Look who's come for breakfast

Brill blog and lovely photos, that would have made my day aswell..

Nice to have different birds visit you :o)

We have had redwings yesterday - the good to come from cold winters are the birds that rely on us - we had long tailed tits too

Lovely feathered visitors...
and beautifully photographed..
Sticki ... well done :o)

Lovely pics ... especially the 'berry in the beak' one .....

Redwing or Fieldfair, I always get them mixed up. Which ever they're fab pics....especially that one!

it is a redwing - fieldfares have a grey head - lovely birds

First time I have seen Redwings Sticki,they are so lovely.
I love the one with the berry too..well taken:o))

Paul, In the big field next door we normally get hundreds of them both though mostly Fieldfares. This year not a one:-((

I know what you mean - years ago redwings were everywhere - the one I seen yesterday was first for years - the cold winter may bring them to our gardens - starting to get a few different birds now - but as yet no finches at all ):

Fantastic pictures and visitors, we had them last year but havent seen any this year. We have had a group of 5/6 Longtail Tits which Im thrilled about but difficult to capture as they are so small and quick!

I agree - those photos are really excellent! I don't know how you got them all so sharp and clear, Sticki - did you dress up in a bird outfit? LOL.

many thanks all of you ~ i thought they were fieldfares ~ probably cos thats what everyone was talking about but ive looked them up now ~ you are right ~ they are redwings.
you will be surprised to know spritz i was dressed quite normally ~ and in my slippers!! i sat on the kitchen work top and took them out of the window!!!!
PP I know the longtailed tits are incredibly quick but i got some pictures when they were eating in the bird feeder!!
sometimes they were only 3 feet away from me but the one with the berry in its mouth was more like 10ft ~ i havent got a long zoom so thats why its not so sharp.

We don't get either fieldfares or redwings here. I did read somewhere that they stay north of us. Shame - I'd like to see them!

How wonderful Sticky......not often we see them, and you have managed some brill photo's....Lol

i was very lucky!!!

ermmm wot are they never seen one be fore

redwings apparantly cristina ~ usually only in the north ~ certainly not the midlands!

They are lovely birds....I've never seen them before. We get nothing so interesting here...must be lovely to observe them from inside the house :)

Lovely birds! I wonder if they know something we dread? Another VERY harsh Winter? Brrrrrrrr! Hope not!

yes im very lucky whistonlass ~ we have a window in the kitchen that looks straight onto a wood ~ no one goes there much ~ well not in that part ~ it belongs to the council but there doesnt happen to be a path there so i get all the benefits!
i dont know nariz ~ it was several years ago that they last came ~ as far as i know ~ they tend to descend i think, eat all the fruit and then go ~ so its easily possible to miss them if you dont happen to be in that morning???

Lovely pictures, so clear too- you could almost reach out and touch them! Never seen these before, lucky you. :-D

thanks red aly ~ they havent come back today so maybe thats it for another 5 years? they seem to like holly berries ~ i looked it up in my book ~ they like worms, snails, insects and berries ~ they come from the thrushes and chats family ~ same as blackbirds.

Nariz, we've already GOT a very harsh winter! Boo, hiss, shiver. :-(((

surely it cant get worse????? looks like my mum is going to be on her own cos no one can fetch her from devon!!?? they have 5" of snow too!!

Blimey Nariz, keep up, lol! - its b....y awful here, even in London, temps not above freezing for the last week, 6 inches of snow still lying, more to come... some doubt I'll get my train on Friday to go to Bristol, Christmas on me own with a cheese sandwich if I don't...
Great pics Stickitoffee, so that's what redwings look like in the flesh, so to speak, I've only ever seen pics in books.

Great pics, Sticki. What a lovely view you have from your kitchen window. All we saw yesterday on our feeders were great- and blue-tits, then the robin managed to get a footing.

But I did see a fox walk nonchalantly down the road!

now a fox walking nonchalantly is quite a spectacle! and all i saw this morning was 7 [at least] voraciously hungry redwings!!
i do have a lovely view sheila, the people before us had a tiny window ~ we made it 4 times bigger!!!

We've had a Blackbird, a pair of Pigeons and Sid Squirrel so far today. Raining here now, snow vanishing.

rain!!?? we've got 6" still and its not going and south east devon has 4 or 5 inches which is unheard of for them!!!
i can send you a mince pie bamboo if that would help??

I'm going stir crazy here, might just have to bake some myself, have the ingredients, just can't be ....sed if you know what I mean.
Rain? Rain? oh blessing, hope it comes here, but not overnight, it'll freeze...

its snowing again here ! cant believe it!

it's like a nightmare that you just can't wake up from...

Can't believe your weather Sticki. Both our boys were born in Worcester (we used to live on the edge of town (Evendine?) with a view of the Malvern Hills, but I don't remember EVER having more than a dusting of snow! Well done for keeping busy and cheerful.

In north Herts. we haven't had another snowfall since Saturday's blizzard, but it's frozen solid. Will my son get here from Cornwall at the weekend? :((

dont know sheila, not sure my sons will make it either ~ from suffolk and south london!?
i dont think we have had weather like this either and ive lived in this area since i was 14!!!

I've been following the dreadful weather reports on GoY and on TV and I DO sympathise with all of you, but so far we've only had one episode of a couple of inches of snow locally. Yesterday was a bright sunny day with clear blue skies and I was actually too warm in town and had to take off scarf, gloves and undo my coat. No doubt if I keep crowing on I'll get all the bad weather later when I least need it - like when I decide to plant out seedlings!! :o( When I lived in Essex I used to DREAM of white Christmases or of being snowed in and unable to get to work - seems I'm a few years out of kilter with my dreams! Hope it all clears off soon and you all come through unscathed. :o)

That sounds lovely Nariz,and hopefully we will be sharing some of that sunshine with you,as we fly to Alicante on Wednesday...The weather is still well below freezing here in Yorkshire,but thank goodness we are flying from Liverpool,and so far only very minor delays,and the same from Manchester too..It has given the temperature to rise to 0 degrees tomorrow,so an immense improvement on the -10 we have been having.It is so bad for all those stuck at Heathrow,Gatwick,and for Euro Tunnel,I feel so sorry for everyone.I have been checking out our route and airport every day,also the roads,but so far its looking more promising.....We haven't had much snow this second time round,its the ice that is the nightmare..I check the Alicante weather report too,and its given high 50's to low 60's for our stay..I can cope with that :o))..thank goodness for the Internet..its a godsend,at times like this..
Hope you have a lovely Christmas, Nariz...

can i come and join you both?
its thawing here now but i have the unenviable task of cooking a medieval feast for 4 days with family!!! cant wait to see my sons but im worried about all the different food i need to cook and im working thursday and friday mornings!!

Ooh, I sympathise, Stickitoffee - did it for years, stopped 2 years ago, b...r that for a game of soldiers. I love to see my sons, but now they're so old (just over 30) and STILL without children, I'll meet them for lunch instead, lol!

Hope you don't have to wait as long as us for grandkids, Bamboo . . . sons are 38 and 40; elder FINALLY got married two years ago, and our first grandchild expected next April (but they live in Oz!!!!).

Glad yours are near enough to meet for lunch. :))

Only one is near enough, and that loosely - he's in East London, I'm in West, takes nearly as long to get there as it did to Bath when he lived there.
By the time they have children (if they do) I won't be in a fit state to bend over the crib without needing orthopaedic surgery...

Aaaaawww... such pessimism, (but you made me laugh: I needed cheering up, so thanks!).

I prefer to call it realism, Sheilabub - but you gotta have a laugh anyway. Every time I go to the dentist, they're always falling about with laughter when I describe my latest ailments - the doctor's better at controlling herself, but even she occasionally explodes with laughter. Life's miserable enough, and the problems in it, you might as well talk about them in an entertaining way, I reckon.

Good for you . . . well, I'm smiling now. You're a tonic!

Thanks - funny thing though, many people apologise to me for laughing when I've told some semi tragic story or other, and I always have to say you're supposed to laugh. It's quite obvious to me that the funniest things are based on fairly tragic events, particularly ones we all experience or are familiar with. I think it must be my cockney background - groan, weep, get down for 2 days, then think b...r it, get up, get on and have a laugh... I've noticed scousers are similar too, probably most of us perhaps. Have a good Christmas...

the birds are lovely ... we get robins long tail tits blue an great tits mostly ...happy xmas

Wow! lucky old you:-)

very :o)

Hope you had a good Christmas, Bamboo? Turkey ruined, no wine left, broke your favourite pressie?? Only joking - hope you had a laugh a minute. I just had the flu, and forgot to put the sugar in the trifle, but we enjoyed ourselves with blazing fires and silly games. Happy New Year! :)))

thats knowing how to have a good time sheila and was the glass half full?

I want to know what you played Sheila:-)

so do i

Silly Whist and Trivial Pursuit . . . my OH and younger son are very competitive, so it's a good laugh. Alcohol is partaken of, and whoever wins gets a prize! We don't buy presents any more, just loads of small(ish) prizes. I just bring in the snacks and throw another log on the fire. :))

thats a very good christmas

Yes it is! And it's so funny when I win at Silly Whist, as they just can't BELIEVE it!!

What is silly whist Sheila?

if its a card game that i have even a chance of winning i would like to know how to play it please ~ im hopeless at cards ~ actually that is occasionally an advantage ~ my father in law couldnt play against me cos he thought there should be some logic in the game ~ but i havent got any logic!!!!

I'm pretty hopeless at cards too, Sticki, but love card games that are NOT taken seriously. Deep breath: Silly Whist for 3 - 5 players, deal out 10 cards each. Sort your "hand" into suits, and decide how many tricks you might win. (With Ace, King, 2 Jacks, the rest below 9, you MIGHT win 4, depending on what trumps are called). Going round the table, everyone calls how many tricks they think they can make, and whoever calls the highest number chooses trumps (or "no" trumps): obviously this is an advantage. If there are 3 players (for example), and 4 is called, then 3; then the third player CANNOT call 3 because the total must not match the number of tricks (this is why it is "Silly" because there's a lot of chance involved). Player left o the dealer plays the first card, you must follow suit, then whoever wins that, plays the next card and so on till you've each played all ten. Someone writes down the score! Next deal is 9 cards each, calls made again, and so on down to 1 card each, then up again to 10. So game lasts about an hour, and if you've managed to understand all that, congrats! It might be easier to meet in the pub and have a game!!

Eh?.....scratches head......I'll have another go later lol:-)

i need someone to play with ~ whats the name of the pub?
dont tell me its the ace of spades or king of hearts??

Well, what are builders FOR?!! There you go - bacon sandwiches and a game of cards . . . they'll be giving you a discount next. :))

sheila you are the limit ~ thats very funny.,
but if i play cards with them they wont finish my extension.
a discount would be very good but i cant see that happening.

Oh, I didn't think of that. Better be nicer to the neighbours, then? :)

P.S. Think I'm ready for that difficult gardendoku now . . .

oh ok ~ will try to do it tonight for you.
not sure about playing with the neighbours ~ have to wait till i see youngest son again ~ he is the only one who will play games.
did you want flower names or pictures?

I find the names easier, thanks . . . but no hurry . . . "whenever" will be fine. You just said to let you know, and I have a nice empty weekend in prospect. :)

lucky you ~ i love the prospect of days to myself but they dont often happen!

You are so clever, Sticki! Thank you for the difficult gardendoku: amazing that you produced it so quickly.

its not so difficult ~ i dont make them up myself! i just translate them!!!
sorry to disillusion you!

Well, THAT'S clever!!! :))