Saturday 27 February 2016

Five On Friday - Birdwatching

Hello, thank you for dropping in, especially if you have come here via Amy at Love Made My Home.  Thank you very much if you left a comment on my last post - I was quite overwhelmed, and for those of you who were wondering, no, we don't keep a pig in our sty, all we have left of it is one wall and the brick floor, which we have extended with the bricks which used to make the other walls so that we can use it as a patio.  We actually refer to it as "the pigsty patio" which seems to horrify some people.  When it's all lovely in the summer, I'll show you.  I was fascinated to learn that in the USA, pigsties and privies were built of wood rather than brick - one of things I enjoy most about Blogland is the window it gives onto other parts of the world.  It also seems that quite a few of us have childhood experiences of outdoor loos and you may be appalled to hear that when I was at university in 1985 the house I lived in had no indoor loo! 
 
Last weekend the Best Beloved and I went on a little jaunt to North Wales.  Our first stop was The Spinnies, a nature reserve just outside Bangor which we haven't been to before.  A short walk took us to a bird hide which looked out onto a small lagoon.  Unfortunately, the very windy weather had sent most of the aquatic birds into the shelter of the reeds so we didn't see as many as I had hoped to see, but there were plenty of little birdies on the feeders and the Best Beloved took some pretty photos which I thought I'd share with you.  So here are four common British birds and one rather rarer one.
 
1.  Nuthatch
 
 
I have occasionally seen nuthatches in the woods but I have never been this close to one before.  I think they are one of my favourites. 
 
2.  Mr Chaffinch
 
 
The chaffinch is one of the commonest garden birds in Britain but I have never seen one in my garden.  (Don't worry, I have seen plenty of other birds, just not one of these.)
 
3.  Mrs Chaffinch
 
 
Ah, now here is his wife, looking rather plainer than her dandy of a husband. 
 
4.  House Sparrows
 
 
Numbers of house sparrows have declined drastically over the last forty years, perhaps by more than 70%, so I appreciate them a lot more than I used to, but there was no shortage of them here at The Spinnies.
 
5.  Little Egret
 
 
 
Now here is the star of the show and I am sorry that this is the closest we could get - it's a small, white heron with black legs and big, yellow feet.  According to my bird book, published in 1993, this bird is a "scarce visitor" to this country but apparently, they first bred here in Dorset in 1996 and are now seen in a number of places on the south coast of England...and in Wales, obviously.  This is only the second time I have seen one and we watched it for a long time.  Magnificent, especially when it stretched its wings and flew.
 
So, I hope you enjoyed this little ornithological post.  If you have time, you might want to hop over to Love Made My Home and see who else is joining in with Five On Friday this week.
 
See you soon.
 
Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x

22 comments:

  1. Always enjoy bird photos, I have no luck taking them. The heron is so pretty, we have loads of them here and I never tire of them.

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  2. You saw a good collection that day Mrs Tiggywinkle!
    We don't have Nuthatches in NZ so I always love seeing them.
    Encouraging to see they're well fed over the winter!

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  3. A weekend in Wales and birdwatching sounds like a relaxing break. Great shots of the birds. I hope this weekend is going well.

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  4. How lovely to have time in North Wales, I can't wait for our first venture that way this year. The bird photos are great especially the nuthatch, we never have those in our garden but have chaffinches and loads of sparrows. Lovely to see the Little Egret. I must look up The Spinnies it looks an interesting place. Hope you have a lovely weekend:)

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  5. Great spotting Mrs T. I haven't seen an egret before but do have nuthatches on the birdtable from time to time. Wonderful to be able to get out into the Great Outdoors for a mooch. x

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  6. Super selection. Well done on the little egret. But I'm almost as impressed by the nuthatch. It seems ages since I saw one.

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  7. What a pretty collection!
    I will be back to read more about life in Shropshire, a place I visited two years ago where I have a friend in the Stiperstones area. So beautiful!

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  8. Lovely photos. Congratulate your other half! Love the heron photo. We very occasionally see one in this part of the world. Have a great weekend. Barbara x

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  9. It's true that blogland opens the doors on to different cultures and these British bird pics sum up Blighty really well.

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  10. Great bird photos -love the egret. We had Cattle Egrets in California - they look similar - and obviously - hang around cattle fields.

    With outhouses made of wood in the US - a trick on Halloween was to tip the outhouse over backwards and then wait for someone to walk into the pit - or else tip it when someone was in it. Not a nice trick - but wouldn't have been possible if they were made of bricks. I suppose each place uses the materials available.

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  11. Great photos of the birds! We have nuthatches here with white tummies. I love their little voices. We don't have chafinches, but lots of house sparrows. Lovely to see an egret! What a nice way to spend a weekend away :)
    Wendy

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  12. Great photos of birds! Spring really is coming.
    Amalia
    xo

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  13. Glad you enjoyed your visit even if you didn't see as much as your were hoping for. I love nuthatches and well done in getting the Little Egret photo, they are now quite common and we see them quite often here in Hampshire and I think they are gradually spreading out across the country. xx

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  14. A lovely trip for you to see the birds, especially that egret. There are plenty of house sparrows round my way, we have a lovely family of them that gets bigger and bigger and all nest up in our pergola. At night last year we used to give up counting them all coming in (the morning is very noisy though). Have a lovely Sunday xx

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  15. You certainly took us on a beautiful walk to see those delightful birds. We seem to have a lot of sparrows around here at the moment.

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  16. I don't know much about British birds (birds in general, really) but at least I now know the names of four of them, thanks to your post. We once saw a heron on the River Sheaf here in Sheffield. I'm sure it was a heron - it was white, with long legs, but I didn't see the colour of its feet as it flew away.

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  17. We occasionally have a nuthatch visit a feeder which hangs amongst branches of our lilac tree, it's not visiting at this time of year because the tree is still bare and it likes the shelter of the leaves - understandable when you know that we have had birds in our garden attacked by a local sparrow hawk! We also see herons occasionally as they try to visit our neighbour's pond - after their fish!
    Lovely to see your BB's photos!
    Barbara xx

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  18. Love your bird photos, I have feeders outside my studio window and I love to watch the birds. Your nuthatch is stunning, I haven't had one of those on my feeders. Egrets are beautiful arent they
    Jill

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  19. Your bird photos are lovely. The egret is such a beautiful white. We see them here occasionally, poking along the shore line.

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  20. I love your header image! The nuthatch is a pretty little bird. I had to laugh at your "pigsty patio." My mom has an old chicken coop in her yard that used to hold chickens, but doesn't anymore due to too many coyotes. We converted it into a outdoor sitting area and named it "The Chicken Cantina."

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  21. We saw a Heron in North Wales last summer but we have never seen one fly, that must have been an awesome sight. We were at a deserted beach not far from Conwy, so quite near to Bangor. Your pictures are lovely, I especially like the Nuthatch, such a handsome chap xx

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  22. The nuthatch is a pretty one, isn't it? We have a nosy Robin, a belligerent blackbird and a dear little wren in our garden!

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