Bird, wildlife and flower log, 2-8 September 2013

The tattered wings butterfly photo that I took recently inspired me to write a poem. I then got creative in Craft Artist with the photo, poem and a background paper that I had created a while ago from another photo, and this is the finished result. The poem can be found written separately on a post at The forget-me-not blog.

Tattered Wings photo and poem © 2013 Natasha Forder

More information on how I created the layout can be found at forget-me-not craft.

So good news, the Real Mr Black is back. Or lets put it this way I am sure it is him. He has lost some of his silver patch on his front, but I assume he is molting. He now has a small bald patch on the back of his neck too.

The young green had some trouble earlier in the week getting onto one of the seed feeders. It had been in the snack shack, the easiest place to obtain a sunflower seed but it was empty. After several attempts at the seed feeder it gave up. At which point I did a small restock of the shack. I was pleased to see it later in the week able to get on the seed feeder.

There is a story behind the snack shack. It started out life as the squirrel snack shack. Originally situated on the other side of the garden to keep the squirrels away from the bird food. However, the squirrels were unable to work out how to get to the food inside. So the squirrels failed to be able to use the special squirrel feeder and I had even bought the stuff labeled as squirrel food to put inside it!!! They would sit and look through the perspex on the front at the food and then they started chewing the lid. I took pity on them and started propping the lid open with a pine cone. But they'd knock that out and then start to chew the lid again. In the end we took the perspex front off, moved it to the bird food area and put sunflower seeds in it.

I had always been led to believe that squirrels were intelligent - at least where food is involved, but the ones in my garden really didn't make the grade!

The birds love it, they hop on and and off with a seed. Actually that is generally what the tits do. The finches's are "hoggers". They get on the shack and then stay and eat for ages, fending off anything else that wants to get on. Sometimes a great tit will start acting like a hogger, I guess after observing how the finches behave but luckily they don't do that too often! Sometimes a greenfinch pair will get on it together and that is quite sweet.

The down side is that the squirrels also now love the snack shack and of course it is very easy for them to help themselves too! When any kind of hogger is on the shack the little birds sit in the forsythia and start hopping up and down, agitated that they can't get to the food, sometimes it is quite comical and it's not like there aren't other available feeders!

Birds	Wildlife and Insects	Flowers
Blackbird – male, female, juvenile	Grey squirrels	African daisy
Great spotted woodpecker - male, female, juvenile	Snail	Lavender
Chaffinch - male, female	Slug	Large Daisy
Greenfinch - male, female, juvenile	Backswimmer	Dahlia
Blue tit - adult, juvenile	Bees - various	Begonia
Great tit - adult, juvenile	Lily beetle	Cats Ear
Dunnock - adult	Large white butterfly	Oregano
Robin - adult, juvenile		Marjoram
Jay - adult		Thyme
Magpie - adult		Montbretia
Crow - adult		Fuscia
Nuthatch - adult		Gaura cherry brandy
Woodpigeon - adult, juvenile		Gaura lindheimeri belleza
Collared dove - adult		Penstemon pensham czar
Coal tit		Lobelia x speciosa fan salmon
		Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
		Coreopsis grandiflora rising
		Coreopsis sunray
		Gaillardia sunburst yellow