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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: rook

Spring Days

20 Sun Mar 2016

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, weather, wild birds

≈ 53 Comments

Tags

cherry-plum, daffodil, Emmaus, garden improvements, greylag, heron, ladybird, Mallard, new furniture, primrose, rook, rook's nest, spring flowers, sweet violet, wild birds

There isn’t much of interest to report – we have been busy and we are all very tired but there isn’t much to show for it all.

We have had a new suite of furniture delivered for our living room and the old sofas and reclining chair have been donated to Emmaus a charity that helps and supports the homeless.  They have a second-hand retail shop at Ditchingham, a village a few miles to the north of us which is where our furniture was taken.  The new furniture is very different but extremely comfortable.  It is also less bulky than our old furniture so our living room seems a little bigger.

Our old shed has been demolished and we have had a concrete pad laid next to the tool shed where we will put a new potting shed.  Getting rid of the old shed, which really was an eyesore, has opened up the garden at the north side of the house.  Richard has dug over the soil which was underneath the shed and will add organic matter to it to help rejuvenate it.  Eventually, he would like to plant flowering shrubs there.  He has also added compost to and dug over the soil in the vegetable beds.  The potatoes are ready for planting and Richard will begin sowing pea and bean seeds in pots soon.  The weather has been much too cold recently for anything to be planted outside and as we have an unheated greenhouse we daren’t sow seeds there just yet either.

Last week we saw quite a lot of sunshine and even though the wind was from the north-east and very cold everything seemed very spring-like.  This week there has been increasing amounts of cloud and a lot of drizzly rain so with the cold wind it feels like a return of winter.  The daytime temperature has stayed between 5 and 6 degrees C all the week.

I walked round the garden last week and took a few photographs in the sunshine.

IMG_2683Mallard

A Mallard swimming on the big pond

IMG_2691Mallard

Mallard drake

IMG_2685Primroses-001

Primroses in one of the ditches round the garden

IMG_2686Daffodils

Daffodils flowering on the bank of the big pond

IMG_2687Rook's nest-001

A Rook’s nest being built in the Ash tree.

Greylag pair on the pond
Greylag pair on the pond
Greylags on the pond
Greylags on the pond
Greylags on the pond
Greylags on the pond

I have seen the heron in the garden a few times.

IMG_2710Heron

I tried to sneak up on the heron as it stood at the side of the pond but it saw me and flew into the field behind our house. This is a poor photo that has been severely cropped.

I found a half-eaten fish on the path round the pond which could have been left there by the heron or by the otter which is causing owners of ponds in our area to wish the otter was living many miles away!

Ladybird
Ladybird
Ladybird
Ladybird
Ladybird
Ladybird
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
IMG_2701Sweet violet

Sweet violet

IMG_2695Cherry-plum

Cherry-plum

 

IMG_2696Cherry-plum

Cherry-plum

IMG_2697Cherry-plum

Cherry-plum

My choice of music for this post is Emmanuel Chabrier’s ‘Suite Pastorale’.  As soon as I hear it I think of spring days in the countryside – cool breezes, sparkling streams, flowers and singing birds.  I hope you like the music as much as I do.

Thanks for visiting!

 

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Some More Visitors to my Garden : Birds

13 Thu Nov 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Rural Diary, wild birds

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

birds, blackbird, chaffinch, coal tit, Garden birds, Great Tit, greater spotted woodpecker, greenfinch, house sparrow, moorhen, Muscovy duck, pheasant, pied wagtail, Robin, rook, Suffolk, wren

During this summer and early autumn I managed to photograph a number of animals, birds, insects and other creatures in my garden.  Some of these photos are of very poor quality but I will include them as a record of what I saw.  This post will be of the birds I’ve seen in my garden.

006Great Tit (640x397)

This Great Tit has an insect in its beak and was fluttering its wings very quickly (hence the blurring). It was waiting for me to go away so that it could feed its chicks in a nest box we have in the garden.

007Great Tit (640x504)

I quickly took another photograph and then walked away

036Great tit with insect (640x443)

Here is one of the pair of Great Tits using that same nest box nearly two weeks later. I am fascinated to see how carefully they hold the insects in their beaks so as not to crush them.

018Greenfinch (640x427)

This is a Greenfinch. There are always plenty of these in the garden. The feeder pole is always leaning and covered in mud because of the squirrels and rooks that use the feeder too.

003Cock Pheasant (640x427)

I didn’t quite get all of this cock Pheasant’s tail.

038Cock pheasant (640x427)

Cock Pheasant

039Cock pheasant (640x427)

Cock Pheasant

025Female blackbird (640x434)

A female Blackbird collecting insects for her chicks.

037Female blackbird (640x427)

Another female Blackbird searching for food.

036Female blackbird (640x427)

And again.

My daughter came running to me one day saying that there was a strange bird in our garden.  She described it as being half duck, half chicken.  I had to have a look and discovered that one of our neighbour’s Muscovy Ducks was visiting us.  If you have ever seen a Muscovy Duck walking you will know that they move their head and neck back and forth while walking just like a chicken does.

033Muscovy duck (640x427)

Female Muscovy Duck

034Muscovy duck (640x427)

Walking like a chicken

I thought I would post this photo of a Wren again as I was quite pleased to get it.  Wrens are quite shy birds and fairly small (3.75″) but have very loud voices.

029Wren

Wren

005Robin

I’ve posted this photo of a Robin before too

005Female greater spotted woodpecker (640x427)

Female Greater Spotted Woodpecker

006Male chaffinch (640x493)

Male Chaffinch

007Pied wagtail (640x442)

Pied Wagtail

009Rook (640x427)

Rook

010Rook (640x427)

Rook.

011Coal tit (640x499)

Coal Tit. These birds are very slightly smaller than Blue Tits at about 4.5″. You can see the mud on the feeder that the Rooks put there with their dirty feet and beaks!

012Male house sparrow (640x491)

Male House Sparrow

049Rear view of moorhen (640x437)

The usual rear view of a Moorhen as it runs off down the garden

012Blackbird (640x427)

A male Blackbird at dusk

 

 

 

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I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

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