Feeding Time - Fledgling Starlings

Feeding time in the garden and the parents of these fledgling starlings had their work cut out keeping all them all fed!

Waiting for food to arrive

Patiently waiting

Not so patiently waiting now ...

Food arrives

Open wide !

Many mouths to feed

The fledgling look bigger than their parents

More food arrives

 

 This is why I feed the birds so I can watch this in my garden.

Big Garden Birdwatch

I took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch today. Fed the birds in the garden this morning and then made myself a coffee, got the binnoculars, camera, paper and pen and started "the watch". It was slow to start off with. A couple of sparrows and a robin popped down. I was beginning to think they'd all gone off elsewhere and then it was as if the "party" had started and they all started showing up. A couple of latecomers came just been closing time. I had to check on the Coal Tit and Great Tit on-line cause I'm never too sure about them.

Below is a list of birds that were in my garden between 10.00 - 11.00 am

Robin 1
House Sparrow 24
Blue Tit 2
Blackbird 1
Wood Pigeon 4
Dunnock 1
Coal Tit 1
Great Tit 1
Magpie 1
Collared Dove 2

Here are some photos

House Sparrows on the feeder

Some more House Sparrows

Blue Tit

Blue Tit on the feeder

Westport Lake

I popped down to Westport Lake earlier today. In fact I walked down from home - I usually drive ! It's been a lovely, if a bit frosty morning, so armed with my camera and a bag of bird seed I headed off !


I headed in an anti-clockwise direction around the lake (which seemed a bit strange) but it seemed to flow better off the canal. I went into the Nature Reserve and someone had already been and put seed out and a couple of pears. The feeders were busy and I caught a couple of Willow Tits, Great Tit, Blue Tit and of course the Robin.

Robin

Willow Tit

Great Tit

Blue Tit

I then went for a wander around the lake and saw the Tufted Duck.

Tufted Duck

A seagull was pointed out to me by a couple down by the visitors centre that was a bit different from the rest. Not sure what type it is (I thought a seagull was a seagull!) and I can’t seem to find it in my book. It’s probably a young bird which makes it more difficult to identify.

There are some more photos here

I tracked my walk on Runkeeper and I did just over four miles. Will definitely be doing this walk again.