A little winter visitor

[smallblueplanet]

Just spotted this little visitor, flitting from shrub to shrub, never really stopping still. So the piccy's are a bit blurred cos they're shot through glass too - its too cold out there!


By smallblueplanet


By smallblueplanet


By smallblueplanet

[Flummery]

Oh what a little sweetheart! You wonder how they stay alive in this freezing weather don't you?

[smallblueplanet]

I know, I'm feeling guilty Flum, we've usually some fat balls hanging up by now, I've seen them on them, but not been able to afford them yet.

Gonna do a shop now!

[Nicos]

what is it SBP??? (hmmm- I got as far as the bird bit!)

[Two_Sheds]

Ah, Goldcrest.
I've never seen one... they must be a Northern thing.


Make some fat balls - they're much better than bought ones.
I bet you don't need a recipe, but here's mine:

1) suet, birdseed, chopped nuts, desic.coconut, raisins, bacon fat, anything like that. (put some strong twine in too, for hanging)
2) melt suet in microwave, in a plastic pud bowl, stir in nuts & things
3) freeze it (so it pops out of bowl easily)
4) hang up in a tree

[Pumpkin Becki]

You lucky thing, Goldcrests are so beautiful - I'm so envious!!

[Nicos]

It really is a pretty little thing isn't it?

[Flummery]

In the winter we often get little flocks of them. One afternoon last year while we were walking round to my Mum's, we passed a shrub in a neighbour's garden with about 8 of them. Like little jewels!

[lettucegrow!]

What a a lovely sight! I've bought myself a mega bird feeder,the sort that you can hang all sorts of different food/water from and yesterday for the first time I had a spotted woodpecker in the garden.
Good place for bargain seed is Costco,if you are a member or get someone to take you,it's under �6 for 12 kilos.Keep them going for ages!

[smallblueplanet]

Ah, Goldcrest.
I've never seen one... they must be a Northern thing.


Make some fat balls...

Ahh 2sheds we're in Wiltshire! I have tried to make some suet balls before but not very successfully. We get through a bucket of about 50 of the small ones so I shall get some from the RSPB shop or CJ WildBird Foods as they give some of their profit to the RSPCA/RHS....need some niger seeds for the goldfinches too, they seem to be on the feeder constantly! (I expect there's more than one lot really!)

@Flum a little group of jewels sounds fab!

[HeyWayne]

Think I can safely say that I've never seen one of those before - well done for getting the photos sbp.

[ailsasyl]

Oh so cute - not seen one before, can't wait till my garden looks more like a garden and I can get feeders up to encourage them in all i see are starling, one robin and the blinking seagulls!

[Two_Sheds]

Wiltshire is north isn't it ?! (I dropped Geography in first grade)

Mr Sheds just told me they have goldcrests in N.Norfolk where he works. I just did my homework:

Goldcrest's song is a quiet, high pitched twittering: "tweedly tweedly tweedly twiddleedidee". The call is a quiet "zi" or "zi-zi-zi", which is easily confused with Treecreeper and some tits.

Their diet is mainly insects and spiders, which they usually find among the leaves and branches, and sometimes by hovering underneath the leaves. Their favoured trees are spruce, pine and fir (none of them near me)

They will visit gardens, but it is only in extremely cold winters that they will venture to bird tables for crumbs of bread and cheese.

Their nest is suspended near the end of a conifer branch and is made from moss, lichens and spiders' webs, and lined with feathers. They will also nest among ivy.

[Birdie Wife]

Cool!

[SueA]

Your pics. are better than mine S.B.P., I tried again to get some shots of ours yesterday but just got a blurry shot of one rear end, a complete blur & a blurry beak! Maybe there are a lot of them around this year as I've only ever seen the odd one once in a blue moon but have seen a few this year already.