Nature from the window - BIRDS, rabbits & more

I love this blog ... have scrolled through it twice and am thrilled with all the wildlife visiting your garden. Wonderful!

Love your blog, great photos.

Just love it! Thanks again, Honeysucklegold! always a pleasure.

Brilliant photos . . love them all, Honey, but particularly the rabbits - sorry!

You have much going on in the garden it seems. Who's ruling the roost? Love that peacock.

What lovely photos

Thank you all for reading my blog, I really appreciate it when people comment on something I have written and taken photo's of.

Thanks too Shirley for your interest, by looking at it twice!

Jaykaty, the photo's may not be too bad on here, but you didn't see the ones that got binned! With a newish camera that I am still getting used to getting it into position (and focused) doesn't always happen. It also has an annoying noise when it switches on (must check if I can get rid of that) which if you are trying to take a photo of a bird - usually frightens them away.

Thanks Lori, I will never match up to the wonderful wildlife you have over there, but ours are interesting, apart from the 14+ mice I have caught in the shed over the last week!

I know what you mean Sheila. The rabbits are mega cute, when they were smaller and they were in a little group of about six, even more Mega cute. But... they get bigger, with bigger appetites and do what rabbits do so you end up with even more nibbling plants. At the moment they are content to eat the grass plus the weeds on the path, perhaps I can train them to do just that!

You are right about lots going on Bathgate, there is always something happening. When we lost a hen house full of hens, a huge cockerel and three Call ducks by something burrowing through from the ditch, we thought it was the fox ..again! But a person more in the know said he thought it would have been a badger - just what we need - more predators! As for who rules the roost, it's not me, probably the peacocks or perhaps Boris and his ladies - all spoilt rotten.

Thank you Callie, the birds (and rabbits) are of course the stars, I just managed to get a photo!

What a wonderful blog. I really enjoyed it and looking at all the photos. Having two dogs and a cat not much sticks around in my garden long. Your peacock sound a right character :-).

We have four peacocks, all boys and most of the time they get along. Just occasionally there is a kerfuffle and someone slinks off to nurse their hurt feelings. Peter is the father of the other three and still is in charge. He is getting on now, so how long that lasts, who knows?
The other three don't have names, but do have characters. Peter is always the first to the cake hand-out, the other three in line, the youngest quite nervous (bottom of the pecking order) so we always make sure he gets his share.
They hate cats and dogs and hoot and yowl if a cat comes into the garden, so I have to go out and chase it off. What with Blackbird, Chaffinch, Robin and Peacock alarm calls you always know where the cat is - at least which bit of the garden, even if you can't see it.

Pretty Bunnies :)))

Who needs to look at tv?

Don't you love pictures of rabbits with the sun shining through their ears? How fantastic to manage to get a shot of the thrush using his anvil! We rarely see thrushes here, though I did find an anvil with broken shells a few years ago.
Isn't the baby thrush adorable? a lovely blog - thank you for your patience!

Thanks Hywel, pretty bunnies, forget about the rest.

You are right Loosetrife there is more going on outside than on the tv half the time. Though it's life and death for the wildlife it doesn't have the vicious quality that us humans impart to it. The tv is mostly Olympics and though it is splendid it makes you wonder what our forebears from hundreds of years ago would think of it, when they worked from dawn to dusk to just put food on the table - much like the wildlife!

I agree with you mostly Stera, the rabbits look cute, but I like my plants more.
As for the Thrush, I was thrilled when I first saw it in the garden at the beginning of the year, there seem to be so few thrushes about these days. Back when the world was young and me too, we used to look for birds nests just to see how many we could find (no other reason). Blackbirds and Thrushes were the commonest, followed by Sparrows -then came the '60's when hedges were ripped out to make bigger fields and to accommodate the bigger combines. Roll on a year or two and they had to put chestnut fencing across the fields to contain the snow-drifts from the roads (no problem there at the moment) and the wind blew the top-soil away and washed it onto the roads when it rained. They filled in the ponds and put drainage pipes in which cracked from the weight of the machinery and blocked. Lo! and behold a flooded field! The old farm hands knew best, where to put a drainage pond - and it benefited the wildlife. Watch the tv and see from aerial shots how mono-culture and barren our island looks now and fear for the future. Rant over (sorry).

Rant all you like, Honeysuckle - it's all true!

That's a very thoughtful rant, Honeysucklegold. I'm prone to them too... the saddest thing, I find, is that the younger people never got to know the country of our younger years...they take what's happening today for the norm and we senior folk shake our heads in worry. I think we lost the battle when we started with the heavy machinery...of course the common thought was the opposite...but not many people have horses to pull plows these days. A skill (Animal Husbandry) that has been lost now in most farming communities. (If it is still around it's a curiosity, more than anything else. ) I have searched for stories and blogs written about the Amish and Hutterite communities across NA just to see/appreciate the intelligent use of old methods and social cohesiveness of their lifestyle. Religion and exclusivity is their way...and I'm not either of those things...but their preservation of the old ways of agriculture are my chief interest in them.
I'm always happy to see your blogs about Boris and his girls, and the peacocks, and this blog about the Thrush family was great... can't forget the rabbits. Perhaps you'd agree that, as seniors, we have a responsibility to tell the younger people the stories and show them, by example, that "newer" is not always "better". Rant on!

The Amish? Intellegent use of old methods? Have you heard what goes on in their puppy mills where they shove pipes down the dogs throats to debark them in order to keep their mills a silent operation. They keep the females in cages for years reproducing and when they get sick or spent out they are killed by smashing them with a rock, drowning them or shooting them with small caliber bullets. I have a rescue from one of these horrid torture mills and PTSD is just as real for her as any human. Dig a little deeper into this quaint culture and their ways of handling their animals and not only dogs.

I was referring to agricultural practices...not to aberrant capitalism. We have puppy mills here too... I agree that kind of exploitation should have them put on an offenders list for people who abuse animals. Because some Amish (or people who would call themselves Amish) do these things for economic gain is not the same as the use of a hydraulic ram to bring water to a barn or a house without the use of electricity..or how to construct a turning lathe for milling spindles for furniture; or planting in no-till hills to increase soil fertility and moisture in a dry climate.

Enjoyed reading your blog, Honey, didn't you do well to get those thrush shots. I hear the tap tap tap from time to time but by the time I find the camera & the thrush it's either too late or I'm too far away.
I'm also a fan of the programme Country File & am heartened that many of the farming families care very much & are surviving successfully even though most have had to diversify. It's a tough life & a whole year & more can easily be wiped out by wrong weather - what a risk that must be!
In my area I know of several farmers that are very keen on conservation & have actively put in & maintained ponds & copses - so take heart, many do still care deeply.

Thanks Lori, I think I understand what you mean - a more relaxing and less hectic way of life. Of course no-one condones cruelty to animals as Loosestrife was saying, sometimes the old ways are not always the best, look back on pit ponies and the way some overseas countries treat their animals and we still have a way to go.
Thanks Greenfinger I know what you mean about the camera not always being to hand, the number of times I have gone out and seen something that would have made a lovely photo! Today was a good example, looking down I saw a strange bee which on trolling the internet turned out to be an Ashy miner bee, never heard of them before, or seen them. But we can't walk about with a camera hanging round our necks all the time. Also I know some farmers leave strips for wildlife and are replanting hedges for the birds and insects, so I live in hope.

True, but not so much the "relaxing" or "less hectic" way of life but more the alternative application of human energy to do things like move buildings or build barns or a number of different agricultural necessities without using the existing power grid or technologies that rely on the petroleum industries. These aren't necessarily "old ways" but alternative ways. We don't need to use the old gray mare to ride to town on a Saturday...nor do we need the donkey on the treadmill..nor the fleece of our sheep for fibre, that's true. The meaning I took from the comment about Amish puppy mills was that somehow the Amish started the practice and exploited the animals to produce wealth...which is the definition of an "industry" in my opinion, and which is not a historically true Amish practice. Our industries have used animals for centuries...and enslaved them...and abused them, even the human animals... without a second thought. It's a long history to live down. Now there will be a Bill of Animal Rights... it's a good thing, and about time.
Cruelty, misuse and neglect are abhorrent, I agree. By any definition, by anyone. just wanted to clarify.