Wednesday 28 November 2018

Confusing the birds and a walk at dusk

Sunday (25th), a dull day ...
brightened by the sight of the woodpecker on the bird feeder but I noticed that the coconut shell was on the grass for the second time ...
I decided to move them onto the sculpture just outside the window hoping that the marina owners wouldn't mind and that the birds would find the feeders quickly
Parakeet looking for the feeders in the old apple tree ...
but he soon found the new location!

The woodpecker found them too but didn't feed because the parakeet was there.  Not sure if this is going to work as the small birds are not coming in to feed, perhaps the position is too open and they like the cover provided in the tree.  Even the parakeets 'flinch' when there are red kites flying above.  I may move them back.
The weather cleared a little in the afternoon and we went for a walk
Planes taking off from Heathrow at very regular intervals
Hambleden Lock ...
and the weir stream
Hambleden Mill
and home
I'm really pleased with the night-time shots.

2 comments:

Paul Clark said...

Hi Carol

I don't know whether you've noticed but "the woodpecker" is (at least) two. The male has the red on the back of the head - the female has black there.

Small birds (especially finches, tits etc) are going to be much happier if the feeders are near the tree. You won't see them very often, but they are much more vulnerable to sparrowhawks when the feeder is right out in the open.

Paul

Carol said...

Thank you Paul for your comments. I did know about the difference between the woodpeckers but didn't look closely enough at the photo when writing the blog and getting the gender correct. I will do better next time!

I have decided to put the feeders back under the tree (even though I can't see them as well) to once again attract the smaller birds. We usually get numerous finches, tits, robins and wrens which we've missed this past couple of weeks.

We had to smile today ... we have a couple of squirrels that take from the seed feeder when it's in the tree but obviously he can't get them where they are currently and he/she was sitting on our pontoon looking up enviously at the feeders, so he'll be glad when I move them back too.