What's buzzing or flying near you 2021?

Thanks @ARMANDII I thought you might spot it and do the necessary. I hope you used the right glue.

 

Saw a pair of Stonechats where we walk our dog on the edge of our village, first time I've seen them locally, not the best of pics, but I was supposed to be dog walking, not stalking birds for photos, even though we were the only people there, so just a quick long distance shot of each and camera back in bag.

 

Blackbirds don't usually pair for life @shiney but the female being the nest builder may well have brought along a new male to introduce him to the old nest. Most birds will start to pair up early in the year and start looking for nesting sites. Blackbirds normally start breeding in March which isn't that far away now.

 

We've got the woodpecker hooked on the fat balls bird food it seems along with a family of long tailed tits too.

Been seeing a heck of a lot of geese going overhead,up the valley and back down again too.

A swan took out the electricity to the village again. Snapped the line causing it to drop into the river, as for the unlucky ???

 

Nothing

Besides a pair of magpies, my garden is deserted and devoid of any life.

The previous owner of the house took it on himself to only plant things that never bloom and never bear any fruit. So I guess the birds kind of learned their lesson and went to greener pastures.

Also didn't help, I guess, that I cut down almost everything that was filling said garden and replaced it with juvenile plants...

 

Well, I was surprised to hear, whilst clearing around some of the patio roses, a buzzing sound. I didn’t see the insect, but it was still not something that I was expecting to hear!

I really enjoyed taking part in the bird counting weekend last weekend. I think it’s been inspired by the BTO weekend in the UK, but here the Flanders wildlife NPO, Natuurpunt, we’re running the event. Really well done, I thought, with the top 25 birds available in a pictorial laundry list on the “tell us what you’ve seen” page, which helped my with my Dutch vocabulary. Any other birds could be found on a pull-down menu...
It’s strange. I feed the birds all year round, and enjoy watching them. But it was only when I focused on them for an extended period of time did I get some of the nuances. Like the fact that a robin has claimed the bird table, and chases the other birds away when he can (so I’ve moved the nut feeder that was hanging from the table - now he can guard the table, or the feeder, but not both). Or that a blackbird territory line runs beneath the table, so I had two male blackbirds hopping back and forth along their border - fortunately both were able to benefit from the seed fall-out. I even spotted a sparrow hawk buzz the garden, which made everything go quiet for a while (yes, it was one of the birds in the laundry-list!)
Fascinating!!

 

A pair of Siskins returned after a 6 month absence two weeks ago but since then just two brief visits.


One of three Pied Wagtails visiting daily, fluffed up against the cold wind.

 

I've had a couple of Siskins here too Strongy and like yours their visits are few and far between and brief.

After last years battle with disease the Chaffinch numbers are up again, obviously flying in from other areas. A good number of Goldfinches have been here daily throughout the winter, I've not seen this many since I moved here. I also have nine Blackbirds here every morning waiting to be fed, just one is female. I suspect there's going to be some territory disputes in the coming weeks.

 

That's one of the beauties of gardening. Without realising it. We become naturalists as well. So much is always going on around us. When it comes to 'Buzzing' It might be my forum friend Biggles, wink. Being serious. I get lots of hoverflies in the garden along with some fliers I have yet to identify. It often amazes me with the bumble bee. He's the big fella, so often getting caught up in cobwebs. They semi hibernate in small holes in the ground and cracks and crevices in buildings. Even for instance a day like perhaps today.....freezing, but I have noticed that suddenly there is a taping on my window, yes, it's the gent himself. They seem to be so extra sensitive to even th smallest rise in temperature. I have spent many a spell in the greenhouse, gently untangling my furry friend from the elastic sticky cobweb. Once done, he will do a little piroet say buzzzzzz and fly off.

From the photos of birds, on the forum. That Siskin looks good. I used to have a large planted aviary. I kept canaries and British finches. Later I included foreign finches also. Inter breeding with the canaries was natural. Then what is called, Muling. That is cross bredding a finch with a canary. Then Hybridizing. This is where finches are cross-bred. The Siskin was a great one for this. Truly some fantastic birds could be bred.

This is such a wonderful world. Such a shame mankind has cocked it up so much.

 

My late mum kept foreign birds too @Mike Allen and bred parakeets and budgerigars for more than thirty years. There were seven aviaries in our garden. She was also on the local police listings to take any stray birds that had been caught and handed in. If nobody claimed them after a certain time she was allowed to keep them. She gained an African parrot in that time but being a tame bird she was kept indoors. As you probably know they live to a good age and my mum had her for forty years with no idea how old she was when she got her. During the war years and rationing mum used to rear chickens and geese.