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?