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!