G'Day everyone,
My name is Captain David Bowley and am a retired Master Mariner Class 1 and have spent over 51 years in the British and Australian Merchant Navies (hence the G'Day! lol) I have two acres of lawns and woodland surrounding my house in Caithness, Northern Scotland and have rigged several 'feeders', seeds, split peanuts, berry and insect suet blocks and various types of fat balls.
I am blessed with a multitude of birds as follows:- Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Long Tailed Tits, Robins, Chaffinches, Gold Finches, Green Finches, Sparrows, Wrens, Blackbirds, Thrushes and Pigeons. Plus two pairs of pheasants which nest in the thick leaf clutter under the trees!
Just today 6th Dec 23 I had a new visitor which I identified finally as an Andris, about the size of a Kingfisher but a smaller beak. He had a black head, white face/throat/breast with black markings on the 'shoulders', black wings with black and white striped tail and a redish fuzz just above the feet. I spotted him attacking one of the fat ball feeders and he was still there hours later, he must have been ravenous. I hope to see him/her? again tomorrow,
I do have one problem with the black birds. They attack the seed feeders and strip them empty in just a few hours leaving nothing for the little ones. Can anyone solve this problem for me, I have tried 'Squirrel proof cage feeders' but that doesn't stop them. The only up side to this is that the blackbirds make so much mess, they scatter seeds all over the place which is cleaned up by the pheasants and pigeons.
I have a bonus too, every so often when doing the washing up/cooking I see a young stag and doe ambling across my back lawn just a few feet from my kitchen window, such a gentle beautiful sight. Unfortunately my Nikon camera has lost the function to transfer my photos to this PC or my lap top so am losing a lot of beautiful photos
All the best to you all and for Christmas and 2024
Cap'nDave
Welcome Captain Dave from a fellow Caithnesian! I am west of Thurso, Here now 10 years or so. A great bunch of folks here but like many things over the years, we have lost a lot of posters, due to one reason or another, very quiet at the moment. Always someone around to help answer questions. I also have a variety of garden visitors. Today have been out 4 times with food, as it is so frosty and the ground is hard! Regards your blackbird question, very unusual for them to be on feeders, normally ground feeders? By no means do I question your bird knowledge, but could you mean starlings? They come in a flock here, onto everything, eat lots and scatter much on the ground. Really nothing can be done, apart from placing some feeders in a different place, in the hope they share! Being in the country, I also have pheasants, at one time, one male would hand feed, lovely birds, always have a sack of mixed grain at hand. Enjoy here, look forward to your posts. Shame about the photos.
Edit, never heard or even seen an Andris and please send the lovely Long tail tits (Lollypops) over to me.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Cin J
Hi Cap'nDave and welcome to the forum, I am way down at the bottom of the country in East Kent! I too am struggling with 'Andris', hopefully one of our more expert posters will be able to identify from your description!
What model is your Nikon camera, wonder if it's possible to find & download editing software from the internet ... there are several knowledgeable photographers on this forum who may be able to help!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)
About downloading pics from Nikon cam onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/.../13_connections_03.html
If you have lost your usb download cable then try here
www.wexphotovideo.com/.../