Priory Park, Bedford

Last weekend, Bev and Paul took us bears and Tony to Priory Park in Bedford to see the birds, have a dip in the lake and do what bears do in the woods.  The weather was glorious - warm and sunny, with everything coming out in bloom and spring very definitely in the air!

We saw some adult swans, geese and the tiniest ducklings you can imagine - they were so small that when the paddled really fast they skimmed across the top of the water, not through it!

Anyway, here are some photographs to show that spring is definitely here:

Here is a bee hotel.

Here is a butterfly.
Some hawthorn, and finally...

a very magestic looking swan!

Despite Priory Park being quite busy with dogs and children, there are some very quiet spots where you can watch the wildlife and chill-out.  We found a beautiful little bird / wildlife hide, which we would thoroughly recommend.

Robin

Bev has been experimenting with taking photographs in RAW  format, and managed to get this one of a robin in the garden this afternoon.  It's heavily cropped as she was indoors and the robin was at the bottom of the garden, but it's not bad for a first attempt.  We bears like these photographs - they remind us of the menus you get abroad where you choose your food from a picture.  So, we'll have the plump little robin for our lunch, now please!

Bullfinch chick

We found a fairly large baby bird on the patio today, and after some serious searching through our bird books, decided it was a baby bullfinch.  Bev thought it had hit the window and was stunned, Kitty and us bears thought it was dead and therefore a tasty snackette.  But we were all wrong - it had got drenched in a sudden downpour and was just warming itself up.  So, when we all approached it - Kitty with his teef and claws, us bears with our knives and forks and Bev with a box - it flew away :-(

So we now have an entire Bullfinch family in our garden - maw, paw and the weans (well, one wean at least)!

What a loada bull!

We thought Bev and Paul were talking rubbish tonight when they said they saw a pair of bullfinches in the garden, but after looking at the birds through our trusty binoculars, we bears have to agree with them!  Yup, we have a pair of bullfinches in our garden, and very pretty they looked too!  Especially the male with his pretty pink breast.  So, we have a new bird to add to our birding list, and a tasty new snackette to sample sometime soon.  Now where was that recipe for bullfinch pie?????

Bluetits in our bird box!

Yup, our bird box has been occupied again this year by a family of blue tits - we have spotted Mr & Mrs Blue Tit at the box, as well as hearing the chicks cheeping for food!  It is SO sweet!  Now all we have to do is keep Kitty away from the chicks once they start feeding in the garden, and of course we bears are under strict instructions not to nibble a few ourselves or we will get smacked!

Sparrowhawk

Bev has spotted what she thinks is the male sparrowhawk in the garden - the first time she spotted him, he killed a small bird and flew off with it before she could photograph him. However, the next day she spotted him again and managed to take about 20 shots before he flew off. This is the best of them.

We are impressed with his scary eyes! Mind you, he's not as scary as Mrs Sparrowhawk, who is bigger than him and looks very fierce! Thank goodness we are not little birds, though we will take extra care when we are out in the garden - after all, we don't want to get mistaken for lunch by a hungry hawk!

More garden visitors and more photographs

Well, now that Bev has had some success photographing Mrs Woodpecker, there really is no holding her back. Not only did she spot and photograph Mr Woodpecker at the weekend, but she experimented with the digiscope and digital camera with some spectacular results! See below:

This is a photograph of Mrs Woodpecker taken without the digiscope.

This is a photograph of Mr Woodpecker.

Now that Bev has discovered how to get the camera and digiscope to work together, we look forward to more interesting shots of wildlife in our back garden.

Garden visitor!

Wow, not only did we see a woodpecker in the garden this morning, but Bev also got some photographs of it! The woodpecker was sitting on the peanut feeder and, unusually, spent quite a bit of time in the garden, giving Bev the opportunity to grab her camera and take about 60 shots.

What a magnificent bird our woodpecker is, and while she looks like a tasty snackette for us bears, those claws look even sharper and more vicious than Kitty's! I think a sandwich or burger might be a safer snack for us hungry little bears :-)

Garden wildlife

Despite the crappy weather over the holiday weekend, we spotted a baby chaffinch in the tree testing its new wings and being fed some seeds by it's parents. So, at least some baby birds have actually hatched into this dismal, cold and wintery May. Oh, and we also saw some baby squirrels playing in the garden.

However, we won't be venturing outdoors to grab any wildlife snackettes as it is too cold and wet for us pampered bears - we'll stay indoors and raid the fridge instead.

Impressive wildlife

On the way home from work today Bev saw some spectacular wildlife, but luckily they didn't attack her or the car.

As she was coming out of Ashridge Park, only a few feet away from the car a bird plummeted out of the sky onto the right-hand grass verge, grabbed its dinner and took off again, at which point Bev recognised the distinctive markings of a sparrowhawk.

And as if that wasn't enough, she was heading home between the M1 and Barton Le Clay, when she spotted what looked like a white paper bag drifting across the field towards the car. As it got closer, she realised that it was flapping its wings, and as it skimmed over the roof of the car she could see that it was an owl - possibly a barn owl! Wow, Bev felt really priviledged to have seen all that wildlife on her way home from work. The scenery on her commute is very pretty, but to see such impressive wildlife as well is such a bonus!

For us bears, the only thing more impressive than live wildlife is roadkill - I know that seeing a sparrowhawk catching its dinner and seeing an owl is pretty special, but we bears would have been more impressed if she had brought us home some roadkill to munch on while listening to her tales of wildlife on the way home from work.

Tawney Owl

We have just heard a tawney owl outside, and when Paul checked with his night-vision goggles he could see it sitting in the tree beside the house. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a photograph of it, but it was lovely to hear its spooky call and see it sitting in the tree.

There was a tawney owl here when we moved into our house 5 years ago, but we haven't heard it for a couple of years. Hopefully it is back to stay, though paws crossed that goldfinch isn't on the menu - what with the sparrowhawk and tawney owl, our charm of goldfinches will be sadly depleted!

It's nice to see you mr owl, but please leave our goldfinches alone! Eat a wood pigeon instead - it's much bigger and easier to catch.

Surprise visitor in the garden

This morning was a typical Sunday morning - a large communal bowl of porridge for bears and humans, big mugs of coffee and lots of chat, when Bev suddenly said "is that a hawk in the garden?". We bears made sure we finished the porridge before checking, but the humans abandoned their breakfasts and scurried off for their cameras and the digiscope to get a better look.

It was a beautiful sparrowhawk, which had caught a little goldfinch and proceeded to eat it in our garden. While it was a pretty gruesome 15 minutes as it gobbled up the tiny bird, it gave us plenty of time to admire this beautiful bird of prey and for Bev to take lots of photographs. The sparrowhawk sat under the bushes to eat the goldfinch, then flew onto the fence and finally flew away.

And although we felt very sorry for the poor little goldfinch, we felt very privileged to have seen the sparrowhawk in our garden.

Ducks in Effing Forest

While in Effing Forest, we spotted a beautiful duck but were not sure what it was or how tasty it would be. Bev checked it up on her bird book for us and discovered it was a Mandarin Duck - these are ornamental ducks from China that were brought here for waterfowl collections and have escaped, breeding very successfully in the wild. We don't care where they came from, we bears just want to know how yummy they are and if they are worth encountering Essex Man, Woman and Dog to pinch a few for lunch.

Ode to a Goldfinch

Oh, little goldfinch
So sweet and so small
Why did you have to fly into our wall
and crash senseless to the ground?
Which was where you were found.
But now you rest in a grave dug by Paul
Remembered by all!

Ok, not very poetical, but hey, it's the best a bear can do!

Our baby goldfinch flew into the window and broke it's delicate little neck, poor thing. We had a service for it and buried it in the back garden.

Bill - don't listen to Hamish when he says he crunches little goldfinches as snacks. He prefers a kitkat or choccy biscuit, and is far too soft to catch and eat a lovely goldfinch. He enjoys watching the birds in the garden, but pretends he is this gruff, wild bear who eats the birds and squirrels. Yeh, in your dreams, Hamish - you're nothing but a big softy! And we love you for it, don't we Phoebe?

More baby birds!

We have more baby goldfinches in our garden, and they are eating as if there is no tomorrow! Paul has had to replenish their supply of sunflower seeds, but even with a large and small feeder, there is still a lot of squabbling with the greenfinches for a position on the feeders. We had about 16 birds on the feeders last night, plus another 12 or so waiting in the tree, and 4 on the nut feeder with a queue of little birds along the fence for the nut feeder. Bill and I sat and drooled, but we weren't allowed to go anywhere near them. We thought our luck had changed when a baby goldfinch crashed into the window, and sat stunned on the patio - we just needed to open the window and snaffle it, but we were locked in the house and instructed NOT TO MOVE! Just as we were thinking our lunch would be a tasty little goldfinch, it got up and flew away! Bum, we had to make do with baked beans instead :-(

Spring has sprung, at last! Part 2

At last, after 3 years, we finally have occupants in our sparrow terrace on the side of the house - they are blue tits rather than sparrows, but at least the house is now occupied!
The baby starlings are getting quite big (and yummily plump) now, and are feeding themselves rather than expecting their parents to provide all the food. The baby goldfinches are just starting to arrive in the garden, test driving their new wings and being fed by mum and dad - they look delicious. I'm sure Bev will never notice if we nibble a few baby birds, but I don't want to get a smacked bottom, so perhaps not :-(
Paul ingeniously set up the sprinkler to automatically fill up the bird bath twice a day, and here he is with the shower he installed for them!

Spring has sprung, at last!

Well, spring has sprung, not that you would know it by the temperature - help ma boab, but it's cold! The only reason we bears know it is spring is because the baby starlings are coming into the garden to be fed by their overworked parents. We are only allowed to watch them from the window - we have been told in no uncertain terms that catching baby birds is BAD and if caught, we will get smacked bottoms :-( So we sit and watch and drool.
We also have a sweet little black squirrel who comes into the garden. At first we thought he was a black rat (yikes - black death, plague and pestilence!) but discovered that he is a little squirrel with a deformed or non-existent tail. He's actually very sweet, but not too bright as he can't work out how to open the nut box.
Other wildlife includes our charm of goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, a few blackbirds, some robins, sparrows, blue and coal tits, a woodpecker, some jays and a sparrow-hawk or falcon. Never a dull moment in our back garden, let me tell you!
The photograph is of Bill and myself enjoying our afternoon in the garden. I think I look rather like Ernest Hemmingway - all I need is the gin and tonic :-)