WCMUT....what cheered me up today

Gremlin said:
Walking in to a hide in my local reserve and for the 2nd consecutive time have a beautiful Bullfinch coming to feed :love:
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They are handsome birds, we get them on our garden feeders occasionally.
 
broc said:
They are handsome birds, we get them on our garden feeders occasionally.
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I think they are lovely, everyone get's excited about the kingfishers that are seen there, but for me the Bullfinches are better
 
Had a tv unit delivered last week and, when we unpacked it, there was a crack in it.

They delivered the replacement this morning (at 6.20 :eek: ) and, without being asked to, unpacked it, checked all was ok and took all the packaging away, a service that is usually chargeable. Yes, I know that this should be done anyway given the circumstances but it's nice not to have to fight for it.

https://www.chilternoakfurniture.co...X9DrH40dsEg22GxhiKhoCJVoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
 
I thought I'd had a good day and then I watched this and laughed till I cried...

View: https://BANNED/nycsouthpaw/status/1420752750606905349
 
woof woof said:
I thought I'd had a good day and then I watched this and laughed till I cried...

View: https://BANNED/nycsouthpaw/status/1420752750606905349
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So glad he’s not in charge of anything important … :(
 
WCMUT?
1) its throwing it down here, and my pond is filling up nicely again :)
2) Bread pudding in the oven ..
I can't play out side. So I may as well bake and eat something (y)
 
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Cobra said:
its throwing it down here,
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Same here, but we had a break in the cloud earlier adn looking at the wind direction I reckoned it was going to be vclear for a while so risk going for a walk, an hour later I got back home, hung up my coat and looked out the window, yep it was pouring down again, how lucky was that
 
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Gremlin said:
Sam here, but we had a break in the cloud earlier adn looking at the wind direction I reckoned it was going to be vclear for a while so risk going for a walk, an hour later I got back home, hung up my coat and looked out the window, yep it was pouring down again, how lucky was that
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Its easing here now, ponds almost full, so I hope it keeps going for a bit :D
 
Cobra said:
Its easing here now, ponds almost full, so I hope it keeps going for a bit :D
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Glad to hear your pond flood mitigation device works ;).
 
Sat at home doing some work and the good lady phones to tell me she's taking me out for lunch, as it's been a busy week.
Lovely meal, a few beers and home to do no more work until Monday.
 
sphexx said:
Glad to hear your pond flood mitigation device works ;).
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Its almost full now, I hope it quits I don't want to be responsible for flooding MK again :D
 
Got a letter last week from Virgin Media telling me that there was a mistake in my charges from when I left them over 2 years ago and that I would be receiving a cheque for the value plus interest. A cheque arrived this morning for the life-changing amount of £15.26!
 
This certainly made me chuckle.

Having lunch and Mrs F is talking about the horse she is about to go and do bodywork on and that it might rain. In full voice and with the patio doors open, she says:

"I've never done this one in a stable, he's a big lad" :eek:
 
Was late last night but dead pleased this morning, what cheered me up was getting my old Yamaha bike working again
Electrics were dead no spark, with help from the owners club I worked out that it was the electronic ignition unit
All sorted now
 
LCPete said:
Was late last night but dead pleased this morning, what cheered me up was getting my old Yamaha bike working again
Electrics were dead no spark, with help from the owners club I worked out that it was the electronic ignition unit
All sorted now
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And went on to wake the neighbours with that wonderful sound of a 2 stroke and expansion pipes? :LOL: :LOL:
 
LCPete said:
Was late last night but dead pleased this morning, what cheered me up was getting my old Yamaha bike working again
Electrics were dead no spark, with help from the owners club I worked out that it was the electronic ignition unit
All sorted now
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There are a couple of Elsies in the current issue of Classic Bike.
 
Wasn't sure whether to put this in here or WAMT.

WAMT today was a cat coming into our garden,not for the first time, looking for a bird to kill. WCMUT was I thwarted its plan.

This morning at 5.15am nature called and up I got. As I returned to bed I did what I always do..look out of the window down onto the back garden. Maybe I'll see something interesting What I did see was the 'felix look-a-like ' cat crouched down behind a flower tub half-way down the garden on part of the patio next to the summerhouse. They really are smart creatures. We have ,I think, two pairs of blackbirds resident in foliage ..one pair in the front garden and one pair in the back garden. I've seen them flying in there. I've noticed over the years that blackbirds are the first birds up in the mornings looking for food. As soon as some decent light arrives after sunrise. They are also the last to call it a day. This cat has obviously caught on to that. I went downstairs and quietly opened the back door and then ran at it clapping my hands and chased it to the end of the garden where it noisily clambered up a fence and back from whence it came.

Cobra..if you read this I expect if the neighbours in the house behind to the right heard it all they'll check that gable end CCTV I mentioned a week or so ago The cat went over the fence a few metres from it. :D

I returned to the bedroom,looked out again and the male blackbird had arrived soon followed by the female. At 8.00am I got up, looked out in time to see a male blackbird hop under a hydrangea at the end of the garden just as a sparrow hawk flew over twisting and turning between the houses beyond ours . As soon as it had flown over out came the blackbird and continued its search of the lawn looking for breakfast in the form of worms. Surely, it was a concidence that it went under that shrub ? How could it possibly have been aware of the sparrowhawk which was flying at speed and had come from the front of our house between us and our neighbour's house ? Yet, I've seen this before. A bird taking shelter seconds before a sparrowhawk flies over.

During today I've looked out from the kitchen window and the summerhouse at the blackbirds looking for worms on the lawn and drinking from the pond cascades and thought..you're alive...great :)
 
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JohnC6 said:
How could it possibly have been aware of the sparrowhawk
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Did another bird give an alarm call? As I’ve probably written before, my cock bandies used to call an alarm to the hens, who dive for cover, whenever he spotted a possible raptor, this included high flying aircraft sometimes :).
 
sphexx said:
Did another bird give an alarm call? As I’ve probably written before, my cock bandies used to call an alarm to the hens, who dive for cover, whenever he spotted a possible raptor, this included high flying aircraft sometimes :).
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Hadn't thought of that. I wouldn't have been be able to hear that alarm..double glazed windows. That's what 's probably happened then and on the other occasions. The most impressive was when we had a high,thick soft-leaf hedge and one time I counted 30 sparrows living in it. If something alarmed them then 'as one' they would drop down into safety. There one second, gone the next.
 
JohnC6 said:
Cobra..if you read this I expect if the neighbours in the house behind to the right heard it all they'll check that gable end CCTV I mentioned a week or so ago The cat went over the fence a few metres from it. :D
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On its own or with assistance? :D

JohnC6 said:
How could it possibly have been aware of the sparrowhawk which was flying at speed and had come from the front of our house between us and our neighbour's house ?
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My guess is as others have noted someone made an alarm call.
But then again, if you watch a blackbird feed while there is a risk of a predator, they are looking every which way, including up, while they are feeding,
they do that here anyway, as I also have Sparrowhawks patrolling the area.
 
JohnC6 said:
I wouldn't have been be able to hear that alarm..double glazed windows.
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Suspected that ;).

You'll have to get a dog :). Mine keeps the cats away but on the other hand she does kill birds :(, only wood pigeons so far and I have too many of those.
 
It took the neighbourhood cats a while to decide we no longer had a dog, after that a few decided to use the garden as a toilet, moth balls scattered among the flower bed cured that but we felt our resident blackbirds were still in danger, so now the next door dog comes in for a daily visit and wander around the garden, seems to be working, the hedgehog still visits to get his digestive biscuit supper. If we’ve had a dry spell we always water a patch of grass around the suspected region of the blackies nest in the conifers, been there for years and quite happy to wander the garden even if we’re out there too.

Fine singers blackies, even if it a bit early some mornings.
 
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There is always a small bowl of water, don’t know if he/she would prefer butter or cheese.
 
Ah, no milk. (y)
Not seen any here for years, but I used to feed ours croutons fried in beef dripping.
I'd sometimes have three hoggies pushing and shoving to get at the bowl. (and they always stayed for seconds)
 
Only having to spend 40 minutes in A&E this morning having the tip of my hearing aid removed from my ear. It wasn't as though they were quiet either. Well done NHS (well that part of it anyway). GP (who I contacted first, of course), didn't want to know.
 
Cobra said:
On its own or with assistance? :D


My guess is as others have noted someone made an alarm call.
But then again, if you watch a blackbird feed while there is a risk of a predator, they are looking every which way, including up, while they are feeding,
they do that here anyway, as I also have Sparrowhawks patrolling the area.
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On its own. I just ran at it clapping. I hope it didn't think I was applauding it :D It was fast. Off it went behind the garden shed (where I used to pee when gardening to save taking off the boots to go in the house..., before the CCTV went up..,if you recall..lol) I didn't see it go over the boundary fence behind the shed ,I just heard it clattering up it. Infact, just now, before I came on here ,I looked out of the landing window..looking out of windows is a habit with me..lol..and the beggar is across the road at the front scouring the far side of the brook. It won't be too happy,though as the council mowed all the grass today and it can easily be seen.

I do spend a great deal of time in our summerhouse rain or shine as long as it's about 20C plus and I have the double doors open or maybe just one and these blackbirds just hop around right infront of it. Maybe they don't see me but as you say,it's peck,peck,,lookie,lookie. ,to the left, to the right and then they turn their head to the side and tilt it to check above.

I put flowers in the tubs either side of the garden swing yesterday and one of the two resident robins sat on the back of the swing seat. Just a couple of feet from me. Today, I put in two Dahlias,(wondeful flowers https://www.almanac.com/plant/dahlias )and the robin came to watch me again.Lol. I stopped and got it a handful of seed and some crunshed up fat ball and it stayed there eating bits.:)
 
sphexx said:
Suspected that ;).

You'll have to get a dog :). Mine keeps the cats away but on the other hand she does kill birds :(, only wood pigeons so far and I have too many of those.
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I've never heard of a dog that kills birds. I thought that was the sole preserve of cats. We get lots of pigeons too. I curse them but my wife says they have a life to live too and get hungry.... true.

We've had two Retrievers and we've agreed no more whilst we're going here and there on holiday and can go on the spur of the moment. My parents used to dog-sit but haven't been able to do it since they died. We once put one of them in kennels..the dog,not my parents.. and when we collected it we had to take it to the vet days later to get rid of ticks or mites that it had picked up at the kennels which alos housed cats. Poor dog.. it was very noisy..barks and howls. The cats just sat and looked at the dogs. We vowed never to put him kennels again.
 
JohnC6 said:
I've never heard of a dog that kills birds. I thought that was the sole preserve of cats. We get lots of pigeons too. I curse them but my wife says they have a life to live too and get hungry.... true.

We've had two Retrievers and we've agreed no more whilst we're going here and there on holiday and can go on the spur of the moment. My parents used to dog-sit but haven't been able to do it since they died. We once put one of them in kennels..the dog,not my parents.. and when we collected it we had to take it to the vet days later to get rid of ticks or mites that it had picked up at the kennels which alos housed cats. Poor dog.. it was very noisy..barks and howls. The cats just sat and looked at the dogs. We vowed never to put him kennels again.
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No, dogs’ll kill birds if not ’trained’ not to. My previous working terrier was rock steady with birds, pheasant chicks could climb on him but he when was a puppy I had Bantie hens that would throw themselves at him if he got near their chicks :), Pigeons and crows are easy prey to a dog if it’s fast and keeps at them as they mostly expect the dog to give up most do when close.

For various reasons I think my present bird-killing terrier was a travellers dog rather than belonging to an ordinary terrier man as theirs would normally be safe around birds for obvious reasons.
 
JohnC6 said:
I hope it didn't think I was applauding it
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Did it turn around and take a bow? If not then no
:D

JohnC6 said:
(where I used to pee when gardening to save taking off the boots to go in the house..., before the CCTV went up..,if you recall..lol)
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I recall, and I take it you stopped then?
I'd have continued ( no shame me :D )
and if they complained, I'd complain about the invasion of privacy : )


JohnC6 said:
Today, I put in two Dahlias,
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Mine are flowering, in tubs. (y)
One leader got slaughtered by slugs (maybe snails) and took the growing tip., the flowering part clean off :(

JohnC6 said:
I've never heard of a dog that kills birds.
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My GSP was a sod for that, when hunting with hawks, she'd point somewhere, if that was in deep cover and I was too slow getting there, she'd bring "it" back to me. the "R" of the HPR was strong with that one :D
 
Our dog(a crossed fell terrier who is a rescue dog but was from a breeder of working terriers) has a huge, but selective, prey drive.

If he gets the chance cats, squirrels and foxes in the garden are always chased and he even wants to get at anything that looks vaguely like a mammal on TV, but he has almost no interest in birds. Sometimes on walks he will run towards the local carrion crows that come close(they have learnt there is a chance they will get the odd bit of dry dog food) but it a half-hearted attempt, without the obvious intention behind his other chases.

Dave
 
My postie left me a "where I left it" note with a smiley face on it! She is a breath of fresh air. Always happy and literally skips around the delivery round. If I were 40 years younger (and single) I would be tempted to ask her out!
 
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