The Birds are back

Since the first broods fledged it's been generally quiet in the garden with only the pair of resident Sparrows visiting. But just this last week things are busier again, there's a flock of Starlings who seem to visit daily early in the morning to raid the fat cake and a couple of Robins (one old and one from the years first brood) have been putting in an appearance. There's a Blackbird always rooting around in the borders and a Young Crow being fed up in the tree at the end of the garden. Visits from Greenfinch at the feeders are still a little on the random side and all sorts Gulls overhead these days.

New Chicks

Ginger and Chicks when they were a couple of days old

Ginger one of our Pekin Bantams has been very broody for a while so we stuck some fertile eggs under her two of which duly hatched. Surprisingly the two chicks started coming down to the outside world after a week but kept very near Ginger and well away from Violet who doesnt like them at all. In the video they are two weeks old and alot more adventurous.

Not sure how long they will be smaller than mum though!

Sunny Spring Day at Arundel WWT

Arundel WWT, a set on Flickr.

A lovely day out at Arundel Wetlands Trust.

Ignore the BBC...

DMR Switchback - Farley Mount

Presuming you didnt plan your weekend around the weather forecast it was a fantastic weekend, Sunny and Warm both days with only a short shower on Saturday evening.

Saturday, was a family bike ride a gentle 4 miles or so in the sunshine and then the rest of the day spent digging and raking in sort the Garden attempt 597 and Dinner at Grandma's

Kyle, Sian in the distance

Sunday, planned early ride didnt happen due to achey legs. But after a 4 mile walk with the dogs it was too good a day not to get that ride in so I managed a quick 20 miles in just over an our and a half.

And a departure :-(

Unfortunately Bluebell didnt come back from the Vets today as the vet diagnosed her with Marek's disease so the kindest thing was to have her put down. It's something that large chicken breeders / producers can vaccinate against but for smaller producers it's not practical as it come as a minimum dosage for 10,000 chickens.

New Additions

The big chickens started picking on one of the Bantams recently so we've had to move her out and into a seperate part of the Garden. She also seems to have hurt her leg and isnt very mobile at the moment (but otherwise healthy) so it looks like a trip to the vets for her.

Chickens aren't really solitary birds so we thought we'd best get her some company, and here they are a couple more Pekin Bantams, Violet and Ginger I believe.

The Big chickens and "Nock Top" the Polish Bantam are now happily living in their own shed and have an even bigger mud free enclosure to run about in (rather than trashing the entire garden) and there's two more chickens joining them shortly as we are rehoming a friends two chickens who seem to have stopped laying.

I think that will make a grand total of 12 Chickens.

Plus the wandering rabbit who has finally been caught and contained back in with the big chickens.

Long Tailed Tit

Long Tailed Tit a photo by Marc Davison on Flickr.

As a kid I dont ever recall seeing a Long Tailed Tit it was all Blue Tits and Great Tits. These days though things have changed and Long Tailed Tits are frequent, constant, noisey visitors to feeders. This is one of a pair who have built their intricate nest in a bush in Grandma's front garden this year.

the Moon

Much like a meellion other people, here's a picture of the moon, looking very moon like. Cant say it looked any bigger to me.

S.S.D.D now works on the go

Not that there is much to read at the moment but come here from a mobile and it should use an easy to view template...

Cycling perils part 28

Two notable incidents this week.

Firstly on Wednesday riding back to waterloo and approaching a pelican crossing at speed the lights changed to amber too late for me to stop. Two pedestrians decided to start crossing on amber I managed to duck behind one but the other decided to stop and try and knock me off my bike whilst calling me every name under the sun. Thankfully I managed to keep control.of the bike and just avoided plowing down everyone else at the crossing who he had pushed me towards.

Not really sure what I did to deserve that, other than poodle along at a speed people seem to think all cyclists should ride at.

On Thursday it was the turn of Mr Ti Ne Cock in his maseratti last of a generally extinct breed of city tossers his game was to let a bit of a gap open infront of him and then floor it and 2 seconds later slam on his brakes just before embedding himself in the car infront. Worst thing was his maseratti did sound pretty good when floored and he did at least manage not to kill me but really...