A brilliant day weather-wise and watching the garden birds with two Common Buzzards doing an elaborate courtship aerial display, robins posturing big time and a Long-tailed Tit using its foot as a fork to eat the pastry !! The sunshine certainly had the birds very active and most of the nest boxes were being checked out with some Blue Tits already taking nesting materials in. Here's a selection of photos from a full on day in the garden ............. and I nearly forgot ............. we have frog spawn in the pond too !
Firstly, the Common Buzzards doing the most beautiful and mesmerising courtship display; these birds nest nearby but the only problem is every time they are in the air so our the Corvids chasing them away which is a pity. This buzzard display took place very high up as they were locking claws/feet and tumbling round and downwards in a spiral so photos are only record shots which I have hard cropped and put on to one photo to give you an idea of the elaborate courtship routine.
I've tried to crop one of the shots and try make it more visible to see the interlocking of the feet - only a record shot again but was incredible to see
and where there are buzzards there are corvids ................................. in pursuit
part of the lookout Mafia !
The next interesting thing was watching a Long-tailed Tit using its foot as a fork to eat ............ I guess with having such a tiny beak they are able to take a much larger wodge of food (pastry in this case) in their claws which they take to a nearby twig so they can continue eating.
they love pastry :) ........... but not as much as they like pure cheese lol
I have filled two fat cake/ fat ball feeders with bought nesting material and also some dried moss
Nutty was checking out the nesting materials too although she prefers dried leaves and bark plus a bit of mud thrown in to the mix lol
Frog spawn in the pond ............
Robins posturing - big time !!!
even the gorgeous Mrs Bullfinch turned up; I saw her mate too but he didn't hang around for his pic !
We have two pairs of Bullfinch; this lady has Papillomavirus on her legs which is sad but the other three bullfinch are in peak health.
Lollipops again ......
Cheesy-pop !!!!
I put a fresh block of mild cheddar cheese out once it had some pastry first !! I have to monitor its salt intake lol
Two Jays called in too; I have stopped putting out whole peanuts now breeding season is underway but they took kibbled nuts and pastry
this is the 2nd blue tit with beak deformity but enjoying an easy meal of pastry
Nutty was eating pastry too :)
and I couldn't leave "Dinky" out could I ? !!! he was nipping to the live mealworm dish - about 50 times lol
about to pounce on the mealworms !
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Regards, Hazel
What a brilliant set of pics! The 'Banana Robins' are wonderful.
Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos
(One bush does not shelter two Robins)
Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)
Glorious photos, especially for a garden. All you need is a hide and you could charge entry!!
I've seen the lollipops use their fork-feet like that, too, even with seeds. Very acrobatic and fun to watch.
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Nige Flickr
That's an amazing montage of Buzzards you've assembled, Hazel. It's a great time of year to see all the birds displaying prior to the breeding season. The LTT is very clever using his claw as a hand. Don't think I've ever seen that.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Thanks Ann and Tony, I thought the buzzard was overhead this morning as there was a lot of "mewing" but only to find out it was the Jay sitting in the tree complaining I don't give him whole peanuts any more lol
as for LTT's, I have only ever seen one using it's foot once before when I assumed it was due to some sort of injury when I saw the leg being used at this angle ! seems they are clever little birds who have found a way to collect more pastry to take to nearby twig rather than make several trips !!
Lovely Hazel, nice to see Dinky put in an appearance. Those georgeous lollypops are so cute and clever to use their feet for the pastry.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.