Another productive day, but not much time to take photographs. This male Pheasant (or one just like it) has been in the garden for a few days now, but today was the first day that I was able to get a picture of it. As usual, it was on the far side of the orchard and taken through the kitchen window.
It has been warm again today, no rain, so far.
Today’s picture is of a Nuthatch and is the only picture I managed to get of him. He made a fleeting visit to the feeders; this feeder was in need of filling up, before he flew away again. I have only seen a Nuthatch in my garden once before although I expect this one has been before, just not seen by me; hopefully he will visit again not that all the feeders have been replenished.
As Victoria was not able to come to help my husband until this afternoon I had to stay close to the kitchen to help out if necessary, so I spent the morning reading my book. Victoria was helpful this afternoon so I wad able to do other things.
After they had finished for the day, although Victoria did a lot of clearing up of the brick dust, there was still lots of other cleaning to do before the kitchen could be used.
Today’s picture is of a bird taken through the conservatory window; I am not exactly sure what it is. It is too small to be a Thrush, it looks a bit like a Dunnock and I wondered if it might be a young Dunnock.
Sunny spells with intermittent rain during most of the day, so doing only inside jobs today.
I spent some time watching the birds and other wildlife in the garden and decided that this young Starling, feeding on the fat calls would be my choice today.
The two extra pictures are a Male Chaffinch and a Greenfinch.
This morning I went to Saffron Walden with our daughter, we went the long-way round. The B1383 was flooded at the North end of the village, under the railway bridge. Our daughter reported it at 0710 hours, when she could not get through to take her granddaughter to Audley End Railway Station. Later in the morning, other residents also reported it, but the highways people did not come out except to put some ‘flood’ warning’ signs up. They said they would wait for it to go down. As it was over a metre deep, this was going to take a while. The warning signs were too close to the flood, so large lorries had to turn round and go back as they were all too high for the tiny lane through Bridge End where traffic is diverted when the road floods. We came back the long-way too although the traffic was moving quite well by then.
We had coffee and cake in Café CouCou and then had our nails done. Other than that I have not done very much else.
It has been raining on and off all day, at times very heavily with occasional thunder, but no hail today. I took today’s picture of this male Chaffinch through the kitchen window; it is feeding off of one of our hanging bird tables, made by my husband several years ago.
Blue Tit
I spent some of the morning sorting out window boxes and hanging baskets and the few Violas I had left went into the little Alpine garden.
We purchased two new ‘squirrel proof’ bird feeders the other day when we were at Scotsdales and this morning was the first opportunity I had to fill and hang them. I also moved some of the feeders around so that maybe the Squirrels will not be able to take so much of the bird food. I also filled the ‘flutter butter’ jars with a variety of seeds and fat and these can be seen in my extra picture. The jars were originally filled with bird friendly peanut butter (human peanut butter contains too much salt for birds). So stealing an idea from a fellow blipper who does a similar sort of thing, I decided to try filling them myself. They are currently still setting in the kitchen, but once solid, they will be screwed into the original ‘flutter butter’ holders.
Today’s picture, is of a Blue Tit, which seemed oblivious to me as it attached some of the new fat balls, even though I was only a couple of metres away from it.
It rained on and off all morning, but only just a few spots each time, but my husband gave most of our lawns and field at the back of the house its first cut of the season. This afternoon I shall be sorting out some photographs to go on my Flickr account, which has been sadly neglected while I have been busy.
Filled Jars for Birds
Moorhen
This morning it was very cold, well about minus three degrees Celsius. My car has always been difficult to start when it is very cold and this morning was no exception. Josephine is almost twenty-one and it is possibly time she retired; maybe I should too.
As it looked as though it might be a nice day, we went to Bishop’s Stortford, starting with breakfast in the Rosey Lea café; this is becoming a habit. I had a cheese, tomato and onion toastie as well as a piece of gluten-free carrot cake. The purpose of the visit to Bishop’s Stortford was to have a walk by the river and take pictures, which is where today’s picture was taken of this Moorhen. There was a lot of wild life around and we saw a fisherman who had just landed a Pike, which he said weighed about two pounds; we then watched him put it back.
After our walk we went back to the Rosey Lea café to have coffee before coming home. My husband had a scone and I had another piece of carrot cake. Two pieces in one day is not good for my diet, but I had walked 10000 steps on my FitBit so I guess that was okay.
After the frosty start, the weather was lovely with lots of sunshine and reasonably warm as long as you were in the sunshine.
If you wish to see the rest of the pictures I took today, they can be seen on my Flickr account.
Robin
Another Monday and another working week, except that I do not have very much work to do this week, but I have spent most of today catching up with everything.
Today’s picture, taken through a grubby kitchen window is of a Robin. There were a lot of birds on the feeders, but once I had fetched my camera, almost all of them disappeared.
It has been bright and sunny although there was a little rain this morning.
A lazy sort of morning, although I did the end of January household accounts, which I thought I had done, but then last night, realised that I had been so busy that I had not done them. My bank balance not looks much healthier.
I met with a friend for lunch and one of the choices of ‘Pensioner’s lunch’ £6 for two courses, was gluten-free; it was excellent.
This afternoon I decided to try out my new camera to see how pictures of birds, taken through the kitchen window would turn out. Today’s picture is of a Magpie, not my favourite bird, but it chased away the Robin that I was photographing and the picture has turned out much better than the Robin.
It has been dull with some sunshine for most of the day and as I drove home from meeting my friend there was a little rain; it looks as though there will be a lot more before too long.
I should have been working this morning, but somehow the morning slipped away with no work done! My husband suggested that we go into Bishop’s Stortford for lunch and to get some items that he wanted.
After lunch in Rosey Lea, I took my new camera for a walk along the towpath, before returning to Sainsbury’s café for coffee before we came home.
The camera seemed strange and very small; my fingers kept going to where the controls would be on the Nikon. I took a lot of pictures; some were completely out of focus while others were quite good. I need to get more familiar with what it can do, so the next time we go in to Cambridge I shall take her out again.
Today’s picture taken with the Olympus Stylus 1 is of a Moorhen, which was on the towpath, but jumped into the water before it could be photographed. I shall put the rest of my in focus pictures on my Flickr account.
Arkensiel 
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