I was sitting here on this dull, cold afternoon with rain and sleet falling feeling rather depressed. Time for a cup of tea I thought. Then, from the kitchen window I saw two nice unexpected visitors within 15 minutes.
First a pair of lesser redpolls on the nyger seed feeder. The goldfinches weren' best pleased to have intruders eating their personal supplies
.
Then, a visit from a green woodpecker whom I've not seen since before Christmas giving my now unfrozen lawn a good working over.
My mood lightened and I enjoyed my cup of tea even more.
So what has cheered you up today. Go on, hit us with your rhythym sticks.
TJ
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
wonderful photos Teejay, not had a green woodpeckers, never seen redpolls. are you uban or rural?
Hey farmer, farmer, put away the D.D.T now. Give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees, please!
TJ, our GS Woodpeckers eat the sunflower hearts and ignore every thing else.
For me it had to be on the bus on my way to work. Going past the immaculate gardens near town I watched a crow sat happily in the neat beds pulling out all of the pansy plug plants & chucking them aside to have a little dig with his beak. I did actually laugh out loud & the woman behind me said "ooooh the little B***er !!!"
That cheered me up, a crow with a behavioural disorder, now that would be interesting to unpick instead of my usual suspects at work. :-)
This is a nice topic :) Well, bird-wise what cheered me up today was nothing out of the ordinary, just a little pied wagtail hopping about in front of me on my way to college. It was just so jaunty and carefree that it made me forget that I had a lesson which I hadn't really practised for! And yesterday in a new bird book I bought, I found a picture of a green woodpecker feeding its babies, who were hanging their heads out of their tree waiting for their dad to bring them some ants or something - sooo cute!
Unknown said: So what has cheered you up today. Go on, hit us with your rhythym sticks. TJ
Oh and Haggis for tea
...........followed down by a wee dram of Talisker
:-)
ND
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag" Mary Poppins
Beautiful photos TJ, thanks for sharing those. For me it was, yesterday (being the day you asked the question), seeing all my latest "friends" come to feed on the same day:- Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Female Blackcap and Coal Tit - as well as all my stalwarts, of course. Well, bar one which used to be around all day every day but was last seen on Saturday 9th January - missing presumed dead (sad) my lovely Mrs Chaffinch.
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
Hi Squirrel,
I'm pleased your wagtails are still with you. Like your Mrs. Chaffinch, my Pied hasn't been seen since 9th January.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
From all your replies it's the simple things that seem to give the most pleasure. BirdMum (have you changed your name?), I liked your tale of the crow uprooting pansies - very amusing.
Janet, I live in a large village so these days it's more suburban than rural.
ND, I hope you had a good day at Titchwell. I hope you will tell us about it.
My two redpolls returned again today but this time invited some friends to join them.
T.J. - What sort of paint did you use on those sparrows' heads???!!!
Excellent shot by the way.
It's always the simplest things that cheer us up.
Lovely photograph TJ. Haven't seen a redpoll at all recently and never in this garden, but after a couple of quiet days at the feeders, our bird numbers have increased again today.