General Chat

Mentioned before that I have robins nesting in an old shed, with easy access and egress. They are very tame and come right up to my foot. Last week a tiny one appeared - a baby robin. My doubt is that somewhere at the the back of my mind I read that they don,t develop their red breast until older. Anyway this little fellow is already tamer than the bigger ones and I,m hoping we,ll become even closer partners as it grows. It greatly increases the pleasure of gardening when you are joined by a little friend as soon as you start work. Soppy message, I know - but we live in troubled times. happy days

not soppy at all, I think it's lovely. :-) Joy

Hi Harry, We used to have a robin who would tap on the patio doors if the food available wasn't to his taste. He used to hop around after us whenever we were in the garden and we got very fond of him and the families he raised in the bushes at the end of the garden. Sadly, he was killed by a cat belonging to a neighbour when he got a little less agile with age. I hate cats. Gwynne

James/Joy Thanks for your input. Gwen - why can,t we have happy endings in this world. This little fellow will peck at the fat balls in company with the sparrows - the older ones won,t. View the action round the fat-balls and you soon find out what the phrase 'pecking order' means. happy days

Harry, You're right, they don't develop the red breast until they're older. We've had lots of robin nests in our gardens, and the young ones are really cute. I think their 'tameness' comes from inexperience - they haven't yet learned fear. We used to have them nesting each year in some shelving under our old carport, and inevitably some babies would fly the wrong way and end up in our garage, instead of in the garden. I'd gently scoop them up in an old dustpan and put them out in some leafy plant, and the parents soon found them. We often had the parents eating from our hands, and once, when I inadvertently got too close to the nest as an adult was flying in to feed the nestlings, it attacked me! It flew at the top of my head and started pecking until I moved, which I did quite quickly! In this garden, the poor baby birds have to survive the neighbour's blasted cat. It's ruined several of our plants already by jumping on some poor little bird sheltering under them. Hope your robins have better luck. CB >|<

CB, thanks for you input. Nice happenings. My garden is deliberately 'wild' - nothing is left uncovered. I have a cat scarer which works for me - at least one other has been less successful. the garden USED to be full of cats hiding in the undergrowth, waiting to pounce. I suppose that,s nature and we have to accept it - sad as it seems to us. happy days

Aaaaahhh What a lovely message Harry...... You have brightened my day!! Kind Regards Dawn

Roxanne; Dawn, Many thanks. No, I don,t have a bird bath, but my neighbour has one in full view of our breakfast room - said before ' no good having a dog and barking yourself' happy days

Hi Harry, what a lovely story. These days the birds seem to be sadly missing from my part of the world (unless I go to Trafalgar Square Lol). I have a mental picture of you busy in your garden with your new little friend watching. Long may it last. Love and Peace Marianne. xxxx

Marianne, Amen to that. Now departing from this board to talk to my little friend. Half an hour of both is my motto. happy days

Harry, thats really lovely. When I moved into my house eleven years ago, my garden was an expanse of mud and nothing. Now I have a pond, hedging on one side, and a wildflower garden to attract bugs. In the last five years, I have gone from a barren garden (no birds, bugs or otherwise) to seeing my very first coal tit this decade! (loads of other tit varieties... but the first coal tit... I was so happy!) I have wrens and a robin nesting, have seen butterflies and ladybirds this year (35+ ladybirds in one looking), slow worms, newts, frogs, ... and so much more, that have not been in this garden for many a year before I lived here. Don't go thinking I have a large garden... it's not that big - and anyone can have birds and bugs in their garden if they leave a little space and think about growing native plants (mostly thought of as weeds). Harry... any chance of taking photos of your feathered friend and posting them somewhere for us to see? I'm sure if more people knew how easy it was to get wildlife in their garden, they would all have fun encouraging birds, etc in.

Sorry. No camera and wouldn,t know how to post anyway. lovely thought though. If anyone is interested in the cat (animal) scarer, contact me separately. i gave details on here once before to somebody and it didn,t work for him. some lovely bits and pieces on this thread. Many thanks

A lovely story, Harry and wonderful replies. In a chaotic world it is so good to hear about nature, birds and all wild things. I would dearly love to feed the birds from my little patio, but the malevolent car next door would probably scare them away? Anyway, thank you for that, I can picture you and baby robin as you do your gardening. BC

I saw a lovely little robin this morning! Aileen

Thanks again folks. Now raining heavily here. just been out in the garden - no robin. And we call THEM bird brained. happy days

What a lovely thread not soppy at all, it makes a change to read nice things. We get lots of different birds in our garden and get so much pleasure from them. We have a bird feeding station which we bought from the garden centre and it's placed in the garden so we can see it from the conservatory. I could spend hours watching their antics if time allowed. We have a resident blackbird who's been with us for about 4 years now, the last 4-5 weeks we've watched him run ragged feeding his new babies, in fact the first day they came out of the nest i felt as though i was on babysitting duty, making sure they didnt get attacked by the cats or falling in the water barrel when perched on the edge. We have a Robin too but sadly i don't think i've ever seen a baby one. all the best Deb X

Deb, you need two robins you know...... Lovely message, many thanks. Happy days

Not soppy at all Harry, I stopped and said hello to a robin just yesterday on my way home from town. I felt so privilaged that he sat and listened to me, lol. Margaret

What a lovely thread - it's encouraged me to buy a bird box when I get paid this month! Debby

We have blue tits nesting in the cavity wall through our archway - what a great way to start the day to watch the small ones playing in my garden tree Beve