This morning I spent some time studying the various avian eating activities.
Garish goldfinches;
red-breasted robins – Ron or Ronette;
daredevil dunnocks;
squabbling sparrows;
great tits all balanced precariously on the feeders swinging in today’s cooler east wind.
I was fascinated by the various grips. The great tits grasped the mesh grid;
a goldfinch gripped the perching bars;
sparrows clutched whatever was handy, sometimes causing them to do the splits;
dunnocks fluttered their wings for fear of fdropping off.
Sometimes the flapping was quite frenzied;
sparring sparrows are especially vicious.
Ron, or Ronette, is shown above on a rare visit to a feeder.
Normally he or she, like bigger birds such as pigeons, collects spillage from the ground below.
When the stations are particularly crowded, even the sparrows wait their turn in the blossom trees above.
Jackie continued her considerable work in the garden, and reports that Nugget made several fleeting visits.
She photographed a young spider
from which Edvard Munch surely gained inspiration.
This evening we dined on the Culinary Queen’s wholesome chicken and vegetable soup with bread and butter, followed by flavoursome mixed fruit crumble and custard.
You went from Nuggett to a whole open-air aviary!! I’m surprised bees haven’t decided to build a hive by all these flowers!
We certainly have bees as well, GP. Maybe they do have a hive somewhere. Thanks very much.
Thank you for sharing your observations of bird behavior at the feeders. It’s fascinating!
Thank you very much, Liz
You’re welcome, Derrick!
That was interesting. Your bird population will be booming this spring with all that free food and nothing much else to do 🙂 Nugget clearly has many other priorities other than his need to attend Jackie as she gardens – I wonder if he is a papa yet…..
We imagine there must at least be some eggs somewhere, Pauline. Thanks very much.
Oh! Word has spread through Bird World about the beauty, food, good company and safety in your garden…so they are gathering! 🙂
Beautiful photos!
So glad Nugget is doing well. I wonder about him, Mrs. Nugget, and if there are any little Nuggets.
OOH! The Spider and The Scream! 😮 😀
I studied Mr. Munch in an art class in college. He not only painted some interesting things, he said some interesting things, like…
“Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye… it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.” and “No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.”
HUGS!!! 🙂
So pleased you got the Scream reference, Carolyn. Thanks very much X
I love watching our birds, so I loved this post, Derrick! I’m chuckling at “Ron or Ronette.” Poor little thing…I say we just can him/her “Ronnie.” I’ve know men and women with that name. 🙂 Glad Nugget is well!
What a good idea, Jill. That makes two (or three) of our robins you have named. Thanks very much
🙂
So enjoyed seeing so many beautiful birds today, thank you Derrick. How I would love to have a bird feeder, but alas, they are highly discouraged by our homeowner’s association here in the Phoenix (Arizona) desert. The chaff is enough to attract roof rats, undesirable of course. Personally, I thought a couple years back, OK, no feeder, but perhaps a quail block of lovely seeds all ‘glued’ together with honey or whatever it is holds it all together. Oh big mistake! I woke up to see a javalina, a small one, chomping away on the big block as if enjoying an ice cream cone left out personally for him/her. That was not the worst. The small one’s entire pack, that could not wedge through the slats of the iron fence, was pacing back and forth with hackles up, quite concerned that the little one reunite with them. Lesson learned! So I will vicariously enjoy your birds and feeders! And to think I had been about to let my dog go outside.
Thank you very much, Susan. We had to look up javalina, and in the process learned why it would have been a mistake to let your dog outside.
Indeed!
I don’t like to be picky but probably more of a great tit than a blue tit on this occasion but a very nice selection of bird and spider pictures for us to enjoy.
Thank you very much, Tootlepedal. I never mind being corrected – in fact with birds I rely on my birding readers. Now amended.
I was worried Nugget had disappeared from the scene, but no! But if it is ‘he’ sitting on a nest, then maybe Nuggeta may be a more apt name?
Maybe, Gwen. Thank you very much.
What an enjoyable morning I’m having, breakfast with the birds…thank you Derrick
And thank you for your comments which I much appreciate, Ivor.
That’s made me smile. Life beautifully captured.
Thank you very much, Gary.
Lovely bird pictures.
Thank you very much, Mrs. W.
Your welcome.
I’m so glad I saw this today, Derrick. We are novice bird watchers, but we hung a feeder on our deck this winter and, oh my gosh, the recent activity has been crazy! We have mostly small birds and some are quite aggressive with each other. And they are going through food like there’s no tomorrow. Lots of fun to watch and it’s been our main form of entertainment during our confinement. Hope you are doing well.
Thank you very much, Barbara. We are well. I’ve learned most of what I know about birds through watching through my windows here.
Right now I’m watching a bunch of goldfinches pushing each other off our bird feeder. Of all the birds that come around, they seem to be the most assertive.
That is interesting, because the sparrows here seem to leave them alone
Hmmm – bird behavior is puzzling…
Yay Nugget. But in reality they are all fantastic to watch. Unfortunately there have been less birds around here lately. It may be my lack of garden, or the bushfires.
Thanks very much, John. If yours is a change from last year it may be the fires.
Birds have agile little feet, don’t they? Our neighbor’s chickens have discovered our bird feeder, and clean up any seeds the birds kick out.
Good to hear little Nugget came to visit Jackie while she was working in the garden. I think your white spider may be a type of crab spider. I have seen them in our roses here. They are fond of capturing hapless honeybees coming in to visit blooms.
I’ll watch out for the spiders and the bees. We always have some of those arachnids. Thanks very much, Lavinia
I enjoyed this fascinating up close look into the world of birds. I had no idea sparrows could be so intense. We’ve had some cardinals hanging around a lot. Maybe I’ll get to know them.
Thank you very much, JoAnna
We need to feel the spring, hopefully.
Thank you very much, Laleh
My pleasure.?
Perhaps it’s time the Garden Administration introduced ticketing system. The winged visitors also must disclose the places visited by them in previous two weeks.
🙂 Thanks very much, Uma.
This has been a delightfully documented exercise. I have done this too now and then: observing the different ways birds perch or prefer to extract seed from the feeders. It moves bird watching up a level and we can learn a lot from it.
I do appreciate this, Anne. Thank you very much.
i thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the bird garden! A great start to my day 🙂
Thank you very much, Sue. I’m so pleased
What a collection. Unusual to see Dunnocks on the feeders I thought they ground feeders!
They do spend a lot of the time hoovering up, Andrew. Thanks very much.
Excellent.
Thanks a lot, Rabirius
Lovely photos
If I saw that spider in person I would have ran away
🙂 Thanks very much, More
You’re very welcome, Derrick
You are so very fortunate to have such a variety of garden birds.
We have feeders, but all we attract are sparrows, the occasional wren, rooks, wood pigeons and the ever scavenging seagulls.
x
We are – especially not to have the seagulls 🙂 X
?
How do you tell the dunnocks from the sparrows? I’m not sure which is visiting my pond
I’m pretty much the same as you. As far as I can tell the dunnocks are duller and have a kind of blue ruff – but it is mostly guesswork. Thank you very much, Helen
Thank you, Derrick
Lots of bird activity, not all of it friendly. 😉 Such an elegant white spider.
Thanks very much, Laurie. The birds are rather like bargain hunters at Harrods sales.
That made me laugh.
🙂
We really enjoyed this feathered montage. What a treat it must have been for you to observe as well as record.
Yes, Maj. We could watch them all day long, with most attention in the morning and the evening.
Wonderful photos Derrick! Beautiful little birds! I remember my grandma did not like too much the sparrows because they were too chatty ??
They do make a row, Ribana. Thanks very much.