30 Days Wild - day 28

Today the photographs were taken by my husband as I just wasn't quick enough, the very loud little wren was flitting between branches so fast you could barely see it.

He also captured some photographs of some of the members of the corvid family, one of my favourite group of birds.

The magpie keeping a close eye on us above and the carrion crow panting in the heat of the sun below.

We also spotted some of this beautiful purple toadflax growing in many places, I had only seen the yellow variety before.

30 Days Wild - day 19

While we were walking along the bottom of the cliffs we noticed something skimming along the top.

We decided to watch for a while and try to get a better look, what we found was a small nesting colony of sand martins. If you look closely in the photograph below you can see a row of nesting holes in the top of the cliff.

We watched the parent birds bringing in food for a while then as we were leaving down a small country lane we spotted the adult birds hunting for food, skimming the hedge rows. It was amazing to watch and at times they just passed above our heads. I took a short video clip to share with you here.

Garden Charms and Bird Treats

At this time of year, as the weather gets colder, our thoughts go to feeding the birds. This is our way of giving something back to nature to replace the berries we foraged in autumn. As well as making sure the bird table and feeders are full we have also been making some garden charms, which look very pretty hanging in the trees and provide an extra feast for our feathered friends.

For the charms we have used some garden wire bent into the shape of a heart or star and various dried berries and nuts. The heart shape has been threaded with rosehips and raisins.

When fully threaded the shape was secured safely with either tape, string or wire and a loop was added to hang it on the tree.

We also made a star shape which was threaded with chestnuts and Rowan berries. It is harder to see the shape of this one as the chestnuts are much larger. Anything that birds find tasty can be threaded onto your wire shape and they look gorgeous hanging in the garden.

The pine cone feeders have been a firm favourite with the children for quite a few years now. First attach string or wire for attaching the feeder to the tree as seen in the above photo. Then coat your pine cone with either peanut butter or lard and roll it in bird seed.

These little pine cone feeders usually attract the small birds that are a bit nervous about visiting the bird table when larger birds are around. They are very simple and a lot of fun to make even for very small children.

I will leave you with a couple of photographs of the garden charms and pine cone bird feeders hanging in the trees. They add some much needed colour to the garden this time of year.

The children love feeding the birds and this also provides them with extra opportunities for bird watching.

Remember to feed the birds

  It may seem like an obvious thing to say, but it is so cold and has been snowing a lot and some of our garden friends may have a little trouble finding food and water. Throughout the winter we ensure all our feeders and the bird table have a good supply of many different types of food the children have even helped make some bird feeders and they really enjoy watching the things each type of bird will take.

  I took this photograph in our garden today, the children were very surprised to see a blue tit's tongue, not something you see everyday. If you click on the photograph it will enlarge, so that you can see it's tongue close up. I think the nuts look a little frozen though. This is not only helpful to the birds and a way of giving back to nature but it is also educational and a great way to really study the garden visitors.

We have been wondering what happened to this starling today, it is difficult to see in the photographs but it looks like it has a strange hump on the back of it's neck, maybe from an injury. It's feathers stick right out at right angles sometimes and don't go flat.

Here it is in another photograph, it looks quite odd but the bird had no trouble feeding or flying, so it can't be seriously hurt. I did notice in another photograph that it had a toe missing too!

 It doesn't have to cost a lot of money to feed the birds either many of the things on the RSPB list are kitchen leftovers, as you can see here. If you want a guide to see how to make some bird feeders and also some other photographs of our garden birds see my husbands blog here.

Quick Update

    December has roared in with lots of snow and freezing cold weather, and for the last week or so we have been stuck inside due to stomach bugs and bad weather. Only venturing outside to play with the snow in short bursts as it is so cold. We have been getting ready for the Yule / Christmas craft sessions and choosing which things we will try to make. Very exciting stuff!

   I still haven't improved much with the crochet, I made the above headband for my daughter, but not much else. I think maybe using the cheap wool that has been in the craft cupboard for years is probably not a good idea, so before I carry on with more I'll probably buy some of the good wool.

     With the onset of bad weather our thoughts have been with the birds that visit our garden, my husband and the children have been busy making bird feeders from coconut shells as you can see above, and various other ways of feeding the birds. If you would like to read more on our bird feeders you can check out my husbands blog here. Last year we made bird treats by rolling pine cones in peanut butter then in bird seed, which they loved, both the birds and the children.

   My husband has also been making lots of these little wooden plaques for me, various designs and all from recycled materials. Isn't he handy and thoughtful and just plain lovely. If you would like to read more about these and see all the other designs have a quick look here .

   

    Well, that was a very quick round up but I will be back here very soon with some of our Yule / Christmas crafts. We are intending to make as much as possible ourselves, some hand made things make the season much more magical and will bring many lovely memories for future years.