That’s what I don’t like to see in my garden. I squish them if I do but enough seem to survive to make my lilies into lacework!
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Ah, yes, what you have here is a pair of ‘fighting trampoline birds’. The bird on the wall is the referee, he oversees the bout.
The two birds will enter the cage and wrestle while jumping up and down (boing).
The losing bird will be stuffed and served with potatoes on Sunday.
We have an octopus in our garden.
No pics but a Nuthatch has recently started to visit the garden.
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I put meal worms out in my back yard so we get blue tits, blackbirds, pied wagtails, coal tits, green finches, starlings, a pigeon (we call him the lone ranger). But in my front garden we sometimes get a woodpecker trotting round the lawn, he digs quite big holes, I think he’s looking for ants. It cheers me up watching my bird visitors. Marg.
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What a fantastic shot, Ronald! Your patience was certainly rewarded there. I’d love to get a decent camera for all those wildlife moments that never seem to come out right with my little digital 
Love Sam 
Public Enemy No. 1!!! (At least that’s what my Mum thinks)
I just put some grated cheese out for my thrush. He always appears within minutes of my putting it on the ground feeder. He’ll even fight off the blackbirds to get to his cheese. and yes - he’s just flown in for another beak full 
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Thanks !
One of several shots I took, and it was semi-concealed under some bushes, so a tricky shot due to the reduced light and projecting foliage. For shots like this use a tripod or a monopod, otherwise you get camera shake and blurring, I used a monopod, with my Fuji XE2. That also has a shake -reduction compensation setting, which means you can use a slower shutter speed than normal, due to the clever electronics.
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we have badgers and foxes, as well as all the British garden birds.
Thursday we had a lovely fox(Vixen) at our patio doors and she was badly injured…we almost hand fed her but sadly yesterday we found her further down in the garden where she had died.
Here is the picture that I took on Thursday at our patio doors.
.
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What a sad story, Brenda-Such a shame :0(
Love Sam x
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The red lily beetle can do real bad damage on the lily’s. They make a squeeking noise when they are disturbed. Once the lily’s are growing I check them daily and get rid of them.
Next time I see them in the autumn, I will try and record the beetle’s squeaking noise, which I wasn’t aware of. If successful, could post an mp3 of it on Folksy for all to hear !
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I love to see the birds in my garden too and have all the usual supects. I have a headgerow that runs along my garden border where Mr Blackbird has his nest and a variety of other birds. Bit disturbed that as I type I am watching a magpie build its nest not far from Mr Blackbirds.
I have a small pond and for the first time this year we have frog spawn, the kids are excited about that.
I had those beetles last year @HandcraftedbyPicto and had to exterminate as I found too.
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Hi Anita!
Don’t lose too much sleep over Mr Blackbird! They usually build a lot of nests in different locations and then choose the one that seems safest at the time. If the magpies are close by, the blackbirds won’t use that one. I tend to think that the magpies are part of life’s rich pattern, and I enjoy watching their antics! Unfortunately I had frogspawn on the lawn again this year. I see this as a personal failure because I try to keep an eye out for the frogs and transfer them to the local pond if they get stuck behind the wall in my garden. For some reason, they evaded me this year-Oh well…
Love Sam x
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The only good red lily beetle is a squashed one. Would be interested in a recording of a squashing !
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We have a buzzard who sits on our roof looking down his nose at us lol Last year when we had kitten I was convinced he was going to eat them!!! We have all the usual robins, chaffinches and other song birds and a pair of ravens I call edgar and poe (I know, not very original!) oh and we can’t forget the fox who plays with the cats 
and to top it all I looked out of the window on friday to see 2 swans flying over. All in all I am very lucky to live where I do 
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You certainly are! Fabulous to see a buzzard so close up-I had a sparrowhawk land in my garden the year before last with a starling in his talons (!) I still see him around but never as close as that and so I’m gutted I didn’t have my camera on me. Oh well…
Love Sam x
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Hello
What a lovely thread. Ive enjoyed looking at your lovely photos.
So sad about your fox Brenda @teabreaks they are such beautiful creatures. I came home from work once to discover one on my lawn enjoying the sunshine. It was such a magical moment I didn’t dare move a muscle in case I ruined it. It must have sensed me and sat up and tilted its head to one side and gave me such a knowing look, I had goosebumps.
Then it just trotted off up the garden path and into the laurel bushes behind the shed.
Spooky thing is I don’t know how it managed to get in or leave the garden as there’s meshing with no gap up to shoulder height and then thick bushes as there’s quite a drop.
My lovely Lillie’s were ruined by these pests a couple of years back 
@Rkaimages
At the moment I’ve seen Goldfinch, blackbirds, nesting wood pigeons, magpies and a resident squirrel.
Karen
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It is lovely to see him up there, he does like to scare me by taking off and swooping over my head sometimes, you really don’t realise how big they are until you see them up close! I’ll try and get some good photos to show you all this summer.
Seeing a sparrow hawk in action must have been amazing!!
Donna x
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Hi Donna!
The sparrowhawk was quite literally mind-blowing! The first things I noticed about him were what long legs they have (and very yellow) and intense yellow eyes. He landed in front of my dining room window on the lawn with a live starling in his talons which was fighting back hard. The sparrowhawk fixed me with one of those yellow eyes and curved his wings over his prey for a moment and then suddenly took off and vanished. It was over in less than a half a minute, but it is something I will never forget.
Interesting what you say about the buzzard sitting on the roof. This sparrow hawk does that sometimes too at dusk (I see him in silhouette) and it is striking how quiet all the other birds are at this time
I’ve never been privileged to see a buzzard up close in the wild, but I sometimes see one circling overhead. It’s not surprising that people sometimes mistake them for eagles because they are frighteningly big. I don’t blame you for keeping the kitten indoors!
I’d love to see photos of the buzzard if you can get some
Love Sam x
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