Rocky
…under the bird feeder. The guy is very early today and must be very hungry since he has been going after seeds for over thirty minutes. I usually see him only around 10 PM when I turn on the backyard lights. The birds did not mind him though they tried very hard not to drop any more food on the ground.
Do you feed him or is that discouraged
I don’t. Some people do, at times involuntarily. These guys are very crafty at opening garbage cans and knocking them over.
It’s always a dilemma about feeding the wildlife. Lots of people are dead against it while others seem ok with it. Funny thing is it doesn’t seem to count for birds everyone seems to be ok with that.
I know around my house, located in a city neighborhood where my neigborhor houses are 8 feet on either side of me, watching the variety of birds that visit our back yard/garden at the feeders brings a lot of joy. We see our share of raccoons, rabbits, squirrels and cats as well. We don’t feed directly but the squirrels pick up the scraps under the bird feeders, the rabbits nibble at the vegetable garden, the cats are interested in the birds on a rare occasion has killed one. …and the raccoons will rip apart any garbarge bags they find and not afraid to walk through an open door if given the opportunity.
City life, almost like a small comfortable spot out in the country!
We’re lucky we do see lots of birds, not as many as our last place unfortunately.
We’re dealing with a family of very small field mice right now. Mrs Pete went to find a pair of shoes and found a family of mice in the box. We caught all bar one (he’s still on the run) and let them go out the in yard. Both of us won’t use lethal traps or poison. It’s a tough world for small animals they’re usually on everything menu. 
Just downloaded the ‘Merlin’ app, identifies birds from their song. It works 
Wanted for the occasional noises I don’t recognise but on this occasion, at first try, it immediately identified the blackbirds, goldfinches, blue tits, magpies and wood pigeons. Yep, that’s my garden pretty much!
Lovely pic……could almost reach out and ruffle the feathers
An early effort with my new camera, at a local lake
Lost symmetry
Seems like the guy (Sandhill Crane) has no choice but wait till next year to have his chopped left wingtip feathers replaced with new ones. In the meantime, he had no difficulty in keeping up with eight of his brothers and sisters, flying fast in a loose formation and yammering endlessly.
Female black bird running along a fence in the garden… this fence is a popular location, and I leave my camera on auto capture (ie operating remotely and autonomously) so the birds don’t get spooked by a nearby presence of a person.
A juvenile herring gull, which I think is 3 years old from its plumage, flying at Orford Quay.
And a mature herring gull swooping around for scraps
