Ten Lined June Beetle

This cream coloured stripy beetle was found twice outside my front door this summer. Its antenna open up like fans. Isn't it beautiful?

Chicken scaring away pheasants

My hen, Willow, used to hate when animals entered "her" garden. Many times, I saw her scaring away grey squirrels, magpies and particularly pheasants. Below are a series of pictures showing her in action.
You see a male pheasant escorting his females. They like to come here to eat the seeds fallen from the bird feeder and take a bath in my hens' self-made mud baths.

The females are cleaning themselves under the male's watchful eye

The female in the middle has just shaken herself and you can see a little
cloud of dust behind her

Willow has seen the unwelcome guests and slowly makes her way towards the male... 

... picking things off the floor as if nothing was wrong.
But, the male looks worried and walks away.

Willow gets ready to pounce

She is going after the male which quickly runs away

The attack was successful as the male has disappeared.

Silly Willow!

Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding its young

Below is a small clip showing a Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding its young in our back garden. This was taken in June 2013.
A few written comments were added which I hope you will find useful.




Don't you think it is a bit like going to McDonald's for a quick take out?

Parenhood

10th May 2013. I was walking around the garden when I noticed a small ball of feathers hidden in the grass, only a couple of arm lengths away from me. I could have stood on it!
It stayed still very quietly, just breathing. It was a baby black bird that had only just left its nest.

I moved away hoping that its parents would be nearby. They were. In fact, there was also another baby black bird hidden in another part of the garden, 3 or 4 meters away. The parents were kept very busy picking up worms and insects and flying from one baby to the other.

Then, a magpie arrived into the garden. I am not sure if it had realised that there was a very tasty snack for it lying low in the grass or under a bush but Daddy blackbird did not take the chance and bravely tried to distract the magpie away from his fledgling. This annoyed the magpie which would retaliate. In the clip below, I managed to capture the key moments of that special day. Unfortunately, just as I switched off my camcorder, the black bird flew into the magpie at such speed and with such force, that the magpie lost its balance, fell on the ground and remained dazed for a couple of seconds. The magpie had had enough at that point and flew away.

Do pigeons have smelly armpits??

You may have already seen wood pigeons lift their wings high up in the air on a rainy day. It seems a good way to wash their arm pits!
Below, I filmed a wood pigeon in my garden taking advantage of the rain to clean itself. It also takes advantage of a plastic container floating in the pond to get its body that little extra wet. Have a look!

Nuthatch in the garden

As you can see in the first few seconds of the clip below, these birds are very fussy eaters on the bird feeder and therefore throw a lot of seeds on the floor to get to the ones they like best.
Last June, I noticed a baby nuthatch hidden amongst the leaves of the apple tree, pruning itself while patiently waiting for its parents to feed it and I would like to share these few moments with you in that same clip. Enjoy!

Young wrens waiting to be fed

This was a lucky encounter for me! I heard and then spotted a couple of baby wrens hidden in my hedges waiting for their parents to feed them. You can also see the parent collecting insects for them.
These birds are very small, a little smaller than a blue tit. Their tail looks like a small lolly pop sticking up.

Juvenile black bird eating a Bramley apple

In the wild, birds can't eat apples until the autumn when they are ready on the tree, so it is quite a treat for our feathery friends to get to eat them at other times of the year.
This clip was taken in May. The bird you see in the clip is a juvenile black bird who took a fancy to my apples. It would be one of the first animals to come and eat the apples I would put out every morning. As you can see, it just loved them!

Squirrel-proof peanut dispenser

We bought a squirrel-proof peanut dispenser that was put to the test by one of our resident squirrels. The squirrel ended up frustrated and angry. Is this cruelty to animals?? What do you think?

Male moor hens showing aggressive behaviour

The following clip was taken by luck. I was actually looking for another bird that had arrived in the field next door to us. It features two male moor hens showing aggressive behaviour towards each other and showing each other bottoms. This must be quite an insult in bird's language, dont' you think?!

 

 

 

Chickens eat wild rabbit

Last March, I looked out at the window while working on my computer and noticed a magpie actively pecking at something at the top of the driveway. So, I got my camcorder out and filmed it. A little later, my two curious hens were at the scene, making the magpie fly away. They too started to eat that thing. I realised later that it actually was a young wild rabbit. See for yourselves:

Using human hair as nesting material

Put some hair in a corner of your garden and watch small birds help themselves during the nesting season. Below is a short clip of a great tit picking some lovely nesting materials with my husband's newly cut hair.

Cute baby rabbits

Here are a selection of pictures taken from a window into our garden. These wild rabbits are very young and only just allowed to venture outside by themselves. Enjoy!

Thieving squirrels don't like apple skin

My apple tree produced so many apples last autumn that I was able to store a lot of them in the shed and would throw a couple a day out for the birds to feed on.
Black birds, field fares, robins, mag pies, crow and blue tits are all the birds that I saw eat the apples (in order of frequency, black birds being the most frequent feeders).
But, there was another animal that also enjoyed my apples. It was funny to notice that squirrels don't like apple skin and spit it out to eat the flesh inside.
The only problem with squirrels is that they are really greedy and steal the apples away as soon as they are small enough to carry.
Below a little clip on my thieving squirrels:

Hen attack

Pheasants often come to our garden in the winter and spring to eat the seeds that have fallen down from the bird feeder.
I was filming a couple of female pheasants when something funny happened. This should make you smile.

 So, what did you think?

Young black bird

Below are a few pictures of a young black bird which had only recently left its nest. He/she was waiting patiently for his parents to come and feed him, looking around and pecking at things.

 

Excess apples for wildlife

My apple tree produced a lot of apples last autumn. I put some in the freezer and stored the rest in the shed on trays wrapped in newspapers.
Throughout the winter, I was able to throw a couple of apples every day for the wildlife to feed on, usually the ones that were starting to go brown. We are nearing the end of May and my stock of apples has just run out. Birds, such as black birds, magpies, crows, pheasants, robins and field fares really enjoyed them. Other birds might have eaten them too but I did not see it. Squirrels were fond of them too.
Below a field fare eating an apple. This little chap was quite a bully, chasing away any black birds getting near "his" apples! He seemed to waste more energy guarding the apples then eating them.

One Sunday morning, I noticed a (male) wiesel running back and forth in the front garden. It was looking for a baby mice (I think). It did find it but unfortunately I had stopped filming just before it picked it up and ran away... The video is a little shaky because the wiesel would not stay still

Bullied young female pheasant being a smart bird

In the video clip below, you will see how a young female pheasant outsmarted an older female who would pick on her when eating the seeds fallen from our bird feeder.

Unterrupted mud bath

In the video clip below, you will see a wild female pheasant having a mud bath under some hedges. She then has to stop to leave space for my two hens Holly and Hazel. I have noticed that pheasants, particularly female pheasants, like to use my hens' mud baths (yes, they do have a few "self-made" baths dotted around the garden - unfortunately for me really because the mud baths become rather unsightly and messy deep little craters). My theory is that pheasants think it is a safe place to go. Wouldn't you agree?

Wild pheasants under the oak tree

Wild pheasants are a common sight in our garden. Although four male pheasants together is quite an unusual sight because of their territorial nature, they happily gather under our oak tree to feed on the fallen acorns. Female pheasants have plain coloured feathers making it virtually impossible to see them unless they move.

Four male pheasants

Camouflage feathers

A tint of red at the front of the eye

My hens' favourite food

Here is a small video clip of my hens eating their favourite food: banana.



This clip was taken in December 2013. Hazel, the ginger hen (on the right) is dead now. She was killed by a fox a few weeks ago.
It is funny how they wipe their beak on the ground after eating.

Pheasants in the garden

As we are surrounded by fields, pheasants will often come to our garden to pick fallen seeds from our bird feeder. Look at this male pheasant below waiting patiently and looking up in the air!

Do you know what this pheasant is looking at?

It is actually waiting for small birds to come to the bird feeder and drop seeds on the floor. Nuthatches, and to a lesser extend blue tits and great tits, are very messy eaters and will pick through the seeds to get to their their favourite ones dropping a lot of food on the floor in the process. This is a great opportunity for ground feeders and larger birds who could not otherwise reach the bird feeder to get their share.

Hens don't like to share - part 2

Here are a couple more pictures. You can see how big the frog is. So big in fact that my hen could not eat it.... What a waste!

Hens don't like to share - Part 1

Another of my hens caught a rather large frog last summer. It was funny to see the other hens run after her around the garden trying to steal the frog from her but they failed... She certainly did not want to share the frog!

Hens love frogs

One of my hens caught a small frog last summer. Her instinct was to peck the head for a quick kill. She then spent a long time pecking the rest of the frog's body. I guess she was trying to break the bones into smaller pieces? As soon she saw the other hens coming towards her, she ran away as she did not intend to share her catch with anybody else. Then, she finally gobbled it up. You can see in the clip below what she does at the end. Funny, obviously, they don't have napkins like we do.