My Bird Count for RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch 2021!

This weekend was the highly anticipated RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. I have been participating in this annual event for the past nine years and 2021 was no different. During the last weekend in January, you are encouraged to sit with a hot cup of coffee and count the visiting birds for this all important citizen science project. This year I had David alongside me, taking fantastic photos of the wonderful array of feathered friends we have visiting our yarden.

I suppose not many people can say a herring gull was part of their count, but Steven saw me sitting by the window and he flew to our wall looking for kitchen scraps, so obviously he had to be the first bird to be counted. We did our count on Saturday, 30th January 2021, 11 am to 12 noon. The weather was windy and drizzly, with a temperature of around 5°. It was a very damp, grey, overcast day which made for counting birds pretty easy. Through the hour, (and all day in fact) the feeders were visited frequently by swathes of hungry birds.

Steven wasn’t the only celebrity that featured during our one hour count. Hoppy the pigeon who, five years ago we rehabilitated after having string wrapped around her feet, decided to help herself to the feeders and frightened the goldfinches away in the process.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch Results 2021

During the hour we counted 11 goldfinches, (a smaller charm than usual), a brave blue tit, four squabbling starlings, an unassuming dunnock (my favourite garden bird) and of course 10+ pigeons gobbling up the food dropped by the others. Six species in total. Perhaps not as many species for other gardens but for an inner city walled yard, I’d say that was a good tally.

The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch 2021 has now ended but it doesn’t stop me looking ahead to next year. Who knows what 2022’s count will look like, it could have the likes of such feathered visitors as the sparrowhawk, chaffinch, robin, house sparrow, chiffchaff, yellow wagtail and blackbird, all species who have visited the yarden in the past.

How did your RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2021 go? What birds did you see?

Thanks for popping by,

Christine xx

Batty for Bats

Seven years ago David and I began work on creating a wildlife yarden. We focused on attracting as much wildlife to an inner city walled yard as we could.

Yarden

Bird feeders were the first and easiest addition to the yarden and during late summer/early autumn the feeders are usually awash with different coloured wings and bird calls. From chattering charms of goldfinches and the happy chirruping of sparrows to boisterous gangs of starlings. The odd blue tit is seen nervously snatching away a sunflower heart as well as two delicate greenfinches who’ve visited among with the goldfinches. All this activity has caught the eye of several sparrowhawks whose presence in the yarden is a wondrous sight to behold.

Goldfinches Picture by David Evans

Starling Picture by David Evans

Female Sparrowhawk

About three years ago we put in a wash bowl pond. It’s in a sheltered spot so we don’t have dragonflies or damsels visiting but we did have a little frog for a short while.

Frog

Pond

Over the years we have planted shrubs and herbs which flower at different times of the year to attract insects. We even have the odd sapling tree, with a hawthorn being my pride and joy!

Common Wasp

Red Mason Bee

Honey bee

Honey Bee and Passion Flower

Large White Butterfly

Hellebore Flower

Swallow Tailed Moth

Red Tailed Bumblebee

Willow Beauty

Trying to increase the insect population means that other predators will hopefully move in. Imagine my excitement and surprise when I discovered that a bat frequents the area!

I know nothing about bats so here’s a few facts on them:

• There are 18 species of UK bat, with 17 breeding here
• They all eat insects and are a natural pest control for e.g. mosquitoes
• A pipistrelle can eat up to 3000 insects a night
• They use echolocation to find food
• They are indicators of biodiversity
• They pollinate and spread seeds
• Like the dormouse and hedgehog they hibernate
• The mating season is from September and females give birth to one pup around June in maternity roosts
• Cats and birds of prey are their main predators
• They are the only mammal that can fly

I wonder what type of bat is visiting? It could be the most common bat in the UK, called a common pipistrelle. I’d need a bat detector to discover the identity of our new visitor, perhaps I’ll add one to my birthday/Christmas wish list. :p

Have you got bats visiting your garden? What is your favourite bat?

Thanks for reading,

Christine xx

Sunday Sevens #39

This weekend, I wasn’t going to compile a Sunday Sevens, (devised by Natalie at Threads and bobbins), however after witnessing something amazing on Saturday, I just had to share it with you!!

Birthday: Monday was my birthday. I was kindly gifted some beautiful flowers and the 50th anniversary editions of Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells.

Flowers

Wainwright’s 50th Anniversary Editions

#walk1000miles: As part of the celebrations, David and I headed towards Snowdonia for a 4.5 mile walk. We took the path overlooking Dinorwig Power Station before visiting the shores of Llyn Padarn.

Dinorwig Power Station

Llyn Padarn

With still counting my miles for the #walk1000miles challenge, at the time of writing I am currently at, 1,102 miles!

Collecting: This week I came across the 2017 edition of the 50 pence Peter Rabbit. There’s still Tom Kitten, Benjamin Bunny and Jeremy Fisher to find! Have you found any?

Peter Rabbit 2017 50p

The Hiding Places, Katherine Webb

Book I am reading: I am currently ploughing through Katherine Webb’s post WW1 mystery, The Hiding Places. I must admit there is a lot of preamble. However it is keeping me company on the daily commute. Have you read any good books lately?

Ok. Now for that something amazing I was talking about at the beginning of this blog! This Saturday our yarden witnessed a beautiful visitor. He was not enjoying the seed on offer but waiting for a tasty morsel of a goldfinch, or perhaps a starling? He was a sparrowhawk.

Now you maybe thinking, nothing special about that sighting, but living in a city, you don’t often come across raptors. David and I stood in awe for over five minutes watching the sparrowhawk survey the territory. We’ve had many charms of goldfinches and rowdy starlings visiting our feeders this weekend, so this activity possibly drew the sparrowhawk to our yarden. Ultimately it was a thrilling experience. He stood still long enough for me to grab my camcorder and film him. Have you had a close encounter with a raptor? What is your favourite bird of prey?

Hans Zimmer Live

To finish off:  While writing this blog, I’ve been listening to tracks from Hans Zimmer’s Live in Prague CD. As you know I have seen Hans’ concerts twice now, more recently in Liverpool this year. When I heard he was releasing a compilation of the concert I just had to pre-order. I am biased as I love the medley’s featured of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Dark Knight Trilogy, the music is skin tingling and exhilarating! I would recommend if you like movie soundtracks!

So, that was my diverse week. How was yours?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

12 Hours of Day #3

It was thanks to Sharon from Sunshine and Celandines, (who informed me of this month’s photo an hour challenge), that I managed to participate. Unfortunately the challenge fell on a Sunday when I had nothing planned. My photos all come from a stay at home day. I hope it’s not too boring for you?!

Photo and Hour – 29th January 2017

My Sunday started at 9am. I feigned sleep while I heard the bed springs creak as David got out of bed, to make the most of the last day of the weekend. I didn’t really want to get up as the day before had been tiring, we had spent five hours repainting the bathroom. It looks fresh and clean now though!

Bathroom

Gym

10am – 11am: A 40 minute session on the treadmill beckoned, then a quick cool down.

Big Garden Birdwatch

Snow drop

11am to 12 noon: I tootled about the yarden before lunch, filling up the bird feeders in preparation for the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. I also celebrated the appearance of a lone snow drop standing proudly!

Blue Faced Parrot Finches

Chocolate Silverbill Finches

12 noon to 1pm: Lunch was spent in the living room with the finches flying from their aviary. David photographed the Blue Faced Parrot Finches playing in a vase of flowers while I took a selfie with the Chocolate Silverbills who tried to pull at my hair.

1pm to 2pm: I sat down with a cafetiere filled with coffee supplied by the RSPB. In anticipation I counted the visiting birds to my yarden. It was an overcast afternoon with drizzle. The usual suspects appeared but sadly no Blue Tits, (they arrived after the count – typical!)  My count for this one hour period was as follows:

• 8 Goldfinches
• 5 Pigeons – though there were 10 after the count!
• 4 Starlings
• 1 Dunnock
• 1 House Sparrow
• 1 Robin
• A Crow and Herring Gull flew overhead, but couldn’t be included as not in the boundaries of the yarden.

Robin

The Robin sat in the laurel bush looking at me as I counted him. He sat in the bush for the whole hour! It was nice to have a little company. I will be doing the count again on Monday morning just in case there is a better turn out. We usually see a charm of 20+ Goldfinches. It’s just being at the right place at the right time!

H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald

Hans Zimmer, The Classics

2pm to 5pm: It was a lazy afternoon. As I sat reading H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald, I listened to Hans Zimmer’s new album, The Classics. Tracks from The Dark Knight, Superman, and Inception were among my favourites!

5pm to 6pm: This evenings dinner was a salad, here’s a picture of David’s mountain!

Salad Sandwich

Yellow painted nails

6pm to 7pm: I sat listening to Classic FM while painting my nails. Perhaps it’s the dark days of winter that have inspired me to paint them bright colours!

7pm to 8pm: After a hot relaxing shower I pampered my skin with a gift I got for Christmas. This Body Shop body butter really does make your skin look radiant and nourished.

Body Shop Body Butter

My Blog

8pm to 9pm: I finished the day by writing this blog. I hope you have enjoyed a brief foray into my time at home? Not every day can be exciting and given I had a hectic Saturday, this photo an hour Sunday has been very relaxing. I always enjoy the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, even though we only get a smidgen of visitors. Those visitors are good enough for a small yarden! I look forward to next years count as I do every year!

Once again, thank you for stopping by and reading about my day, uneventful as it was. How did you spend your Sunday?

Christine x

Photo Challenge: H2O – ‘Wild’ Swimming!

via Photo Challenge: H2O

Here goes: I’m going to use this challenge to indulge in some reminiscing. You are all probably getting a bit fed up with this subject. It seems of late, I just have a one track mind… that track is my wild swims!

On my Facebook page, in the past week I posted some pictures highlighting some of my ‘favourite’ swims. So I thought, on my blog I could expand on the theme. So forgive me for indulging… just a little bit! 🙂

Actually, it’s quite difficult to chose an actual favourite, out of the six swims I have done between May to September. I asked David what swim/location he enjoyed the most. We both agreed that Rydal Water had a special charm. Perhaps the low lying mist and the fact that it was early in the morning added to the magic.

Rydal Water

My very first swim in Derwentwater, has to hold a special place in my heart. I remember being excitedly nervous, but determined to make my dream a reality! I even amazed myself that day!

Facing Blencathra, Derwentwater

I am already planning on revisiting the shores of Derwentwater again for my birthday treat this October. I secretly can’t wait!

My most epic swim has to be in Wast Water! With giants such as Yewbarrow and Great Gable watching over me, it was scenery to inspire! It was also my longest swim of 20 minutes, though the shivers on shore later were fierce! Wast Water is a place I most definitely want to revisit.

Wast Water

Another place I want to revisit is Buttermere, my favourite lake! The time we visited, it was a cool, drizzly June, definitely no sign of summer! I also suffered the disappointment of not swimming in Buttermere’s ‘sister’ lake, Crummock Water that day. Now having swam in Rydal Water and Grasmere, another two lakes adjacent to each other, I can safely say I will return to Buttermere!

Buttermere

Grasmere had a lot to live up to after my magical swim in Rydal Water! I think the whole experience of bagging two swims in one day was quite overwhelming for me! The late summer light on Grasmere made the scenery look like an oil painting!

Grasmere

The coldest swim I’ve experienced, has to be my only tarn of the season, Easedale. You expect a glacial tarn to be colder than the lakes, but with the weather turning as I slipped into the silent waters, it didn’t help with temperatures. It made for a very moody, thought provoking swim.

Easedale Tarn

So that’s me all reminisced out! Well, not really… I can go on and on! 🙂 One thing is for certain, I am very happy to have discovered this new hobby. It gives a different element to walks in the countryside, of being totally immersed in the landscape, not just teetering on the edge!

My hope for the coming year: is to continue to enjoy walks/swims around the Lake District and to bag a few swims in Snowdonia too! The Miner’s Track, (though it’ll be tough) has Llyn Glaslyn as its jewel and I want to revisit where this passion all started, Llyn Idwal.

I’d like you to come with me on my journey. Perhaps I can inspire you to try wild swimming? We will learn many things along the way and perhaps it will lead to a journey of self discovery?

Thanks for reminiscing with me.

Christine x

H2O

Autumn Light.

For the past few weeks now I have noticed a change in the light.

Afternoon autumn sun flooding the dining room

The shadows have become longer. The sunlight during the day has become more stark, almost piercing. The seasons are changing without us hardly knowing! Autumn is arriving, creeping silently into summer. The days are becoming shorter. Soon it will be night by 4pm! For now, I am valuing every minute of light. Savouring the last bloom of flowers and the remaining buzz of bees before nature slows down for winter.

Part of me wants to mourn the loss of the light, but autumn brings its own pleasures. Like the frenzied activity at the bird feeders and the Sedum finally flowering after budding for so long!

Bird feeder

Sedum and Honey Bee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I have been making ready the house for autumn and the coming winter. The windows got a good clean and the voiles have all been washed. I have also changed the bedroom curtains from the sky blue to the teal in preparation for the darker evenings to come.

Picture taken 2013

Come the evening, I was busy in the kitchen making a, Peruvian Quinoa Stew, (serves 3 people).

Ingredients:

• 15og of quinoa, rinsed well
• 200 – 250 ml of water
• 1 onion (white) diced
• 2 cloves of garlic sliced
• Olive oil for frying (I use lower fat olive oil)
• 1 celery rib chopped
• 1 carrot sliced
• 1 bell pepper (any colour)
• Handful of green beans, chopped. You can use any variety of vegetables
• 200ml of vegetable stock (I used reduced salt)
• 400g of chopped tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of chilli powder (I used medium)
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper (put more in if you like heat)
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• Fresh, chopped coriander for garnish, if preferred. (I left out)

Method:

1. I rinsed the quinoa. Placed it in a small pan with the 200ml – 250ml of water and cooked, over a medium heat, for about 15 minutes or until soft. Then I set aside with a lid on the pot to absorb the remaining water.
2. While the quinoa cooked, I had a second pan on the hob. I chopped and sautéed the onions, then added the garlic in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes over a low to medium heat. It may have taken a little longer for me as I was busy chopping the other vegetables while the onion cooked.
3. Then I peeled and sliced the carrot. Washed and chopped the celery. I added both to the cooking onion and garlic and cooked for a further 5 minutes, stirring often so nothing stuck or burnt to the pan. It took longer as I had the hob on a lower heat.
4. After chopping the bell pepper and green beans, I added them to the pan with the other vegetables and then added the tin of tomatoes, along with the spices (cumin, chilli powder, coriander, cayenne and oregano). I let them blend together for just a few minutes and then poured in the stock. I covered the pan and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes, maybe longer, until the vegetables were tender
5. After everything had cooked I stirred in the cooked quinoa, warmed it up again, and adjusted the salt to taste.
6. Add chopped coriander if needed. (I left out)

While the quinoa had cooked and the vegetables were simmering in their covered pan. I stood by the sink and washed the knives and measuring jugs used in the preparation. I gazed out of the window and cherished the bird antics going on before my eyes.

I counted up to 17 Goldfinches at the sunflower and nyger seed feeders. Amongst them were still some babies flapping their wings, begging! Pigeons pecked at the off-casts the Goldfinches threw out and the visiting Dunnock hopped among the vines of the climbing Passion Flower snatching at insects!

I am happy to report that the Sparrows are still visiting in numbers. There were at least five on the feeders and I watched on as three Sparrows had discovered my ground cage feeder and were happily guzzling the dried meal-worms I had left out for the Dunnock. A Sparrow and Starling fought for the right to feast on the fat block sitting in the Laurel bush. The Sparrow won!

The meal finally came together. I must say the spices were rather muted, maybe some more or an added chilli could have helped? It was however a filling and healthy meal, though my mum disliked the quinoa ‘tails’!

Peruvian Quinoa Stew

And also:

I have done some more research on quinoa and its ‘tails.’ The seed is from South America and was the staple diet of the Incas. The tails are not tails at all, actually they are the endosperm of the seed. The nutrition or power house for the growing seed, much like the albumin of an egg. According to BBC Good Food, quinoa, is a complete protein, meaning it has all nine amino acids. It is a fantastic wheat free choice and is highly digestible. It has twice the protein content of rice and barley and is also a good source of calcium, magnesium, vitamin E and dietary fibre.

The health benefits speak for itself. I think I’ll be cooking with this little seed a lot more in the future! 🙂

Have you eaten any good meals with quinoa? I would love to know your thoughts on this super seed!

Christine xx