A "Quiet" Day At Home!

As I didn't go anywhere today (apart from some great goal keeping from me this morning) I decided to sit in my garden and try and get some good photos of the birds that feed and visit my garden. I especially liked this picture I took not only because it's a cute, fluffy juvenile Greenfinch, but also that I was about half a metre away when I took it (I was trying to hand feed it)

I also got this picture of two Goldfinches which to be honest I don't think seemed to like each other.

There were quite a few tits in the garden this morning especially Blue Tits.

There were 3 or 4 Great Tits as well, however I could only manage to get this picture.

A pair of Coal Tits were passing through, however sadly I didn't get a picture.

There was a Chaffinch sitting on the fence, first male I've seen in 2 days.

Finally the local farmar had hired another farmer to plant the grass seeds in the field behind my house.       

                                

Which has invited a whole new variety of birds like the Pied Wagtails.

The best thing about today was getting an all new visitor in the garden, a Nuthatch.

I think this is a male.

I love this picture because I got the Goldfinch elegantly coming into land.

A feeding Greenfinch and Goldfinch

So much to enjoy in the garden today.

I am really looking forward to going to Martin Mere tomorrow.

Mr Fluffy at the start of the blog is a definite My Sunday Best

Green to Brown

I woke up this morning and the field was pea green as usual. And a greedy, noisy Magpie (Pica pica) was feeding in the garden. 

When I got back from school (3.30) the field had been ploughed.

 I knew shortly after, all the Black Headed Gulls would arrive and they did (lots of them).

A plough man's lunch!

All the Starlings were coming in to roost.

And to finish off the day another beautiful sunset.

Sky Watch Friday

Sturnus Vulgaris

I like getting Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in my garden even though they are a bit greedy.  At the moment there are still a few juveniles.

The adults are rather nice to look at because I think the speckles look stunning (however they definitely wouldn't win X factor with their voices).

The Starling is slowly declining in this country along with other someother birds as well. Starlings normally form dense flocks however with wide spread declines these flocks have reduced. They normally lay 4-7 eggs; and 1or2 broods between April and July. 

I think we'll need to stock up on lots of supplies to keep them fed this winter.

Cor.....morants!

Yesterday I went to Anderton Nature Park with my mum, and as we started the journey I spotted what I think is a Speckled Wood butterfly.

                                     

When I arrived at Hadyns pool there wasn't much there apart from a Grey Heron and some Teal.

 Sooner or later we set off to Neumanns Flash which was teeming with birds.

I especially liked watching the feeding party of Long Tailed Tits which I finally got a pitcute of.  Every time I tried to find them through the lense, I lost them. 

It was rather nice to see the Black Swan preening it's self, first one I've seen in a while. 

 

Yes I know these are Cormorants but I never realised how white they are underneath.

 

But then these two didn't seem to have the white underneath, all a bit confusing.  Mum said maybe it was the way the light was shining on them, but do you have any thoughts?  As they flew away they formed a lovely V shape.

On the way back, I got watched by a cheeky squirrel . 

 

And to finish off the day the House Martins were landing on a house roof. Maybe a little rest before the journey ahead of them.

 I wanted to share this post and all the helpful comments with Wilde Bird Wednesday.

Great Tits and the return of the Starlings!

Because the Great Tit is one of my favourite types of Tit I wanted to write about the ones that keep coming and feeding in the garden. Because the Great Tit is one of my favourite type of Tits, I like to give up a lot of my time watching them.

When I look at them through my binoculars it is quite interesting to see them taking a nut and flying off into cover. This morning there were about 4 of them taking nuts out of the feeeder again and again (of course I had a lot Blue Tits this morning as well).

And guess who else is back?

Finally the noisy squabbling Starlings are back, and there are so many of them.

Better put fat balls on the shopping list!

And another brilliant sunset to end the day with.

Standing Room Only

I have not seen many Greenfinches in my garden this year, however all of a sudden about 15 have been coming down to feed at a time, which to me is a bit perculiar as we have gone from none to so many almost overnight. I'm not complaining though.

The Goldfinches wanted to join the party.

And the House Sparrows.

For some reason my mum always laughs when they all come down altogether (crazy old mum).

The Blackbird didn't seem very inpressed.

But the Collared Dove made the most of the seeds on the floor.

An unwelcome visitor arrived for the the finches, but I enjoyed watching him.

 And that just left this little chap at the party table.

This has to be my Wild Bird Wednesday post, as so much went on in the garden so close to where I was sitting.

Lapwings, Lapwings and more Lapwings

Yesterday I went to Haydn's Pool and when I arrived there after a long walk there were loads of Lapwing waiting for me. I checked to see if there was anything else but no there was only Lapwing.

When I looked round the corner of the reed bed there was about another 30 of them.

Something suddenly startled them and they all took off at once.

When the Lapwing took off together they put on a stunning show. 

A dragonfly landed right next to us on the fence when we were heading to Neumanns Flash with it's stained glass window wings.

I don't know what type it is, but could you please tell me if you know what type of drogon fly it is (at first I thought it was a Brown Hawker).

This small  group of Lapwing flew over at Neumanns Flash and shortly after more and more joined them - it was amazing watching the flock grow bigger and bigger.