I was all fired up this weekend as it was the…..

Big Garden Birdwatch!!!!

However, I became a bit disheartened when I opened the curtains on Saturday morning – the weather was dreadful and there wasn’t a bird in sight. I could feel all my wildlife weekend plans slipping away. About 9am things picked up, so me and my Dad sat in my bedroom for a while. There were showers on and off all day; when it was dry I was outside or doing the 1 hour birdwatch and when it rained I was inside having a ‘digital dabble with some new camera kit!’

same clothes different season!

autumn 2016

What birds did I see?

I saw sparrows, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, robins, dunnock, blackbirds, nuthatches, jackdaws, woodpigeon and chaffinch. I didn’t get pictures of them all – birds don’t stay still long enough for good photos! Late at night my Mum’s been hearing an owl and my Dad heard it too about 6pm on Saturday – we tried our best to see it, but it remained elusive!

Great tits

Sparrow

Robin

Jackdaw

Blue tit

Did you take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch? What birds did you see? Don’t forget to submit your results here

This is one lucky sparrow!!!

Digital Dabble

I got an action camera for Christmas – like a GoPro – only a whole lot cheaper and it came with a whole bag of accessories. It’s a perfect camera for wildlife explorers like me as it’s really small, got loads of features (like slow-mo and timelapse) and has a waterproof case for underwater shots – my Mum says it’s also ‘George-proof’, which means it won’t break if I drop it! So, after an indoor play last week I couldn’t wait to have a go in the garden this week. I put it in the pond and the footage is incredible, I tied it to the birdfeeder (and not a single bird came!) and I used it on a selfie pole and filmed myself introducing the garden – it’s #awesome

pond filming

pond filming

tying the camera to the birdfeeder

garden selfie

Wildlife Art

I’m not great at art, but I like drawing birds and seeing as I was hoping to catch my first glimpse of a hen harrier tomorrow I decided to draw one; what do you think?

Winterwatch

Have you been watching Winterwatch? It’s been FANTASTIC hasn’t it! I’m a huge fan of RSPB Arne – we have been visiting it for 5 years now when we holiday in Dorset, it’s #EPIC!

Here’s my blog post from when I visited in August 2016, where I saw some incredible wildlife sights including the famous spoonbills

Timber!!

I wrote on social media this week about being gutted that next doors fir tree was cut down. Only 2 days previous we had seen goldfinch coming from the tree and we think they have nested there for the past 3 years.

The tree was cut down with good reason though; the November ’16 storm had made it unsafe. As we have an open fire we asked for the wood – which will need seasoning – so until then my Dad made a really nice feature of it for some potted plants (herbs in the spring) and some of the larger stumps will go near the pond.

Update – I’m happy to report some good news – we’ve seen goldfinches coming out of some fir tree 3 gardens down – let’s hope they have built their new home there!

Lovin’ this old wine box I was given from Lesley at Heyrod Village Stores. It will make a perfect bird box and I really hope birds use it to build their home come spring

That’s all from me folks, hope you have had a great weekend and you had lots of feathered visitors in your garden.

I’ll be writing a quick, mid-week blog about the Raptor Watch at RSPB Parkgate on The Dee Estuary, where I hooked up with other Young Birders Elliot, Luke and Findlay; believe me it was #OfficiallyAmazing