To Feed Or Not To Feed?

Photos Copyright: Maggie May

After a bout of rainy weather, I went out to top up the bird feeders. I noticed that the seed gets very yucky in wet weather and mould is not at all good for birds. So I bought a gleaming new plastic dome, which has three holes for the birds to perch on while they take the drier seed. This surely must be much more rain proof.

That was several weeks ago and although I don't watch all day long, so far, I haven't seen anything land on the new globe. I think the shiny reflections scare them away. This makes me wonder why they are being sold in leading garden centres if the birds are scared of them.

The old faithfuls come to the old feeder and take their chance on the soggy contents.

Although we used to have a large flock of sparrows who stopped to feed everyday, they seemed to vanish very suddenly a good while ago. After a long time, three came back and they have gradually built their numbers up to a few more. We also have blue tits and great tits visiting from time to time and a robin.

I'm not sure whether I should be feeding them or not because some of my neighbours seem to have several cats who prowl round my garden (as well as dirty in it.) Its funny how you can really love your own cats........ and I used to have three...... (who fouled other peoples' gardens), but be resentful of other peoples' fouling mine.

Anyway, I do find feathers about in the garden and wonder just how many birds get killed coming to my feeders and wonder if it is balanced out by the ones who are sustained by the food, who might not survive at all if they didn't have my seeds to eat. It seems to be a juggling act.

What do others feel about this dilemma?

I'm pleased to say that Harry is picking up a bit now, after being diagnosed with anaemia following his last chemo. So it is liver for him twice a week (yuk, I'm practically a vegetarian) as well as iron pills.

So here's hoping that he will get over this blip and feel like going out more, pretty soon.

A Happy Event

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

We are expecting in this household!

No, not me, silly, I am a bit long in the tooth for that and even if I were to have hormone treatment, some of my *bits* are not there now. Nor is my daughter in law, Kaiko expecting (as far as I know) and the girls are far too young!

No, the mother to be happens to be a wren! I first noticed a pair of wrens going backwards and forwards towards the kitchen roof. Then I noticed that they were collecting things from the ground. Leaves and twigs, sometimes as big as themselves.

Years ago, I bought these little pouches and nailed them under the overhang of the kitchen roof. No bird has ever taken the slightest bit of notice of either of them before until now, that is. It seems that this dwelling is a wren's version of a superior detatched home and isn't it Sod's law that we were about to take the kitchen roof off and now our plans will have to be put on hold? Wild birds nesting are protected in this country and we cannot move them. Nor would I want to. I am now going to have to Google for information on how long it takes for all this nesting, laying, sitting and fledging to take.

As most of you know, my blog mentor for photography is David Mcmahon from Authorblog and I know that if he visits this post he will not be impressed with these photos that seem to be blurred and not in good focus. The wren looks like a tiny dot under the nest but that is as far as I could zoom in. My camera is lacking in ability to catch moving birds and does not have the capacity to enlarge the tiny creature any further.

However when I saw this tiny pair of wrens, I rushed to get my camera and I had to take the photo through my not so clean window, in order not to disturb them by opening the back door which is right by the pouches.

My camera is a Pentax Optio and has served me very well for ordinary photos and long distance views and snapshots of people. However, the time has come for me to specialize a little more and I am wondering whether to get a Canon Powershot SD990 IS (USA) otherwise known as Digital IXS 980IS in Aus and UK. My son Sam has bought one of these and has taken some good shots of close up creatures that has really impressed me.

Or shall I update my Pentax with the new Optio S12 which has a more powerful and faster lens than my old one and it is cheaper than the Canon?

I would love to know what you all think and which way I should go. Do any of you amateur photographers have either of these cameras?

I wrote this post a few days ago and thought that I would leave it for Photostory Friday and do you know what has happened? The wrens have abandoned ship! Maybe they thought we were too close to their nests or maybe its the four cats next door, who might have had them for their tea. Anyway, whatever it is, we are not expecting anymore and I feel really sad!

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.

Foggi, Sticky & Furry Fred!

"Just for one night," I firmly told my teenaged children when one of them brought a wet & bedraggled, frightened, black kitten into the house, rescued from slashing rain outside. "Tomorrow it will have to go!"

Well I couldn't send it back outside in that storm, could I? But I definitely didn't want a cat. It had been a wonder that the frantic meowing had been heard above the storm, in the first place, when it cried outside the back door.

As we had no suitable cat food, we fed it small pieces of Cheddar cheese, that disappeared quickly down its ravenous throat.

In the end, Sam braved the storm and went to the nearest shop to buy a small tin of cat food, as it wasn't staying, I stressed. The hungry kitten devoured it quickly and it was obvious that it hadn't been fed for a long time.

Well this was the beginning of our love affair with cats. Debbie named him Furry, as his black coat had dried out to reveal his lovely sleek fur. However, Sam thought that was a soppy name and called him Fred. He soon learned to respond to either or both, so he was named Furry Fred!

Furry Fred was a bit of a wanderer and kept escaping from the back garden and liked to sit in the main road and was always weaving in & out of traffic. I tried to keep him indoors, but he was never happy and usually managed to escape.

He was forever being bitten by the local felines and must have been defending himself, as he certainly wasn't a bully by nature. This resulted in him having to have abscesses lanced at the vets. We had already had him neutered 

Four years later, my friend asked me if I'd go with her to help her choose a kitten! Well that was a silly thing for me to do and I came home with Foggi, a delightful  grey female kitten and she looked as if she was an expensive pedigree.

Furry Fred was not at all impressed with his new companion and hissed and stomped off, spending more time at Doreen's house over the road. Doreen was rather a lonely lady  who enticed him over with expensive tins of salmon, not realizing how dangerous it was becoming for him to dodge the traffic.

The lady who gave us Foggi, had one kitten left and as he was the runt of the litter was very small and not attractive in any way, having black, sticky fur that stuck out in all directions, he was going to be put to sleep if no one chose him by the end of the week, she had said.

Well, I couldn't let that happen to Foggi's brother, could I? So within a few days I went back to see if he was still there and he was. Nobody wanted this poor little mite.

Foggi was delighted to be reunited with her brother & she and Sticky were always close by one another and slept head to tail, snuggled up.

Because of his love of danger, and his salmon addiction, Furry Fred had several accidents in the road that resulted in him breaking a leg on two occasions and his jaw on another and together with his frequent trips to the vet for abscess lancing, Furry Fred was an expensive cat to keep!

In spite of his unfortunate start in life, he went on to live for 21 years, living a happy life, I think.

Sticky grew into a fine, handsome cat and lived a happy and uneventful life in the house and back garden to the age of 16.

Foggi was my absolute favourite and she & I were very close. She was pretty and affectionate and always sat on my knee while I twiddled with her ears and watched TV. She died at 14 years of age and I was truly heartbroken.

I have fought off the temptation to even look at another kitten, even though I've had many opportunities and offers! However I often think back to how our "cat era" began when I agreed to take in Furry Fred for just one night!

The Yearly Sparrow Exodus

Well, here it comes again, The Big Garden Bird Watch organized by the RSPB and not an effing bird to be seen!

A month ago my tiny garden was heaving with birds & 30 sparrows at a time would come to my bird feeders, so tame that I could easily walk amongst them without them panicking. 

For some mysterious reason, probably only known to the birds themselves or to experts who devote all their time to studying birds, all the bird population does a flit just before the Big Garden Bird Watch. 

I suppose we are lucky to get birds to visit at all, living in the middle of a city. Our garden is less than 50ft long & only half as wide. We have a few high dense shrubs that the sparrows like to hide in, which is a good thing as we have had several visits from a sparrow hawk. We have patio, no lawns and lots of plants growing in tubs as well as a couple of tiny ponds.

Next door has half a dozen cats of assorted colours but the bird feeders are high up, away from moggy reach, so casualties are few and I don't ever put seed on the ground. I might have had more luck with a moggy watch!

So why do birds decide to leave the city in January, just before the Bird Watch? Maybe some one out there knows the reason.