Thursday 21 January 2021

Birdlife

Monday was exciting, not because of my trip to Morrisons for shopping but because I spotted my first ever Treecreeper. All because I forgot to post a letter on my way out and all the time I was out, so turned into our track and stopped to post it on my way home again and when I got back in the car something in the tree beside me moved and caught my eye, and it's white front was much too white for anything else and by the way it was moving at great speed up the tree trunk it just had to be a  - Treecreeper!
 
Photo from the RSPB  website

Treecreeper 
 
They aren't that uncommon, but just difficult to spot.
 
 It's the RSPB Great British Garden Bird watch at the end of the month, I'm no good at sitting still long enough so won't be doing it myself plus I've only got fat-balls out for the birds at the moment as I didn't want to order any other wild bird food until after the move.
 
It's surprising how garden birdlife varies so much. At the smallholding we often saw lots of Goldfinches and Long Tailed Tits and we did here until magpies started nesting in the top of one of the poplars on the meadow in 2018. But we never saw house sparrows there whereas here they are everywhere all the time.
 
Also interesting to note that years ago spotting a Kestrel hovering would be something to remark on, now it's unusual not to see one perched on the wires or hovering by the road edge. And I can remember how exciting it was when we first saw Buzzards at the smallholding and again now it's quite common to see one lifting off from a field or perched in a tree whenever I'm out. 
The bird that's now rarely seen is a Song Thrush. Years ago you could often see the remains of a snail shell where they had been bashing it. I don't think I've seen one here at all.
 
Back Tomorrow
Sue
 (has the delete button for comments disappeared on other blogs, or is it just me? Annoying if it's been removed - means no way to get rid of published rubbish.)


22 comments:

  1. Yes, I found that. However if you go to your comments on the home page, where all your headings are, published comments are there and you can just select the dustbin against the publish comment to get rid of it. Took me a while to find how to do it.

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  2. I know the feeling of excitement when you see a new bird or flower in the hedgerows - nothing beats it. We get a better variety up at the cottage than in our garden here at home in West Yorkshire. They are mostly Bluetits, Blackbirds and Magpies.

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  3. How exciting to see a treecreeper! Your comment about song thrushes reminded me about my Nana who used to put snails on the garden wall for the thrushes. I occasionally see one in my garden, but they are a rarity. A bird I do miss is the cuckoo. I used to hear them every year when I was a child. xx

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  4. I must try to remember the bird count this year. As to the disappearing button, I still have mine, but, the other day other buttons disappeared. They're back now.

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  5. I love to watch the birds especially last night when I could not sleep and watched Winter Watch .
    I have just ordered 13kg sunflower birdseed.
    Our weather is so strange at times, really strong winds, heavy rain and now snow at the back door and it's sunny on the front at least we never get bored.
    Hazel c uk 🌈🌈☀️🌀☁️🌧⛈

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  6. A tree creeper. That is wonderful. I would have been so excited too. xx

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  7. Yes, you're right my Delete button has vanished too. That's two changes in two weeks ... last week we lost the ability to 'see' who our new Followers are by hovering over their little picture box in the Followers Gadget ... what is Blogger up to?

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  8. You are right about bird life changing. Wrens are some of our most commons birds, which didn’t used to be the case. We also have a pair of kites that are great fun to watch, and listen to.

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  9. Yes, my delete button has gone. I found it useful when I made a mistake and clicked the 'tick' on the dashboard. And if I wanted to delete a comment when the whole thing turned into a punch up. I used it for tidying up. Now they have to be deleted at source when they appear on the dashboard. If you check your total comments list you can weed them out.

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  10. I saw a tree creeper last year and, yes, it was really fast!

    You can still delete comments by clicking on "design" at the top right of your blog and then clicking on comments on the left. Don't know why they've taken it away - I hope they put it back! I want to know where the edit pencil went. I now have to go through that design route to correct any spelling mistakes that might have slipped past me. (Click "posts" then click on the one you want to sort it)

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  11. I’ve never seen a tree creeper, Sue, perhaps I don’t have enough trees! I do the rspb bird watch. I set myself up with a coffee and a couple of biscuits and I’m happy to sit there nice and still. I just wish once in my garden, the birds would do the same, especially the house sparrows and starlings. One year I had over twenty sparrows and 15 plus starlings at one time, a nightmare to count, haha.

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  12. When we lived on the farm we had a small copse of trees just outside the kitchen window and we seemed to have a resident tree creeper. I loved it - the speed and efficiency it showed going up the trunks was amazing.

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  13. I don't think I have ever seen a treecreeper, not that I have ever looked for one.

    The quick edit pencil has also gone. I looked on the blogger help forum last night and noted that several people have asked what is going on. They replied they know nothing about it but will look into it and report back. As others have said, with comments, and editing too of course, it is still possible to do the things by going back via Design/Dashboard. I note that the delete button has also disappeared when leaving a comment elsewhere.

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  14. What a sweet little bird. I'll have to check if we have them here in Canada!

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  15. Here in the USA , we have Brown Creepers , are they the same , not sure . I would love to see a Kite . We used to have lots of Kestrels , but I don't see them as often now . I love to read your blog .

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  16. Not just the 'delete a comment' button, but also the "quick edit' pencil when you spot a typo on last week's post . . .

    As Dc says, you can get to the comments from the Blogger admin dashboard, but it takes much longer. Same with going back to edit a published post.

    Well done with the treecreeper, I see one here occasionally and they are such lovely little birds.

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  17. It is exciting to see a bird you rarely or never see normally. It's interesting how different areas can have different types of birds. Even though you are not moving too far away I wonder if you will see a different variety of birds?

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  18. What a delightful bird - one I had not heard of.

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  19. My friend and I have also turned into birdwatchers while out for our daily walks! Yesterday we came across a whole lot of cardinals all in one particular spot! The males are so brightly coloured! There were a lot of females about as well so even though we didn't see any nests, we assume it is mating season! Even though they move so quickly my friend managed to get quite a few really good photos so it made her day!

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  20. What a thrill to see a new bird. Our thrushes are also not as common as they used to be. Our most common birds here are blackbirds and house sparrows, but I enjoy seeing anything else that comes along :)

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  21. Dc is right. Hit the orange B. Select 'comments' from the list. You can delete (or mark as spam) any comment from there.

    I'll have to keep my eye out for treecreepers!

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  22. I managed to pop down into town yesterday and got some fat balls, sunflower seeds and nuts, just to see what's out there, once they notice there is grub around. I specifically wanted a house that had trees nearby (this has and more variety than at Ynyswen as there are pines) - I'm hoping to see Crossbills for the first time - you never know. Well done with spotting the Treecreeper - we had those at the old place. So far only Robins, Blackbirds, a Wren, Great Tit and Unidentified but possibly Good bird in tree opposite bathroom window. Bino's now in there for ID . . .

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