Feeding the Birds

Nij and I love all wildlife ... well OK all wildlife that doesn't fall into the category or spiders ... well OK that doesn't fall into the category of spiders or insects in general. But you get the general idea.

When our neighbours fence came down as a result of the high winds a couple of weeks ago, it forced us to look at our bird feeders. We love to see the birds in the garden and do get quite a variety. We get usual suspects like blackbirds, starlings, thrushes, a lovely cheeky robin, lots of blue tits and finches, loads and loads of woodpeckers and way too many magpies and pigeons. We also occasionally get some stunning birds of prey and our most unusual visitors, seen quite often either on the roof or the top of one of the trees, are a pair of herons and we are very grateful to our next door but one neighbours for keeping a well stocked pond to keep the herons happy!!!

We used to get dartford warblers when we first moved in, but a big fire in 1995 destroyed some of their habitat and they haven't returned to our garden. We also used to have wild pheasants who were so cheeky. We used to feed them every day - there was a male and three females and they had chicks and came for a couple of years. They were so cheeky that if the food wasn't out they would come onto the patio, up the steps and tap on the dining room window asking for their food. They were gorgeous but they too disappeared int he big fire and we think their homes were destroyed too.

Anyway - I digress. We decided to invest in a new multi feeding station as well as our squirrel proof feeders (oh yes we have loads of squirrels too) and it arrived today.  We will hopefully erect it at the weekend and see what comes to feed.

 
I have a new page to share today which was made with a brand new collection by Dawn Inskip called Muggles and it is available at her store at Scrapbookgraphics.

It has some really neat things in it including some wonderful plastic pockets.

The photos were from our 2010 elephant hunt in London. Somehow the Bournemouth lions, whilst lovely, didn't quite do it for us in the same way.

Today I am thankful for

• managing to sit down for 10 minutes .... just
• my little boy being so adorable standing on his back legs for ages just to be next to me.

My 1 minute devotion today is

Although I enjoy my privacy, there are a lot of reasons that I don’t like being single:

• There’s no one else to eat the leftovers.
• No one is there to tell you that you forgot to remove the price tag from your new dress.
• There’s no one to share a prayer with.

Small things, really. But they loomed large for me during a period of bitterness about my marital status. My only sister, Natalie, had just gotten married and it made me all the more unhappy about being single. Suddenly, couples holding hands in the mall made me jealous, and babies gurgling at me over their parents’ shoulders in church would prompt me to angrily remind God about the joy He was withholding from me.

Finally, after some prayer, I decided to come to terms with this resentment and write it all down. By the time I’d reached the end, two things stood out. One was that my real complaint was not having anyone special in my life. And the second—which surprised me—was that there actually were some things I liked about living alone! By the time I’d finished my second list, I could actually laugh.

Reasons that I like being single:

• You don’t argue with anyone about money, sex, or kids.
• You have lots of funny stories to tell about nightmare blind dates.
• The last chocolate chip cookie is all yours.

Well, as you can see, it helps to have a sense of humor, and to remember there’s always a good side to every “wrong.” God knows what He’s doing with my life—and it seems I need to learn, over and over again, to trust His plan.

Comments

[Barb in AK]

Lovely bird feeder! I hope you are able to get your pretty songbirds back.
Wouldn't it be fun if the whole world used golf carts to get around? Of course, they wouldn't be much fun when it hits -23° !!!!

[Val]

Hi Karen, A friend of mine when he was junior school age, used to have a blackbird visit their garden every day. It got used to the family and used to follow my friend down the road to school, and be there sat on the gate waiting for him at 3.30 when school finished. The bird would sit on his shoulder or backpack all the way home! Thank you for the lovely video. I hope I can do something like that when I retire, but not for a long time yet. Take care, Val x

[mary]

We have been feeding the birds every day in our garden for the past seven years, and it is always a very busy feeding station. We mostly get sparrows,starlings,finches , and the robin pops in and out so quickly that if you are not watching the birds feed, you can easily miss him. We do get lots of pigeons and crows pecking the feeders to let the seed fall on the ground Ive made a couple of mini books of the birds that feed in our garden.
They remind us to feed the birds in the winter, I find that they feed more in summer, as they are feeding their young as well I have photos of the goldfinch feeding their young, also the sparrows feeding theirs. it is a sight I never get tied of