"Odds & Sods" (old version) - please add to the new thread 2020 instead !

Nice to see your getting some birds in the Garden Hazel.

Forgot to show this Blue Tit.

Lovely set of photos Jim, I haven't been to LM since the forumate meet up last June so can't wait to revisit on 1st November for a week. Glad you got to see some beardies and stunning photos of the regulars including the beautiful Dunnock. Hope to catch up with you soon.

Wow, sparrows for Hazy at last!! and you must be chuffed to get a Tree Sparrow too. Lovely photos and yes it seems Dinky has followed you down the road.

Well done James, lovely photos of the Beardies and also Dunnock, such a stunning little bird.

Tree Sparrows in the garden, that's not a bad result, Hazy! As you say, nice to get the other sparrows, starlings and others too, especially if you haven't had the feeder up long.

Good to see you got a couple of Beardies, at least, Jim, although you don't need to be up early normally as in my experience they often don't get out bed before 9am!

Looks like it's up you, Hazy, to be the first to tempt Walter out, as obviously both Jim and I have failed

Thank you Hazel, it would be nice to catch up after these last few months sadly got a few problems with the car and these need to be fixed or I wont be doing any long journeys for a while :(

Thank you Gaynor.

Jim and Hazel, Many thanks for the gorgeous photos of some fantastic birds. Can't help but love the Beardies and the Robin and Dunnock have beautiful feathers.
Hazel, Lucky you to have a Tree Sparrow. We've seen them at several reserves but never in our garden. As for Starlings, again well done you--at last! We have them occasionally, though not in the current garden just yet but then we have held off feeding while we were gallivanting.
Our trip photos (taken on phone) are too few and not great, but we'll post some eventually, I hope--birding highlights in Alaska were mostly too far away to photograph but several perched Bald Eagles (one on top of a tall phone mast), two gorgeous Golden Eagles soaring over a high cliff, Northwestern Crows being fed outside a little shop , and Steller's and Gray/Canada Jays (several Steller's grabbing peanuts from a back porch and nearly from our hands and 3 Grays in the small trees beside a lay-by partway up the wonderfully named Arctic Valley Road) were definitely top of our Alaskan list. 'Gray' is correctly spelled with an 'a' over there. But I saw no wild mammals bigger than a Mouse, apart from the deceased and stuffed Moose inside the airport terminal! Mouse was in our rented flat; Mr GB claims he saw a Mountain Goat and a Moose while we were driving, but he is not the greatest at describing where to look so I missed them! "On the cliff!" WHERE on the cliff (top? half way down?) which stretches hundreds of feet up beside the road and literally for miles?!! Too late, we are now past it. We also visited Earthquake Park, established after the (still) 2nd biggest earthquake ever recorded anywhere in March 1964, epicentre somewhat east of Anchorage, set forever in my mind as I had a birthday that day. We also had a tour of part of the National Weather Service Office where they not only forecast the weather for south Alaska (Alaska is the largest US State, more than twice the size of Texas) but they also keep track of ash being blown east from the volcanoes in east Asia (Kamchatka) in order to post information for pilots. More later...
Instead of our distant photos, please see: Steller's Jay: www.allaboutbirds.org/.../
And Gray/Canada Jay: www.allaboutbirds.org/.../

Unknown said:

Looks like it's up you, Hazy, to be the first to tempt Walter out, as obviously both Jim and I have failed

  Lol Nige,  it would be nice if Walter was still around but not sure I'll be able to chuck some mealies or waxies out on to the path without providing a lifeboat for the worms - assuming the water levels are still requiring wellies !   Betting that even Walter had to climb above the ground level on occasion to stop him getting foot rot   lol

@ Jim,  good luck getting the car fixed and hope it doesn't hurt the bank balance to much - so costly these days.

@ Ann,  Alaska trip sounds amazing and look forward to the photos in due course.      I had to laugh as you described Mr GB and his sketchy directions -  I can guarantee Mike is worse at directions (ie.,  its on that branch over there - right hand twig;    it's perched on the top of the reed;    its on the ground; )   I get so frustrated with trying to fathom out where he means, along with problems with my deteriorating eyesight where I need much more accurate information !  By the time I spot the bird/animal through my eye-glasses,  lift glasses up to use binoculars, then pick up camera and try lock on to the target - it has often flown the coop so to speak !    To be honest, I'm happy to be out amongst wildlife exploring and walking …. and at least my ears are good    lol 

Thank you Ann, and nice read about your holiday and will be nice to see your picture.

@ Hazel, hope not I would like to do one job but when you dont have a garage its not nice doing it outside this time of the year :(

@ Nige, I know someone who has seen a Water rail were we see Walter so he could still be in the area.

Nice stuff boys n girls... :o)