Tag: birds
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Bird spikes and netting
There’s a railway bridge not far from us that the city council recently decorated with anti-bird netting and spikes. In previous years we saw pigeons raising chicks there so it made me sad to see it all netted up with spikes everywhere. I wrote a letter of complaint and got a reply explaining that pigeon…
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Exams, birds, and what we can learn from the anti-slavery movement
Both kids are in the thick of exams right now. Elizabeth is doing iGSCE and Daniel the International Baccalaureate (IB). Elizabeth has 16 exams in total which seems like an enormous number but she’s managing it all very well so far. Daniel has 14 and is through the worst of it as he completed the…
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Daniel is going to St Andrews
Daniel got some exciting news last week: he received an offer to study computer science at the University of St Andrews. This was his top choice so he’s planning to accept it and will commence university in September this year. I never imagined I’d one day have a child at St Andrews University. It must…
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Sledging at Duthie Park
I do love the snow. We had another snowy day today and Aberdeen is looking beautiful. We made the most of it and went sledging. There’s rain forecast for Sunday so it looks like it may disappear soon unfortunately. I got a video of a starling at the bird feeder this morning when it was…
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Aurora, BioCafe, and wildlife photography
I hopped into bed just after 10pm last night and began scrolling social media where I discovered we were in the midst of a red alert aurora. I looked out the bedroom window and took this photo. Not bad for the middle of a city and quite a lot of cloud cover as you can…
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Loch Leven nature reserve
We visited the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) nature reserve at Loch Leven today and I was able to learn that the bird of prey we saw yesterday was a male sparrowhawk. The nature reserve at Loch Leven is a fantastic place for a visit and the RSPB centre in particular is…
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Seabirds at Fowlsheugh
We took dad to see the birds at Fowlsheugh yesterday. Over 100,000 seabirds come to the cliffs of Fowlsheugh over the spring and summer to breed turning the cliffs into a bustling King’s Cross Station of Guillemots, Razorbills, and Kittiwakes as well as the odd Puffin and Fulmar. Scotland’s seabirds have had a challenging few…
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Local wildlife
Last week when I was topping up the bird feeders a fox appeared. We both got a bit of a fright but when he realised I was a kind human he hung around and I tossed some peanuts to him that he gobbled up. On Sunday we found the corpse of half a rat in…
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Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve
About 20 minutes south of Aberdeen by car along the coast is the Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve which hosts the largest seabird colony on the east coast of Scotland. In summer it is teeming with over 100,000 Guillemots, Razorbills, and Kittiwakes. We visited it today. Since it’s only March there were not very many birds. You…
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The magpie and Rocket
I recently got a large bird-feeding house with a high capacity because I was having to refill the tube feeders so frequently I thought this would last longer. However a magpie with a discerning palate has discovered he can flick through the seed picking out the bits he likes. He empties it in less than…
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Clever crow stealing peanuts
I felt bad recently because when I replaced my bird feeders with ones that had a protective cage to keep pigeons away I realised it would also prevent blackbirds from accessing the food. Blackbirds are ground feeders but I did see them occasionally use the hanging feeder. I remember it because there were two of…
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Feeding and bathing the birds
The magpies and slugs now eat the food I leave out for the hedgehogs. I know because I leave the camera out on it overnight and there’s very little activity from anything else. Something that did surprise me is how popular a bowl of water is. I was going to throw away a chipped pasta…
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White pigeon
A white pigeon has started visiting the bird feeders in our backyard. I’ve never seen one before. I wonder if it’s an escaped pet? Or maybe one of many released white pigeons at someone’s wedding? These are not the best photos because I took them through glass and it seems I need to clean the…
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Herring gull chick
The herring gull nesting in the chimney pots on our roof is now a parent as yesterday I spotted a chick. It’s hard to see in this photo so I’ve annotated around it with a red box. I don’t always see it as it’s behind the metal chimney but sometimes it peers out the side…
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Bees, gulls and Grenfell fire
On the pavement outside our house is a tiny bit of dirt beneath a lone tree. The council usually spray the pavement and after years of losing plants this way I now have a sign there. I was delighted today to find two bees feeding from this tiny garden. You can see one of the…
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Gull dinner party
I baked another dud sourdough loaf which I threw onto the back lawn. A colony of gulls swooped in and demolished it all in less than a minute. Before the gulls arrived some local birds had a go. I got this one brave bird feasting right in front of Victoria our cat. I’m not sure…
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Protecting birds from the cat
The cold-blooded killer brought a bird inside last week. I managed to rescue the bird and it flew away, seemingly unscathed, but it left behind a pile of feathers which it surely needed in the cold spell we had. I felt very guilty and bought some bird food which I put outside on a high…
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Pets and toilet training
Cats are so easy. They come fully toilet-trained, don’t need to be taken for walks, don’t bark, and don’t require entertaining. It has been a long time since I had a cat and after 14 years of my dogs, Freud and Zeki, I had forgotten what is was like. I got Freud and Zeki as…
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A bird feeder and 50% off eating out
The bird feeder in our backyard fell apart so we replaced it with one of those feeders that sticks to the outside of your window. They’re made in the UK by Meripac. I stuck it on the window yesterday and within hours there were birds there. Here’s a picture of it with three birds (the…
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Frank Spencer at the allotments
I went to the allotment today to assemble a small cage I purchased to keep the pigeons off the vegetables. I bought what I thought was an easy click-together frame but when I pulled it out I discovered screws and I hadn’t taken a screwdriver with me. Who carries a screwdriver around with them? I…
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