buzzing around, and I tried desperately to keep up with them; aiming, focusing and hoping they did mot move before my remote time delay had activated the shutter! Not easy, I have to say.
I cropped the best and thought I ought to brighten up my blog with some beautiful spring colours. Here you are!
Not only do I keep pen and paper near me or on me for when some writing ideas come up, but this time of year there is a lot going on in the garden, so my camera is never far away either.
When I wake up in the morning I often hear how young birds are calling for more food, now! They congregate by the feeders under our bedroom window. Since we are in mid June now, all fledglings have left their nests and ventured out into the big unknown, and it is fascinating and rather sweet to see how some of them are still trying to understand how to get to the food. They can see others eating from the feeders and those fatty balls full of yummy seeds.
This young greenfinch could not figure out how to approach and land safely to get some food, but ended up on the ground looking slightly bewildered.
This juvenile great tit is getting some help though.
Not only birds are hungry but also this female squirrel is in need of replenishing her energy levels. She is pretty agile and acrobatic!
When the great spotted woodpeckers fly in, the crowd of smaller birds disperse in a flash, and you cannot avoid hearing the young ones calling for food. In these pictures a male adult is feeding a young one.
Since I started supplying water I have also realised that birds do not only have a bath every now and then, but most of all how often they need to drink, and it is not only birds who come to drink. I have many times seen birds repeatedly visiting the water bowls between sessions on the feeder perch. When everyone else has gone to bed the hedgehogs appear.
No wonder I always keep both camera and tripod close at hand. Like yesterday when a jay turned up all of a sudden. I have never before seen one in the garden, only in the woods.
I will try, despite my previous post, to write about animal life in the garden. Thanks to some encouraging comments I have decided to blog about all the topics I mentioned, and I take the easiest option to begin with.
I never thought that I would turn into somebody being teased by his wife for observing and learning about the birds and other animals who visit our garden. Since we moved here over six years ago and I started feeding the birds, I have spotted approximately 30 different species. There have been everything from one-offs like a sparrow hawk to the ever-present greenfinches. Since our garden backs onto a copse, once part of a large mixed forest, we get a great variety of birds.
Before we moved here I had never knowingly seen a greenfinch, but I know them very well by now. One immediately noticeable characteristic is the aggression they show, in particular towards each other. I have blogged about this before, but they never cease to fascinate me.
They are also the only species who stay on the feeder peg and keep munching away at the seeds. Others, like the great tits, long-tailed tits, blue tits, crested tits, black caps, nuthatches and even robins, pick their seed and fly off to a nearby branch and start trying to crack the seed open.
Some other birds are happy to patrol the ground under the feeders to look for seeds discarded by other birds with a much more acquired taste. So there is room for everyone.
As soon as I see a new bird I try to photograph it and identify it using my European bird book. In doing so I have learnt a lot over the years, their names in both English and Swedish and also something about their habits.
I have in the past blogged about sunbathing birds (getting quite a few search hits), but since I have introduced water I have seen many birds both drinking and taking a refreshing bath.
I even saw a jackdaw clumsily landing to get a drink.
Then of course there are the red squirrels, very agile, quick like lightning and rather unafraid. I have posted many times before with squirrels in the leading parts. Sometimes you see them at their playful best, chasing each other up an down and round our big conifer trunk trying to outwit each other. The other week I managed to catch some of them in full flight across the lawn. Rather special don't you think?
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