Young red kites quarrelling and flying around

This was taken in June. A view from my back garden. You don't usually see so many red kites together so I am assuming there are siblings practising their flight. They quarrel like siblings too. ;-)

Baby chaffinch feeding and being fed

Some chaffinches are picking up seeds fallen on the ground from the bird feeder. A great place for the parents to bring their newly fledged offspring.

The video below shows some baby chaffinches, still unsteady on their feet, picking up seeds while waiting for their parents to feed them.

A feeding lesson

In May this year, I noticed a female Great Spotted woodpecker teaching her young ones (one male and one female) how to fetch food for themselves. While still feeding them directly, she would also gather pieces of peanut from the bird feeder and place them in a small crack between two branches in our apple tree for them to get.
Have a look at the clip below. You will also notice that she gently pecks the young birds on the head to tell them to fetch the food themselves.
You can also see one of the babies trying to eat from the bird feeder but not very successfully.

Some clips were filmed from indoors and some outdoors. The outdoor clips have slightly better image quality and you can also hear the babies being fed. They sound like a squeaky toy. The funny thing is that the adults sound just the same themselves.

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.