Birds, birds and more birds - and rats!

Gosh...don’t think I could handle that HSG! I remember my step-dad going around killing them when they had gone dozey from the poison. He has a lot of birds too. And thats why I’ll never have any here!

Lovely to see those swans though, and you live in a lovely place. :)

Thanks for reading it Karen. Snow falling this morning so paranoia will set in if there are too many tracks about. Our birds are NOT impressed with the weather. Boris and girls came out of their house and shifted straight into one of the barns!

Loved your blog HoneySG. Always feel envious (in a nice way) when I read about your birds. Never had the heart to re-commence keeping them after the 1976 fire. Should have done.

Boris and the girls look as if they are thriving.
Dare I ask if you use goose eggs for cooking? An old neighbour used to send me some and my sponge cakes always looked golden before they were baked. Made lovely omelettes!

Rats are clever. We had some that burrowed into our garden shed. Traps got rid of them but I am always conscious of the fact that they could return even though the original holes now have cement in them.

Saw some unusual fowl at the Owl Centre, Kington, Herefordshire when we visited in September but camera charge had fizzled out so couldn't take any images. The Bantams were so pretty.

Thank you Eirlys, the birds are a joy to watch, ours and the wild ones, but not such a joy when you have to tend to them in the snow and rain, but you can't have it all ways.

Boris might be a less good with his sight but is still thriving and though he wasn't impressed with the weather this morning, dashed out when I threw them some chopped up carrot to eat. He's not as keen on that as the girls, much prefers bread or cake, but does like a bit of lettuce - not that I can afford to keep three geese in the quantity of Little Gem lettuces they would like!

Saw no tracks in the snow from rats this morning, so they are either as loath to go out in the cold as everyone else or they really have been thinned out.

I know what you mean about cameras, never have it to hand when you need to take a photo quick, mine has an annoying tinkling noise when you turn it on, so if you are anywhere near the bird, it has flown off before you can raise the camera - must sort that out.

The Bantams are sweet, they have long feathers on their feet which do tend to get clogged with mud if it's really wet and no doubt with snow, or perhaps they will act as snow-shoes and they will get about better!

lovely and interesting :o)

we often see swans flying past on their way to the North Cave Wetlands. though they don't stay there before moving on to other feeding grounds also see lots of geese that feed on the Humber flats.

Thanks Seaburn for finding it interesting, even if it is a bit of a horror story in places! We usually have wheat or Rape in the next door fields so this is the first time that we have seen the Swans this close. They have been a couple of fields over before so you could see them coming and going and of course hear them.

Thanks Stera, Boris is of course old and we dread the day that he will no longer be with us. Just to cap it all one of the (also very elderly) Guinea Fowl is acting strangely and trying to sit in Charlie and Missy's hut rather than go up to roost. OH found him in the front garden after dusk which is really strange as the two of them usually go up to roost really early - early to bed and early to rise! After shooing him back out of the snow into the barn he eventually went up to roost, but I think it's a bad sign.
As for the blog growing, don't encourage me, you might regret it!!

Your mention of the Bantams' feet reminded me of a caravan stay at a Devon CL. There were peacocks there and they used to perch on the fence wires. Many of their claws were missing! Seems they perched overnight and the frost got to them. I did wonder why they didn't have a nice warm hut in to which they could go,

Poor things Eirlys! Ours sometimes in the summer perch in the apple trees, on the chicken run ledge or even on the roof, but never in the winter.

When we visited Llan(drin)dod Lake (Powys) in October and a lone Hooper swan had landed. There was a lot of debate as to where it had come from and where it was headed. It vanished after a few days but was still 'the talk of the town' for weeks after. So next year, if a Hooper should come by again, we will point him/her in the direction of Norfolk!

That's interesting White horse, one lone Swan must be really unusual being flock birds. Perhaps it was blown off course or with all the technology these days who knows what effect they have on whatever the birds use to track their progress.
We had a lady come to take videos of the Swans from Welney and was looking for one particular bird amongst that lot! We thought there were about 200, but she said there were more like 500! Amazing sight and all because of the beet field.