Birds

[chickadeedeedee]

Got birds? We have more than we can count. Here's a few:

Orange-winged Amazon Parrot Clyde and Green-cheeked Conure Nikko....








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Kramer, the Starling




Chickadee

[obelixx]

How do you manage to keep birds with all those cats around?

[Juliet]

That is a lovely close-up of the starling, Lydia - they are so common round here it's easy to forget what beautiful birds they are (I guess their behaviour doesn't help!). I've been trying to take a few pics of birds in my garden but the only ones I can get that close to are the collared doves - think I need to be more patient!

[chickadeedeedee]

The birds pictured are in the aviary and the cats do not visit there. I do have Clyde the parrot in other parts of the home from time to time to watch TV with us, for example. The cats are familiar with him as we have had him since 1995 and are instinctively wary of his huge beak. LOL!

Starlings are beautiful birds. I hand raised Kramer since he was about 7 days old. He is a better talker than any of the parrots we have. One of the things he says is: "I am sweet sweet Kramer. I am sweet AND a joy!" Obviously he is correct. His speckles are little hearts.

The Grackle, Blue Jay and some doves are on the enclosed porch. Here, the cats can go and have a look around. They leave the birds alone and are more interested in the squirrels outside on the patio.

C3D

[rhodadendron]

Hi C3D

Is that little bird the one you got your board name from? I loved your story about how you chose your name on the Beeb board

Rhoda

[sweetleaf]

When I was a small, bespectacled, shy child I went on a school trip to Bourton-on-the-water.
The usual buddy system was utilised but unfortunately there was an odd number of children in the class and I ended up as the only child without a buddy.
First stop on the trip was a Bird sanctuary and I was fascinated with a parrot just like the one in the picture, and stopped to talk to it, it was a good talker. ;D
Hours later when the children were being counted back on the bus to go home. having been to the miniature village and had their lunch they realised there was one child missing....me.
I was hungry, and had gone to look for the others thinking that they would be somewhere nearby, and my teacher found me at the ticket office.
I had only been worried for a few minutes, but in fact they had left me behind 4 hours earlier!
Always liked Parrots

[chickadeedeedee]

Hi Rhoda.

Yes, that is my sweet little Chickadee. I hand raised her and my user name is in memory of her beloved call : "Chick-a-dee. Chick-a-dee. Chick-a-dee-dee-dee."

<wiping-a-tear-smiley>

[chickadeedeedee]

Eastern Screech Owl (Otus asio)


~Obviously NOT in the garden but in our living room on the couch. Doesn't everyone have such a youngster on their couch at least once? LOL!~

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Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)


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Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

[Juliet]

Love the owl, Lydia

And my collared dove would like to say hello to your mourning dove:


(though I'm afraid s/he's not looking her/his best at the moment - s/he's moulting!).

[Deleted]

Do the birds know something we don't about the future weather?

I always have bird feeders up and currently the supply of sunflower hearts and whole peanuts are disappearing at a fantastic rate. There can be up to 10 blue tits and 6 great tits plus up to 6 greenfinches, many sparrows and at the moment an odd Siskin and goldfinch feeding daily although the Siskin number may reach 50 during the winter.

There are sunflowers growing eveywhere from the seed the coal tits hid in the winter. They have not made an apearance yet.

[chickadeedeedee]

Hi Juliet and hi Juliet's lovely Collared Dove.

Hi Toadspawn. I think that Nature may have a clue as to what's next weatherwise. I noticed our birds that migrate have made an earlier than usual appearance or disappearance this summer. I think for us that means: Oh. Oh!

Here is a garden visitor that someone e mailed to me. An albino peacock in her garden.



C with 3Ds

[chickadeedeedee]

Here is a fun site to improve your bird counting skills when out birding ... or a nice way to spend some time.

www.stigc.dk/projects/countinggame/index.asp

C3D

[Deleted]

Hi All, nice to meet you! Love all the pix you've posted, they are fab. We were lucky enough to have collared doves nest in our front porch last year, and twice this year. What fun it was watching the babies get big so fast, and taking their first flights was hilarious! A few stuck on the windowsill for a while until they figured out how to get off again!

As for birds feeding in the garden, mine seem to have disappeared. Usually the feeders get emptied very quickly, but over the past few weeks I've not needed to re-stock. I'm a bit confused by this - any ideas ladies and gents?

[toonia]

As for our plants, it's been a weird year for birds too. I keep feeding all year and the first brood of babies was really late. At the moment I have mainly sparrows, the odd bluetit, a nuthatch and a greenfinch who come regularly. There is a lot out there in nature for them to eat at the moment, seedheads and berries. I think Odd Bill on "Springwatch" said birds could delay having babies until this late in the year so we may yet see an influx!

[skarloey]

Hi CD3,

The albino peacock is a beauty. Just lovely.
I don't encourage birds into our garden because of the cats. They don't 'do' bird catching or mousing for that matter either. (I heard keeping them in at night helps this and I think it works.)
However, I just got 1/2 an allotment with no sign of any cats so I'm going to set up a little bird table there.

Now, what sort of food might I put out to encourage an albino peacock? ;D

Skarloey.

[skarloey]

P.S Great game but I was USELESS!

[chickadeedeedee]

Here are three links to one site where I have posted a series of photographs of a baby bird as he grew and changed.

There are many photographs and the post was broken up into 3 individual posts showing the


~~~~~Metamorphosis~~~~~

forum.biggonline.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=964

forum.biggonline.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=963

forum.biggonline.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=962



I hope you like the series!

I also invited the members of that forum to have a look at Garden World Discussions! :-)

C3D

[4pygmies]

Argh, they're really sweet. I'm not too keen on baby birds close up I must admit - I think they're a bit reptilian, but they are very cute when feathered up! My grand daughter has been terrified of birds since a peacock advanced on her in full regalia 2 years ago when she was only two herself - frightened the bejasus out of her! Since then I've not been allowed to let my chickens out when she's playing with my daughter (6) in the garden. This summer we took her to a farm park and she was so entranced by the baby chicks that my daughter persuaded her to hold one and now she follows my old girls about. Thank goodness, I think it's a sad waste for children to be scared of animals, don't you? If they don't have a good relationship with them when they're children, they won't care about them when adult. And there's not enough caring in the world now (sorry, won't go into a rant!).