spuggies and jackdaws and hedgehogs and frogs

I think the #### have gone

They were there on Saturday then gone by Sunday.

How long are birds in the nest before fledging?

Lived here nearly 4 years. never seen any Goldfinches.

At the weekend I hung a feeder full of nijer seeds outside my office window. Bingo, this morning, tow goldfinches feeding away!

Clever, aren't they?

I put out some of those suet balls, on a feeding tray, on Sunday night. Gone completely by getting up on Monday morning. Whe I put out another, an adult rook was soon breaking it up, then feeding it to two youngsters on the ground below.

Got garden of fledgling starlings and sparrows being fed by hassled parents.

Lured in Goldfinches at last.... thistle seed feeder finally noticed!!

Thought that straggly white cat hanging around before the dog spootted it got the male chaffinch, but he has returned after a week, been a nice weekend watching it all. (Female chaffinch has been a steady regular, maybe he was on egg duty or foraging elsewhere)

Away from garden birds, the red kites have been more prevelent in the sky, I think the Aylesbury kites have bred and there's more than the 2 we had here.Watching them when mobbed by crows just wheel away with disdain at another bird's attempt to attack, they really are superb flying machines.

had a blue ###### come down a few times over past few days

the wood pigeons are getting a bit brass necked 1 was waiting where I park me car this morning and flew onto the roof to it's mate where they watched me fill up the seeds and nuts etc,2 minutes after I was inside the house there was a squadron scramble ( as we now call it ) and the garden was full of anything that could fly

fantastic it was

although the good Mrs VRG now reckons I spend more on feeding them than I do on taking her out.....

our starlings have taken a big liking to the bread soaked in gravy that I put out after tea tonight

I can now report 7 goldfinches feeding in the garden, 4 adult, 3 juveniles (faces still brown, but gold flashes on the wing).

I have also seen 8 red kites over the estate at once, showing the Aylesbury Kites are breeding well.....

our starlings have taken a big liking to the bread soaked in gravy that I put out after tea tonight

You shouldn't really feed them bread. Sorry.

A peacock flew across the road as I was cycling along yesterday.

I'm used to the deer running out of the woods, but that was a first.

haven't seen the song thrushes for a long time now,not sure why

the young blackies and starlings are snaffling everything and anything

latest comedy moment was a young blackbird hopping round some fodder on the grass with it's beak open trying to get a sparrow to feed it, I suppose some things have to be learnt the hard way...

I live on a new estate - I got giddy last week when I saw a crow fly over.

We are lucky enough to live right on the northern edge of Leeds so we get a lot of the woodland and farmland birds of lower Wharfedale... recently I've seen a sparrowhawk perched menacingly on the front gate, a green woodpecker and some fantastic aerial combat between red kites and rooks.

We even have a regular pair of jays, who stand expectantly underneath the rowan tree where most of my feeders are. I feel very privileged to see an abundance of wildlife from the kitchen window.

Strangely, I've only ever seen one house sparrow, one goldfinch and no starlings, despite them being very common birds.

Strangely, I've only ever seen one house sparrow, one goldfinch and no starlings, despite them being very common birds.

They maybe don't like the look of that aforementioned sparrowhawk.

We are lucky enough to live right on the northern edge of Leeds so we get a lot of the woodland and farmland birds of lower Wharfedale... recently I've seen a sparrowhawk perched menacingly on the front gate, a green woodpecker and some fantastic aerial combat between red kites and rooks.

We even have a regular pair of jays, who stand expectantly underneath the rowan tree where most of my feeders are. I feel very privileged to see an abundance of wildlife from the kitchen window.

Strangely, I've only ever seen one house sparrow, one goldfinch and no starlings, despite them being very common birds.

If you put out niger seed, in a feeder designed for it, I'd be very surprised if you didn't get lot of goldfinches, and probably siskins too. No idea how they know, but they find it within a day or two.

I have a woodland garden (just inside the moat of course) but have never seen jays there. I think I spotted a chiffchaff the other day, but not certain, as they are not that easy to distinguish from birds like garden warblers.

We are lucky enough to live right on the northern edge of Leeds so we get a lot of the woodland and farmland birds of lower Wharfedale... recently I've seen a sparrowhawk perched menacingly on the front gate, a green woodpecker and some fantastic aerial combat between red kites and rooks.

We even have a regular pair of jays, who stand expectantly underneath the rowan tree where most of my feeders are. I feel very privileged to see an abundance of wildlife from the kitchen window.

Strangely, I've only ever seen one house sparrow, one goldfinch and no starlings, despite them being very common birds.

I live on the northern edge of leeds as well

on the edge of Adel woods

there's a healthy owl population and woodpeckers(not sure what sort because I've yet to spot one)

we get regular visits from deer in our garden including magnificant stags

but what you say about jays caught my eye.

walking down to the seven arches, and either to Alwoodly or the other route towards the Hollies via the ring road tunnel, you would see a kingfisher now and again near the weir, but there would always be the odd jay.

The thing is that jays have now supplanted the once powerful colony of magpies that dominated our back garden and the field next to it. They are really bold birds, and beautiful to watch.

I live on the northern edge of leeds as well

on the edge of Adel woods

there's a healthy owl population and woodpeckers(not sure what sort because I've yet to spot one)

we get regular visits from deer in our garden including magnificant stags

but what you say about jays caught my eye.

walking down to the seven arches, and either to Alwoodly or the other route towards the Hollies via the ring road tunnel, you would see a kingfisher now and again near the weir, but there would always be the odd jay.

The thing is that jays have now supplanted the once powerful colony of magpies that dominated our back garden and the field next to it. They are really bold birds, and beautiful to watch.

Woodpeckers are fairly easy, as there are only 3 types, but still aspectacular 'spot'. The green looks nothing like the other two and tends to feed on the ground. The greater spotted has a red abdomen and a patch of red above the neck, whereas the the lesser has a red cap, and nothing red on the abdomen.

Kingfishers are a really good spot, and you need a nice quiet river to find them.

We should go birdspotting together; we'd become best friends.

Woodpeckers are fairly easy, as there are only 3 types, but still aspectacular 'spot'. The green looks nothing like the other two and tends to feed on the ground. The greater spotted has a red abdomen and a patch of red above the neck, whereas the the lesser has a red cap, and nothing red on the abdomen.

Kingfishers are a really good spot, and you need a nice quiet river to find them.

We should go birdspotting together; we'd become best friends.

I've seen woodpeckers before

just not seen the ones I've heard in the woods at the back of our place.

Saw a barn owl down Black Tup Lane earlier on this evening, and loads of goldfinches in Walkington.

The weather is bringing some rare sights, for me anyway.

Around half a dozen long-tailed #### searching food in the trees next to work, never seen those before, and just had a dozen redwings in the garden, along with songthrushes, blackbirds and the usual suspects.

We had our first song thrushes in our garden last week, the gossip must be out that we're de-icing the bird bath every morning and putting out plenty of food. We've also had some moorhens hanging around, again never seen them here before.

The bird population is struggling at the moment, people are generally binning food which could help them survive. Think Winter....Think Birds.

The weather is bringing some rare sights, for me anyway.

Not related to our feathered friends I know, but there have been a lot of deer hoof prints in the snow when I've got to work in the last couple of days. I don't know whether it's normal for them to hang around the cycle lockers or that the bad weather is forcing them to forage for food further afield than usual.

The bird population is struggling at the moment, people are generally binning food which could help them survive. Think Winter....Think Birds.

We've had a couple of decent sized segments on local news about helping wildlife in this exceptional winter. Biggest problem is water followed by food. We put out two piles daily, one of nuts, the other seeds (split between the ground and bird feeder table). I usually have to chase the magpies at least two or three times before they get the message that they're greedy fat bullies that aren't really welcome.

It usually takes a full kettle of boiling water in the morning to encourage the ice-block that is the bird bath to come loose then a large basin of warm water to refill it and hopefully keep it from freezing for a while. I just put a kettle full of boiling water in the bird bath to get rid of the ice that was building up.

Mrs VRG saw 3 song thrushes this week and me and our lad saw a Goldfinch this afternoon, it's been a while since we had thrushes down

Mrs VRG saw 3 song thrushes this week and me and our lad saw a Goldfinch this afternoon, it's been a while since we had thrushes down

Since the snow came last week we've been overrun with thrushes on our feeders and of course Robins kicking the ###### out of each other. Other than that plenty of starlings, dunnocks, blackbirds and various finches (I'm not an expert).

Best thing about the snow has been the number of animal tracks that we've had. And with a little research we've been able to confirm what's been through in the last week. Rabbit, Badger, Fox, Cat, and Muntjac tracks all identified to go with the squirrels that raid the bird feeders. We've seen lots of rabbits, as they hunt out a bit of uncovered grass/greenery - they look hilarious in the snow.

Does anyone know if bank voles hibernate?

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I had some long tailed #### on one of my bird feeders today; the first time I've seen that. Their usual environment seems to be concrete and tarmac.