I set the camera up to film the Jays again today but they didn't turn up while I was filming so here is a short video of the Great Tits and Blue Tits that did turn up.
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We've had a lot of visits from Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Cole Tits, Starlings, Jackdaws and Jays recently. Today I set up the camera in hope of catching some of this action, We discovered that two Jays are visiting our garden and not one as we thought, This clip shows the Finches and Tits on our feeder, The second half of the clip shows the two Jays taking nuts away, The interesting part is the second Jay, Just watch him put 24 peanuts in his mouth, You can see his throat get larger as he puts more and more peanuts in.
Adrian I thought I'd have a go at making my own fat food for the birds, the reason I wanted to do this is because the price of the cheap stuff I'd normally get from the pound shops had gone up in price and also I wanted to know what went into the fat food.
So while at the farm shop the other week I bought some beef dripping, I also bought some peanuts, mealworms & sunflower hearts from a pet shop. I melted the beef dripping in a pan and roughly broke up the peanuts, I then added the peanuts, sunflower hearts and meal worms to the fat and put the mixture in some coconut halves and left to set, Once set I put a coconut half on the feeder and waited. Over the next week I watched from a window and noticed the birds would look at my fat food but then go to the fat food that I had bought from the pound shop, This went on for a week so I got some advice of a couple of people from Twitter that suggested I use Lard and crush the peanuts and seeds before adding them to the fat. I bought some lard 250g at 39p, I left the lard out for a few hours at room temperature and cut about 60g off the block then I crushed the peanuts and sunflower hearts, Once I'd done that I mixed the lard, crushed peanuts and sunflower hearts together and put the mixture in a coconut half and put it on our feeder. We are just waiting now to see what happens. Adrian Looking back at photos taken last year I came across a shot of a Goldcrest that was visiting our garden at the time. The Goldcrest is Britain's smallest bird. We have not seen it visiting this year though.
A little bit of video showing the birds feeding at the bird feeder, I filmed this while sat on our garden bench with my iPhone held at arms length so it's a bit wobbly.
Adrian Louise had told me that the bird feeder gets quite busy when we are not in the garden, So while clearing out the small bedroom I opened the window wide and kept an eye on the feeder and sure enough the feeder got quite busy with some squabbling going on between the birds, I think there is not enough room for them all. I did manage to get this photo with my iPhone showing 7 Greenfinches and 2 Goldfinches.
Adrian Dead Bird Yesterday morning when we went into the garden we spotted a few feathers around the bird feeder and then I spotted some blood behind the swing and behind our wicker fence, It was fresh so the cat must have just caught the bird, we think it was either a Pigeon or a Collard Dove going by the colour of the feathers, We do have a Collard Dove visiting our garden whose partner was killed a few months back, So we will just have to watch and see who turns up over the next few days. Trail Camera
We are awaiting delivery of a trail camera, these are wildlife cameras that detect the heat of an animal and then starts taking photos or video of them automatically so when we are not in the garden we will see what visits, This will mean we will be able to put up more footage of the birds and we will see what visits at night too. |
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August 2013
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