My Garden

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?

  

  

 

Squirrel on Speed?

We get quite a few squirrels in our garden who most of the time are happy to stay on the ground and help clean up what falls down from the feeders above. Sometimes they are more adventurous and try to slide down to the feeders and the ball with seeds from the holding branch. I try to keep the high shrub next to the feeders trimmed, but it is not always at a safe distance. Sometimes our furry little friends manage anyway. I have even seen them jump from the shrub onto the ball, but not successfully catch it on film.

Yesterday I spotted a young squirrel lurking in the shrub and I grabbed my camera. He was trying frantically to get to the metal feeder and he managed in the end, but could not hold on for too long, and he consequently dropped to the ground. Then he ran closer to where I was standing inside the patio doors with my long lens ready. I kept snapping and tried to follow his moves, but he only stood still for a fraction of a second before he moved away with lightning speed.

All of a sudden he ran towards, and into, the glass patio doors, seemingly trying to get in. He was moving so fast that the camera, which I had set to continuous shooting, could not keep up with his moves and had great trouble to focus for that valuable fraction of a second.

It turned out that I had managed to catch him three times, and the very best shot you can see below. He looks enormous on my screen when I open the file, and I certainly would not have liked to meet him at that size in real life. He was running around like he was mad, smashing into the glass several times before giving up. In future we had better keep the doors closed when we are not there!

Sweet Squirrel Show

This morning I was cheered up by some furry fellas. The greasy ball with seeds is meant for little birds like the Blue Tit, but sometimes an adventurous squirrel makes it down the long string to the ball. He is awkwardly big though, however agile he might be, and cannot sit there for very long before it gets too difficult. Look how he bends his tail round the ball to keep his balance. He soon jumped off to go for a safer option.

 

The easiest option is to have some left-overs, seeds discarded by birds on the feeders. Visiting squirrels help keeping the ground tidy under the feeders and the ball, and they normally come alone or in twos, but this morning I had a real treat. Three of them turned up and put on a wonderful show. They ran around, jumped around, sat quietly and nibbled, ran off and hid, came back again, and I just kept snapping. Squirrel show in the morning sunshine made for a good start to the month of May.

 

 

 

(Photos taken through glass patio door. Click on them to enlarge.)

Long Time No Post

My mind has not been so full of fruits for my blog lately, it has been busy elsewhere. But here I am. I have had time to read some other blogs though, and I noticed that one blogger friend had changed to the same template as I have. The colours were different as expected but she had also a big, beautiful picture in her header. I had a look in her source html, but it looked the same as mine, so I could not figure out why my fruit photo would not expand. In the end, after a lot of trial-and-error, I figured out that my photo simply was too small. So I found another one which I had snapped in France at a market, and now it happened! Some tweaking later I had a new banner spanning the whole of my 22-inch screen. I only hope it does not cause problems for people with normal screen sizes.

(Click to enlarge. See how thin the thread is!)

My oldest readers might remember that apart from many birds, we also get squirrels in our garden. I have posted video clips before of squirrels raiding the bird food. With the new bird feeder it is extremely difficult for our furry friends to steal from the birdies, or so I thought. Check out this young athlete, not only can he hang by his hind legs, he also manages to slide down the thin sewing threads that hold the two grease balls full of seeds. But can he get back up? Watch him in this minute-long video. The little rascal!

The Squirrel Squad Left Squirming

Yes, because the new birdfeeder has proven to be squirrel-safe. They just have to feed on the scraps on the ground. (As you can see, I have tried out some features in my new Windows Movie Maker.)



But the other day I could not believe my eyes. Squirrels had in the past managed to knock the lantern top and glass off, believing there was still food there like earlier in the year. The bits ended up on the grass but the glass did not break. Now look what they did. Who else could it be?


I honestly don't watch wildlife in the garden all the time, it's just there when I happen to look out the windows or patio doors. But it was good fun playing with the Movie Maker, that's my excuse.

Winged friends?

Isn’t it just typical? My 84-year-old mother was looking forward to visiting us in Germany, she has not been yet. Everything was planned and organised. Then the Danish SAS cabin crews decided to go on strike, a wildcat, illegal strike, causing chaos at Copenhagen airport for thousands of passengers! Now we have to postpone her visit for two months. Great! Thank you so very much, arrrgh!


Some more trustworthy, true winged friends are the members of a greenfinch family who have taken a particular liking to my new birdfeeder, one that squirrels cannot get into. They have to feed off the ground just like, in particular, the greenfinch young ones.

Who’s a Clever Boy Then or The Continuing Saga of The Squirrels

I was intending to write something about the joys of being a grandparent but I was interrupted by some furry acrobatics of the highest order. Remember the pictures of the squirrels? Well, I lengthened the chain of paper clips to prevent squirrels from eating the bird food, thinking it would do the trick. I had not counted on the determination of our furry-tailed friends. Just take a look at this four-minute video clip. I believe I have to extend the hanging arrangement much more.

One positive thing that came out of this squirrel show was the discovery that if the branch is very flexible and moves at first attempt to move out on it, the squirrel withdraws and seeks an alternative, perhaps the easy pickings on the ground. I understand much better now why squirrels are such good survivors, just look how persistent this one is; aaand… I do not spend all day watching wildlife through the patio doors, honestly.

Cheeky Monkeys a.k.a. Squirrels

Well, wouldn’t you believe it! It seemed safe to hang balls of food in a plastic net from a small branch, but no. I was completely flabbergasted at seeing a squirrel performing a brave balancing act in order to get to the yummy seeds. Squirrel Junior was the first one to find the tempting ball of food. How he managed to stay up is anyone’s guess, but he used his tail to good effect. He even grabbed the food with both paws and tried to pull it off straight up, but the metal paper clip and the net were too strong for him, and he nearly tumbled to the ground in his frenzied attack.

Later Big Daddy Squirrel turned up, probably having been informed by Junior, and continued depriving the little birds of their added nutrition. How thoughtless of them, big bullies! I wish I had had a full battery in my digital camera so I could have filmed it, because the show Squirrel Junior put on was beyond belief. Big Daddy was a more experienced and strong individual and he held on comfortably just munching away until I opened the patio doors. He then gave the opportunity to this little fellow to fatten himself up.

(Photos taken through a glass door with full zoom, which explains the slight blur.)