There isn’t very much to do at the allotment at the moment,
or rather more accurately, there isn’t much that I can do as it is just mud,
slop, quagmire, and generally very slippy. The wood I bought is too wet to
paint, and the ground is too wet to dig. I have been plotting and planning
though, and do have a large to-do list that I’d like to get done over winter.
When it’s dried out a bit.
So instead of doing big jobs, I went to feed the birds. I
have been having issues with my lower back so I decided to walk to the plot; it is
only about a quarter of a mile from the front door step to the allotment gate
but still I tend to drive it all the time. I decided to walk to stretch my legs
a bit, and hopefully ease my back out too.
It was quite cold and the wind was so sharp when I went up
and I had several layers on. I do love wrapping up warm in this weather even
though I tend to overheat quite rapidly and need to strip off again.
I filled up the fat ball feeders and as I did, a long tailed
tit came and landed in the plum tree where I hang the feeders, sat and watched
me for a bit, and then flew off again. After I had filled all the feeders (a
mix of fat balls and seed), I stood up by the shed and watched all the birds
come down. It doesn’t take them long – I am sure they sit in the bramble
thicket watching me, waiting for me to leave. I saw sparrows, a robin, blue
tits and great tits. The long tailed tit didn’t come back while I was stood
there.
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| Great tit taking advantage of the broken feeder with no lid |
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| Blue tit on fat balls |
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| A wee robin |
I ran out of bird seed so Momma and I went to a new Wilkos
to explore, and bought 12.75kg of seed for £6 – absolutely brilliant price and I
think I’ll buy this more often. I decant the seed into old fat ball tubs for
storage, and one bag fills 2.5 tubs. I took this to the allotment the day
after, and I also decided to put up a new seed feeder with a finch seed mix in
it. I spotted a greenfinch in the hedges of the allotment site back in August
so I hope it comes back now that it has its very own feeder.
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| The bird feeding tree - a cluster of four plum trees. There are 5 seed feeders, 4 fat ball feeders, 1 finch seed feeder, and a suet block feeder which is used for wool and cat fur for the birds to take as nesting material. |
Again I went back towards the shed to watch the birds. The
usual suspects appeared; sparrows, robin, magpies, blue and great tits – and then
– then!! – a great spotted woodpecker flew down, landed on the tree and then
went over to the fat balls. It was on the feeders for a good five minutes when I
became aware of something hopping around the road at the bottom of the plot. I
managed to get a view of it between everything and for the first time in the
ten years that I’ve been on this site, I saw a green woodpecker. A green
woodpecker!!! I was so excited. Another plot holder told me last year that he
had seen one a few years before, so to know they are around again is brilliant.
Green woodpeckers are ground feeders and like to eat ants, whereas great
spotted will hunt for grubs under tree bark.
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| Great spotted woodpecker on fat balls |
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| Green woodpecker. This was at the bottom of my plot and I was stood at the top - my phone was on 25x zoom! |
I still want to see the long tailed tits as they are just so
incredibly fluffy and cute. They often hang around in packs and earlier this year
I had six on a feeder at the same time.
