Hiley Website

It was the Great British Bird Watch weekend recently and though we didn't take part in the survey

Also, with human visitors over the weekend, it reminds us of how lovely it is here in Loweswater.

Sherran and Bill are keen wildlife photographers too so we often sat by our lounge window and spent time clicking shutters.

It is February and time for the first spring flowers . . . snowdrops, fresh crocuses and the first buds of daffodils.

Setting the local scene . . . we have a countryside garden with plenty of access to the surrounding sheep fields.

Trees and hedges, whilst plentiful around our garden are replaced by stone walls and fences for many of those fields.



One of many female blackbirds that visit the garden.	Our bird table is always popular, especially just after restocking.

The birds have a regular supply of peanuts, black sunflower seeds, fat balls, table top mix and occasional dried meal worms.

For the squirrels, hazel nuts and monkey nuts are added, a few on the table, others in the squirrel boxes.

All together feeding them cost about as much as feeding our two dogs !

In this photo you can see a blue tit, female chaffinch and a female great tit.



A fresh identification this weekend . . . a long tailed tit.	Here's a smaller coal tit . . . like a blue tit but without the blue !

We seem to have a reasonable gathering of house sparrows most days.

Bright yellow . . . must be a yellowhammer . . . here searching amongst the discarded husks on the ground.

Here again, dipping under the ivy close to the raised flower bed.

Behind him is a more unusual bird to identify . . . it often gets overlooked.

A dunnock . . . sometimes known as a hedge sparrow . . . has a dusty grey head.

One of the larger birds in the garden is the blackbird.

This brown one is a female one, here posing on the water bowl.

Couldn't decide which was her 'best side'.

In all these photos I don't seem to have one of the male birds who also share the garden.



The pink colour of the chaffinch.	A robin . . . one of many males in the garden.

The robins are ever present as I've been winter digging the garden.

At this time of year they are reasonably sociable to each other.

In the breeding season they are more competitive and even fight between themselves to gain female favours.

The nuthatch . . . the sexes are similar in colour so take you pick.



A sparrow on the hedge waits for his turn at the table. That's Loweswater Church in the background.	A pheasant and squirrel also visited . . . but only once Bill and Sherran had left

Other notable and seasonal visitors to the garden over the years have been

wagtails, greenfinch, starlings, goldfinch, bullfinch, woodpeckers, thrush, wood pigeons, sparrow hawk and members of the crow family.

In their seasons the siskins, swallows and martins. At night we hear the owls in the local trees

and let's not forget the buzzards and the occasional peregrine that flies high above the valley floor.

For now it is back to the crocus . . . I think this is where we came in.

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