Opportunistic robin

This little robin took advantage of us moving around dead leaves in the garden. He came really close hoping to get an easy meal of small insects. I took lots of picture of him but the following one is my favourite.

How to prevent a gready squirrel from stealing bird seeds

I covered the bird feeder pole with a layer of car grease to try and stop my grey squirrel from eating all the bird seeds. Have a look at the funny clip below to find out how the squirrel reacted.
The squirrel was not hurt, just its ego! :-)

Elephant hawk moth caterpillar

This caterpillar is quite incredible. It is just huge and can be seen in people's gardens in the early Autumn. Have you ever seen one in your garden?

Female black bird warming up with the sun rays

I noticed a female black bird lying down on the grass with both wings wide open. I wondered if maybe she was unwell. I went to get my camcorder to film her. By the time I came back, she was sitting but her feathers were still up puffed up.
But actually, there was nothing to worry about. She was just sunbathing and preening herself.
Have you ever witnessed such behaviour yourself?

Jay hiding an acorn

Just recently, I saw a jay in a oak tree. So, I took my camcorder out and starting recording it. I caught the bird peeling an acorn, eating a little bit and then, wondering where it could hide for later use. It took it two go's. Have a look. It's sweet!

Bee in a thistle flower

I love honey and this little bee is "working for me"!

Do you like honey or do you just think it is just bee's vomit?! :-)

Spot the insect

I was trying to take picture of flowers I found in my garden and happened to get a fly and a wasp in each of them.

Peacock butterfly

I found a lovely Peacock butterfly on my buddleia recently. Which of these three pictures do you prefer?

Cetti's Warbler - Small bird

I came across this lovely small bird while walking on the isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

Bambi deer - White tail deers

 I can't remember where exactly these pictures were taken. Somewhere in the South East, in the park of one of these large stately homes.

This little fawn is nearly the size of its mum:

Family pet

Showing you cute pictures of my dog is not easy..
She is really getting on. She is turning 18. She has bits growing in the wrong places, i.e. growths on her eye lids and fatty lumps on her body and around her neck. She is losing her eye sight. She has arthritis in her lower back and she suffers from kidney failure which makes her extra smelly.

The only thing still working for her is an acute sense of smell.

We bought her a new bed recently but, as you can see in the second picture, staying on it is not that easy :-)

Sad - Lamb rejected by its mum, Final Part

The ewe was now lying on a grass. She looked in a very bad way and having been stuck up side down on the rocks for some time certainly made matters worse.

We decided to give the lamb some cow's milk to give it a fighting chance while waiting for the farmer's son to come back from work.

My brother in law's toddler donated one of his bottles so that we could use it to feed the lamb.
We also put some water in a milk bottle to give the ewe something to drink too.

It was nice to see that the lamb really perked up after its.... first..... drink!



Unfortunately, this is how the story ends. We went away afterwards for a couple of hours and when we came back both animals had disappeared. We assumed that the farmer's son came and picked them both up.
We never found out what happened to that cute little lamb. It is possible that they were both disposed of as hand feeding a lamb takes a lot of time and commitment and the ewe was not in a good way.

We will never know but at least, we tried to help a little.....

Sad story - A lamb rejected by mum, Part 5

A couple of hours later, we came back to the spot where we left the ewe and her lamb. The little lamb was lying on the grass, very quietly, but the mum was nowhere to be seen.

We were in for a surprise...

We found her after a few minutes as she was out of sight on lower grounds. Only a few meters away from where we left them both, she was lying on her back, stuck between two large rocks, with her four legs up in the air. Not sure how it happened, but somehow, she managed to fall off the grass verge down about one meter onto these large rocks. Surely, she would not deliberately jump down there!!!

Below are a couple of pictures showing the type of terrain she fell down onto.

She was still alive though. Her legs would make occasional jerky mouvements. Two of the guys moved her slightly to the side so that she would lie in a more confortable position.

We thought of bringing the lamb to her so it could feed. If the ewe were to die, at leat the lamb would have a fighting chance of survival while waiting for the farmer to come back from work!
This was a very unsuccessful attempt. The lamb could not take to her teat and we could not extract any milk by hand either.

So, we decided to move the ewe back on higher grounds so that the farmer could see her from the road. We had to call for reinforcement as the ewe was very heavy. We went to get the other two brothers and the four of them managed to lift the ewe back to a flat part of the grass and the lamb was brought to her.
To be continued...

Sad story - A lamb rejected by its mum, Part 4

The ewe certainly did not want to have anything to do with her lamb.
We were worried our presence (altough we were still at a distance) might disturb the ewe even more so we thought best to leave them be and check up on them later.

It was around midday and, although it is always cold and windy in this part of Scotland, the sun was warm. So, we were hoping the lamb would be fine.


In the video below, you will see a compilation of two clips. One taken shortly after the ewe and the lamb were "reunited" (you can still hear the man's van in the background). The other was taken a few minutes later.

Sad Story - A lamb rejected by its mum, Part 3

Now, back to my story.
We expressed our concern to the man who stopped to help us. We wondered if she might still be in labour but the guy had a quick poke at her tummy and said no.

As all sheep from the same flock carry the same painted marking on their back, it was easy to work out whose farmer the ewe belonged to.
We were told that he lived a couple of miles up the road. So, a couple of us walked to his home to inform him of what had happened.

A really old and frail man answered the door. He said that there was nothing he could do for the ewe and her lamb. He was nearly blind and would not be physically able to take them to the vet... 60 miles up the road... All he could do was wait for his son to come back from work in the evening.

As the ewe and lamb were "reunited".

To be continued...

Sad story - A lamb rejected by its mum, Part 2

Before I go any further in my story, I need to show you what happened shortly after the lamb was born. It really was heart breaking seeing the ewe ignoring her new born lamb as she did.

Sad story - A lamb rejected by its mum Part 1

We went to Harris, in the Outer Hebrides, in June  2011 during the lambing season.
We noticed that one of the ewes wanted to have nothing to do with her new-born lamb.  Seeing the lamb being rejected, we were not sure what to do. So, we caught the attention of a local man driving past in his van and asked if he could help in any way.
He picked up the lamb and placed it right next to the ewe.

To be continued...

Happy birthday to our family dog

I don't know what my dog's exact date of birth is as she is a rescue dog but using the records the vet has of her, she has officially turned 17.

So, to celebrate her birthday, I will share with you a funny clip where she is being "tormented" for a piece of apple. She keeps opening her mouth confusing the pendulum with her treat.

Redshank / Chevalière gambette

This bird was filmed in Harris, Outer Hebrides.
In the clip below, you can see the bird trying to sleep among the grass. Then, perched on a wooden pole, it makes loud monosyllabic chirping sounds.

Did you know that all that rain we had in England recently is what usually falls in the Outer Hebrides?  The jet stream got stuck too loo down this year and people up there have been suffering from drought!! Yep. No rain for months.  The whiskey distillery had to stop because of a lack of water. Sheep and cattle in the field did not have any water to drink. The grass was turning brown. Unheard of.

Rock Pipit - Pipit maritime

I had to republish this post because it is the only way for me to change the permalink. It was originally named "can you identify this bird please" butI I have now worked out the name of the bird is.
Anyway, as I was saying, I saw this small bird by the seaside, on the isle of Harris, outer Hebrides.
It is a little smaller than a black bird. The sound is "tweet, tweet".

Have a look at the clip below to hear the sound it makes.

Maras - a cross between a rabbit and a small deer

These are really weird looking animals, a cross between a rabbit and a small deer. There are a lot of them at Whipsnade zoo. 

Look at this mara! It crosses its legs over each other just like humans do when sitting down:

That one looks old:

Greedy bird filling up its beak

An adult starling is determined to pick up that little piece of cooked ham that keeps falling off. Have a look at that funny clip.

How do birds drink

The best way for me to describe how birds drink is not using words but a video clip. You can see in the clip below, how the birds lift their heads up and move their throat. A starling and a magpie will be our models today: ;-0




Below, you will find a couple a pictures from the clip:

See the little trail of water?

Female squirrel on a mission

Following my post on acrobatic squirrels, I now know that it is the female squirrel who shows the most acrobatic moves, eating seeds upside down. Have a look at these pictures, paying particular attention to her rear feet. Amazing claws. These are good acrobatic moves, aren't they? I wonder how hard it must be for her to hold food in her mouth in that position....

I witnessed a squabble between birds. They were young starlings fighting over water. They are just as bad as humans don't you think?
Have a look at my small compilation below.

Crow eating in my back garden

Although I am no longer putting food away for crows and magpies because they scared my smaller birds away, I still have a few clips of them that I took a few weeks ago. I had to hide behind my lounge curtain so I could get close to the crows without being seen. You can view a little "collage" below. You can see that the crow is very jumpy and wary. You can also see its eyes rolling around looking at things.

Magpies in my garden

will add this picture to a previous post where I gathered all the birds I can see in my garden.
This magpie is picking some leftover meat I placed on the bird feeder. I attracted magpies in my garden just as their babies had left the nest. It gave me the opportunity to watch their behaviour with their offspring.
This attracted crows too, although they were much more timid than the magpies.
Unfortunately by attracting these big birds, I realised that I also scared away the little ones.
So, I will no longer leave my leftover meat for them to eat and hopefully the little birds will come back to my bird feeder in bigger numbers.

Greedy grey squirrel upside down on a bird feeder

Since publishing my post on "acrobatic squirrels", I have realised that the two grey squirrels who regularly visit my garden both have their own way of eating from the bird feeder.
One eat "horizontally" as per the post mentioned above and the other "vertically" with its head facing down. I am not sure which one is the female though.
Have a look at it in the following video clip.
It must be quite difficult to fill its mouth with seeds and not let a single one fall down. Gravity is not not a problem to that squirrel. Do you have a squirrel in your garden?

Nesting crows #7

This will probably be my last post about my nesting crows. The babies are nearly as big as the parents. The only difference is that the feathers in their tail are smaller than the adult. Otherwise, you just would not know.

Adult

Juvenile

Below is a picture of the two juveniles (I should not call them "babies" anymore!)

In the clip below, have a look at how the crow on the right prunes itself, rotating its neck to about 180 degrees!




Do you have crows living near your home?

Magpie eating lefover food

I caught a greedy magpie filling its beak with leftover food.



It starts eating then, it fills its beak with food before flying away.
When the magpie is no longer hungry but there are still bits left on the bird feeder, it will digg the mud in my flower pots and hide them in there thinking it is a safe place to store food.
But, my dog has a very strong sense of smell and will quickly dig it out again and eat it... This is actually a problem because my dog is old and suffers from kidney failure.... so, I have to watch what she eats...

Nesting crows #6

I know for sure now that the chicks have now fled their nest because I saw them recently. They were sitting near the top of their nesting tree, perched very quietly waiting for their parents to return. They looked just as big as their parents. The only reason I knew they were young birds is because of their behaviour although their voice is slightly quieter than their parents'.
Oh! and by the way, there are two of them!
I will post a clip of them waiting for their parents but in the meantime, have a look at one of them flapping their wings in their nest.

Nesting crows #5

I can't believe the babies take so long to leave the nest. I can't see them properly unfortunately but I occasionaly hear them (they sound more and more like their parents!) and see some wings fluffing.
The parents are busy hunting. They are so devoted. It is lovely to see.
They are so timid that it is impossible to take any pictures or films of the parents when they come down to our garden. They have a very accute sense of vision and as soon as they see something move, even at the back of a room, they fly away.
I have set up my camcorder behind curtains and some fabric and hopefully I will have a nice picture to show you soon.

Black headed gull

I don't know why this gull is walking so proud. Featuring this dark brown "hood", it looks to me it dipped its head in something it should not have ... in mud, I mean!! :-)

Halloween dressing up ideas

A bit of black, white and red face painting and that should make you scary enough.

Song Thrush singing

Following my post on the song thrush eating a slug, you will find below a clip of the song thrush singing. I filmed using a tripod, so no camera shake.

What's strange about this black bird?

In case you have not worked it out yet, this particular black bird has lost his bushy tail. He is left with just one feather, which also looks ready to fall out! Not sure why. Maybe, the black bird had a fight with another male... Any ideas yourself about why the black bird lost his tail??

A hard dog's life

Not much to say about these pictures. These are two comfortable old sleeping dogs.

Pistou is enjoying warm winter sun rays

Trudy in her brand new bed - very soft!

Bear with sad begging eyes

That was a funny moment!

We went to the zoo a while back. We brought with us tuna sandwiches wrapped in aluminium foil. As we walked to the bear enclosure, we saw a group of bears sitting 50 metres away from the fence munching on fruit and vegetables.

Then, I took my sandwich out of my bag, unwrapped it and started to eat. I don't know if it was the smell of the tuna or the noise of the foil, but one of the bears turns round, walked towards me and rested its nose on the fence looking at me with sad begging eyes. 

This was a great picture opportunity!

Little lambs

Below are pictures of lambs. I used the picture with the "47" to make a birthday card for your brother's 47th birthday.

Lamb holding on to Mum's udders