OneGuyFromBarlick

A comma butterfly today long with the others, still no swallows

Isn't it a bit early for swallows Gloria?

30th March last year Wendy, and they’ve been coming earlier and earlier, year by year.

I reckon they have seen the forecast for later this week! We are going to be into frosts again.

Have your swallows arrived yet Gloria? No sign of any here.

No sign, quite worrying, they are very late. I know they have been sighted near Chorley and on the Fylde, but sadly not here.

2 swallows flew over this morning but didn't stop. Everyone else, starlings, sparrows and goldfinches all made a big fuss and chased them on their way.

Wendyf wrote: ↑15 Apr 2022, 09:47 2 swallows flew over this morning but didn't stop. Everyone else, starlings, sparrows and goldfinches all made a big fuss and chased them on their way.

We’ve still had no sign, this is very rare.

A very mild day forecast even up here in the hills.....

I can report we now have adult newts in our 4-year old pond and they're either mating or still immature and practising! Also having a bird feeder with sunflower `hearts' has brought blue tits and goldfinchs to our garden. Nature in action!

We have a constant patrol of cats which keeps everything away. Haven't seen an Elephant for years.

I fear that is the case in my front garden also Ken. I put some old muesli out for the birds 4 days ago and it is still there.

The outdoor cats here favour my front garden.
The 9 grain stale breadcrumbs that I put for the birds in my back garden, are always gone with-in 24hrs.
They ‘em

Just watched 4 Ibis wander past. The Maggie’s stayed, but all the other birds hid and went quiet.
Don’t trust an Ibis.

Exotic species for us Cathy!

We have swallows at last, two of them in the stables this morning.

Yippee! At last!

Good news Gloria! Nothing here since that first sighting.

Stanley wrote: ↑19 Apr 2022, 03:02 I fear that is the case in my front garden also Ken. I put some old muesli out for the birds 4 days ago and it is still there.

You need to hang a bird feeder where cats and squirrels can't reach it.

We get a good selection of birds in our front garden. We have hanging feeders on poles for the acrobats etc and also put out feed for the ground feeders that visit us. We saw something yesterday that we haven't seen before though. Sally had replenished the feeders and she put out a load of meal worms for the Blackbirds and Thrushes on the ground. Not been down long when we saw a new local young cat come into the garden and it hoovered up all the meal worms! Our own cat Primrose doesn't bother the birds apart from the odd swear word when she's on the window bottom, usually when the Collard Doves pay us a visit!

Ground feeding here brings in hordes of pigeons and even seagulls!

Mobs of decimating, squabbling and decimating Starlings are our destroyers Peter. They scatter loads for the ground feeders though.

East Hill Garden fronts are almost like an avian no-go zone. I can't think of any reason other than the cats.....

If you've got pigeons in Barlick they'll account for a big drop in the population of small birds. They carry a disease which doesn't affect them but kills finches. Their throats swell up and they die slowly from starvation. We no longer see greenfinches and chaffinches and there are fewer sparrows.

Barlick has a preponderance of gulls, crows, starlings and Canada Geese. At least that's the case in the built-up areas.

A blue butterfly flitting about yesterday.