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Tuesday 29 January 2013

WordPress Daily Prompt;Through the Window

Go to the nearest window. Look out for a full minute. Write about what you saw.



Lesser spotted woodpecker


We have Winter temperatures at the moment, it is very cold, which is not astonishing for a Winter in Switzerland. There is no snow at the moment, although a few remainders are still lying around. I only have a small garden, but have two gardens. One is at the back of the appartment and one at the front and we have a window front on both sides more or less. I just love seeing the birds that we have. Not a large choice perhaps. Blue tits, finches, chaffinches, jackdaws and crows, and a supporting cast of blackbirds. I have two bird feeders, one in the front garden and one at the back.

I chose the kitchen window as I get a good all round view of bird life: so do my cats. I have three cats and they have their own cat flap set into the kitchen window. It seems they are only bird watching. The birds are quite happy to sit in my apple tree and help themselves to the laid table I have hanging from the branches. When I looked out of the kitchen window today, I just had to take this photo. Lately we have been visited by a lesser spotted woodpecker and he was just having lunch on the mixed nuts and seeds held together by lard and packed in a green plastic. Just behind his head you can see a blue tit.  On the left a sparrow is sitting on a branch.

Watching these birds for a moment, you realise who the boss is. The tits and finches just fly quickly to the feeders, pick up a seed in their beak and fly off to the nearest tree to eat it. The sparrows are the bosses at the bird feeder. When they are feeding, no other bird has a chance. They hunt them away and even have fights amongst themselves. Under the tree I have food on the ground for birds that prefer to eat on ground level. The blackbirds and jackdaws have to make it out amongst themselves. They are not so friendly towards each other.

Now and again I might even be lucky enough to see a brambling searching for a peck, and of course robins visit as well. The robins I find are much more comfortable on the ground than pecking from the hanging feeders. So looking out of the window my main view is birdlife. I have a few trees in the garden, but they are leafless through the Winter . The only flower I have showing its colours is my Christmas rose.



Christmas Rose

We have no traffic in our area, so everything is quiet (except for the bird twitters).

3 comments:

  1. I could watch the antics of birds feeding for ages, and sometimes have done (all the while taking photos, of course). However, to do this I usually have to travel somewhere. I don't have the treat of seeing them in a back garden like you do.

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  2. I have quite a few birds I can watch from my kitchen window (there are wetlands behind my townhouse). I don't have a bird feeder yet but I do throw out bread crumbs from time to time.
    Your bird shots are always fantastic!

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  3. What an awesome thing to be able to do Pat. This is why I want to move more rural. too many people and noise where I am.

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