The Cottage Smallholder

My birds seem to have suddenly disappeared, except the pigeons!  It's gone much milder here, so they may be off looking for insects etc, but I feel quite bereft after all the winter visitors I've been fattening up.  Ungrateful little b****s.  I have about half a dozen neglected fat balls looking very bedraggled - very misshapen through lots of pecking and softening up by rain.  They don't appear to be mouldy, but do you think I ought to ditch them and put new ones out?  I'm not sure I want to just throw them away, and I'm a bit miffed with my little feathered friends.  On the other hand, Spike's been on the prowl more lately, since the snow has gone. Hmmm.

danast said:

  The ground is very wet and the burns are  very full, but we have no flooding here.  The rain must have been very persistent last night, but I slept through it.   I don't think I have ever seen the roads in such a bad state, the verges are crumbling and the potholes are very dangerous. 

However ( keeping on track TA ) can I ask how much anyone is paying for peanuts in their neck of the woods?   I just paid £43 for a big sack.      Can you believe that?   I know it will last for ages, but what a price.  Thing is all the birds and the squirrels come for food now, so I couldn't possibly stop feeding them.

We're all as bad as each other, feeding the birds, squirrels, anything and everything that has to forage for food especially during the dreadful weather we've had.

I try not to think about what it's costing me....I can't stop snow though, as you say danast, they come every day as they're used to it.  What I could buy with what I spend, but it wouldn't be as pleasurable as watching the birds and squirrels antics every day.

We had dreadful rain & wind Friday/Saturday, yes we've had lots of flooding and damage, especially the roads, the bottom of my garden is like a pond, that'll take some draining away, they'll be ducks swimming on it soon! No shortage of water this year. It's nothing though compared to all those poor people in Australia, it doesn't bear thinking about does it, climate warming, over-population, I really don't know but every thing is going 'topsy-turvy', I couldn't bear to watch it on the news.

Will catch up again soon, Odelle.   

Toffeeapple said:

We have masses of Starlings in our big town, I love watching them.  I haven't seen a Nuthatch since I was in Symonds Yat at my SiL's place.

Strange, we have hardly any Starlings here, yet plenty of sparrows, tits of all types, beautiful song-thrushes, charming wrens, robins and blackbirds that nest every year in the most inappropriate places,  I'm like the 'mother hen', on guard, when the chicks hatch.

Almost forgot had a 'sparrow hawk' come into my front garden few months ago, oh it was awful, it took the poor sparrow, plucked it in the garden amongst the leaves, I never expected to see that in a 'suburban' front garden, I was horrified at the time, here's me feeding them to be fodder for the hawk, stupid of me, just shocked at the time, it's nature, they all have to live and eat the same as us all.

Odelle.