Tag Archives: Birds

CLA Game Fair 2013

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The 2013 CLA Game Fair site is the beautiful Ragley Hall Estate which covers more than 500 acres. So far we have had a chance to talk to Olympic Gold medalist Peter Wilson, bask in the summer weather, 30c at last time of checking, look at some beautiful guns, cute dogs, clothes and events. Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche have their cars on display and tomorrow we will be checking out the only Zorse (cross breed of a Zebra and horse) in the UK.

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We also spent time with prominent shooting journalist Michael Yardley who is at the top of his field. Michael has a gun from Boxall and Edmiston which bears his name after he gave some of his ideas on the design of the gun.

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Go to the Boxall and Edmiston stand to see their beautiful guns. There is also beautiful leather goods there from Daniels & Wood.

We will keep you updated on the CLA Game Fair 2013 tomorrow. Until then, have have a great weekend.

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Bird of the Week: Blue Tit

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If I turn my head and look out of the window, I can see a lot of young birds getting to know my feeding station. They are now old enough to fend for themselves, although they’re still trying to get their parents to feed them.

There are young sparrows, starlings, greenfinches, great tits and blue tits. The young ‘blueys’ are the most vocal, constantly calling their scruffy-looking parents. This is a very stressful time for the adults. It is hard work rearing up to 14 (!) babies that are hungry all of the time! Sometimes the adults return to the nest with insect food every 90 seconds! Once the little ones have fledged, they follow their parents around.

FEED ME!!

Now that the young ones are old enough to eat seeds, bits of peanut and fat balls (although insects will still be their main diet), the adult birds have brought them back to my garden where they spent much of the winter. They know there’s always some food available – which is very important.

Blue tit in winter

Once you start feeding wild birds, especially when natural food is hard to come by, don’t stop. Blue tits in particular will come to rely on this food source. In winter, they might not have enough energy to find food elsewhere, so if you decide to help these little balls of fluff, make sure they don’t visit your garden in vain and waste valuable energy.

If you’d like to be part of the family, blue tits will happily accept a nest box in your garden.

Blue tit

The blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) is among the nation’s favourite garden birds. They’re tiny, fluffy, colourful, cute and bold as brass. When I first set up my feeding station, the first bird to explore it was a blue tit – and I hadn’t actually finished. And yet, it was only a couple of metres away! This little bird didn’t take any food, but hopped from feeder to feeder, checking everything out and then flew off. Five minutes later it returned with all of  its mates for a snack.

Watching you..

Blue tits are great fun to watch – they are little acrobats and will entertain you for hours, hanging from your feeders upside down.

Juvenile blue tit: it has a dull cap and yellow cheeks

Blue tits are also very clever birds. Two examples: blue tits have been familiar with the concept of aromatherapy much longer than humans. They use herbs such as mint or lavender to line and disinfect the nest or feed the leaves to their young in order to help them fend off parasites. And in the 60s, blue tits learned how to peck through foil milk bottle tops to get to the cream. This behaviour was passed on to other members of their flock and more and more birds learned how to do it. Clever or what?

Clever blue tit

A worthy bird of the week indeed!

For more blue tit  photos please have a look here:
http://www.finepetportraits.co.uk/blue-tit-bird-photos.html

Sandra Palme
www.finepetportraits.co.uk

Dear DONOVAN: Why do birds

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Meet DONOVAN. The unforgiving, cynical, potty mouthed agony uncle. No one knows why his name’s always in caps, maybe he shouts it for emphasis.

** Disclaimer: The views, colourful language and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Frostmagazine.com **

Dear DONOVAN,

I was pooed on by a bird. Why do people always say it’s lucky if a bird poos on you…?

Chris from Waterford

Chris,

I hope you are referring to the feathered type and not Two girls One cup!

…or some hooker with a dodgy stomach who has convinced you out of embarrassment that “it’s all the rage in Holland!”

I have no idea why, and refuse to look it up on Wikipedia as it’s a waste of my time and yours to do so!

I can only imagine they mean that it’s lucky it missed your eyes or mouth!

And In what other situation would that be an acceptable thing to say?

If you worked in a zoo and a ruddy great elephant or hippo dropped a big on one you, your mates wouldn’t say that’s lucky would they?

They would just laugh; so would everyone else watching; maybe even film it and stick it on YouTube! and then not speak to you for a few days.

So stop this stupid superstitious tradition and have the fucking guts to say “that’s soo fuckin funny mate how unlucky was that!!!!”

If it was really all that lucky you’d get flocks of businessmen, homeless people and fellers holding lottery tickets lying on the ground in Trafalgar square having spiked bird seed with chilly powder waiting to be shat upon!

Then masturbating themselves into their own oblivion saying I’m so fucking lucky!!! check out my goggles.

While I’m at it, what the hell is so lucky about a rabbits foot?? It wasn’t lucky for the poor rabbit!

Chris you remind me of a much younger me, before the sexual abuse and eczema!

don’t let these silly people get to you.

I’m sending you a DONOVAN mug and at least 3 strands of my pubes (Framed).

God bless you young man.