Alphabet Thursday - B is for Bird

Image found: www.zazzle.com

Spring is advancing upon us and soon the sound of young birds will be filling the air. But lets not forget the lead up to Spring and those birds still having to endure these harsh winter months, come rain, snow or shine.

I used to do some volunteer work with RSPB when I was younger and had more time to spare. It was a lot of fun, talking to people about birds in their gardens, the rare partially albanistic blackbirds they have spotted, what they do to help wildlife in their gardens, doing craft activities with the kids.

As it says on the tin the RSPB do, do a lot for birds but they also draw their attention to other aspects of nature, as they realise for survival all species play a bigger part to one another in regards to survival and environment. So the work they do isn't limited to just birds.

One big event they hold every year is the: BigGardenBirdWatch - which you can do right now (just follow the link)
All you have to do is observe the amount of birds that come into your garden for an hour. Just one hour to sit down and observe nature at its best and submit your results to them.
This is a huge wildlife survey to help collect data about species population around the UK, to compare if the populations of each species is stable or fluctuating.

Their website is useful giving you tips on things you can do to help the wildlife that lives in your back garden from insect housing to hedgehog habitats, from pondlife to feeding the birds.

Follow this link: makeahomeforwildlife

A few birds I've spotted:

Swans: beautiful, majestic creatures but can be dangerous when with young. Two of the saddest moments I remember regarding swans was, firstly, one of the swans down at our local pools got knocked over on the road and killed, its mate was there close to the spot it had passed away, for weeks morning the loss, until one day, it also got hit by a car. Sad ending all round but showed the truth behind the rumour that they mate for life.

Secondly, a mother swan was with its young in the river in Shrewsbury. Unfortunately, one had died. I was constantly lifting it's head out of the water, trying to bring it to life. That sad thing was that when we passed the same spot 3 hours later it was still trying to save its young one but to no avail. The compassion shown by these example swans is amazing. Truly a wonderful bird.

This video is amazing. Tangled swans asking humans for help.

  

Swan footprints in the snow.

Saw this kingfisher whilst staying on a friends canal boat. This was the best image I could get. I was at dusk, so fairly dark and the bird was between 8-10 metres away plus I was using a basic digital camera 8mp.

This beautiful video show the kingfisher 'fishing' in slow motion.

A buzzard on the telephone line

A Swallow we saw by the canal boat.

These are moorhen eggs seen by the pools in Brampton Bryan

Some of the many birds in Mum and Dads garden:

Beautiful song thrush

Chaffinch

Blackcap

Goldcrest

This is a fledgling Goldfinch, I found whilst walking Leo around Leominster Graveyard. It was soaked through and have trouble taking off. So we put it high up on a branch so at least it would have chance to dry off before a some other animal had chance to make it its dinner.  

A Robin that decided my bike was the perfect perch at the railway station.

Another cheeky Robin that flew into my mums house and had a wonder around her kitchen.

This is Eric. A blind baby sparrow we found. We rescued him from being set upon by a cat that had been eyeing him up. We kept him for as long as we could make his days comfortable but whatever deeper was wrong with him, sadly got the better of him.

This is Jack, he's a Jackdaw.

 Jack, was bought to us by Nath's Sister and my foster Sister. It looked like there was no hope for him as he was on the brink of death. I made no promises but would try my best.

I warmed him up by wrapping him in a towel and put a heat lamp in the box with him, the box was a large lawn mower box so it would get to hot for him, as we place him the other end of the box. After an hour or two, I gently watered him with a dropper. A mix of warm water, salt and sugar - only a little of sugar and salt in the water - creating an electrolyte mixture (rehydration mix). Rubbing the dropper against his beak allowing a drop of water to moisten his beak just enough to make him open it to take in some of the water. I only gave him a 1/4 of the dropper full. Then left him over night.

In the morning he was  still breathing but hadn't moved. I boiled up some eggs crushed these up with the shells, moistened some dog biscuits, bit of jelly dog food, added some of my chickens feed, oats and mealworm. I blended all of these together and a little added warm water with the salt and sugar. 

To fed him, I put a little into the end of the dropper, asked Nath to gently open his beak so I could get it into his mouth.  He swallowed the first lot. We repeated this a further 5 times then left him to settle.

Over the next few 1/2 hours, repeating this same process. By the third hour, he had perked up and even shook his head to get rid of the residue from his beak. The Jackdaw glare was starting to awaken.

After about the fourth hour he was really starting to move. I was able to examine him and realised that his wing was under developed on the one side, which explained why he was found at the side of the road. He was a fledgling but no quite there yet. Early flight disaster. Upon examining his feet, it seemed he hand no grip. Placing my finger between his claws, he made little effort to back his feet away or grip on. Hence the wonky walk. 

But things were looking up for Jack.

By the third day of him being hand fed and examined, that morning we heard the strangest noise. Jack had found his voice and was telling us it was feeding time.  I fed him by hand up until the fifth day and by the sixth I was making the mixture a lot stodgier and placing it on a plate for him to help himself. This worked but the mess he made was bad. Food flying everywhere in his bed, constantly had to change the newspaper - lucky we worked somewhere where we had access to plenty of it. But it was worth it. 

In regards to his feet, I gently opened and closed his bad foot to work the muscles and I also kept picking him up and holding him over his branches (see image) and getting him to grasp them. It started with Nath holding him and me closing his one bad foot around the branch, until he could do it himself. Luckily for Jack that was all he needed.

His wing was progressing nicely and he was able to flap up to places - like our bed, shouting at us a 6am for breakfast and to say hello. He loved having a bath, as being in his box made him dirty. We'd put him in a warm bowl of water in the bath and he'd have a wail of a time, jumping in and out, preening his feathers, getting himself all handsome.

 Jack was all better after two weeks.

After those two weeks, we then released him into Mum and Dads garden. Where is was safe from the road and any predators. He had run of the garden. With plenty of food, baths and branches to sleep on. He stayed with them for a week or so, then started venturing further a field to other people's gardens but always coming back at night. A group of Jackdaws, would appear on the telephone wires above the garden and yell at Jack. At first he wasn't bothered but then he joined them as was back as a wild Jackdaw once more. He still visits Mum and Dads garden with his new group but only to eat the fatballs.

Jack, the Jackdaw is now happy, wild and free.

Nathen's nephew holding Jack. 

Organising Craft Supplies - Pens and Pencil Box

One of the biggest issues I suffer with is anxiety and mess triggers off these feelings. So much so I try to avoid and ignore the piling hoard of craft items I have collected over the years, then this deters me from wanting to do anything. Which means technically I'm a hoarder too. 

So for this years new years resolution, I have decided to confront these feelings and get organised. No matter how much the tightness in my chest cause me to not want to progress, the reluctance to want to throw any of it away; I am determined that I will get it organised into a tidy, workable space. 

My compulsion extends to that of what is inside of boxes. Yes, boxes have their purpose to hide a mess but the lack of organisation within them causes me, again, to want to ignore the contents; pretend that they will sort themselves out. I know this won't happen so the only way for me to feel comfortable in approaching these boxes and to put their contents to use is to spend time organising them.

But here is where my lack of not wanting to throw things away and turn them into something else comes in handy. Toilet roll and kitchen roll cardboard inner tubes.

Rather then throwing them away, I know that they can be used for other things. 

Here's a few samples:

Seeding plants. 

If you set them out in a suitable size tray that stops water spilling by filling up the cardboard rolls with compost you can use them as a bio-degradable plug. Once the seedling is old enough to be planted outside, nature will do the rest for you and rot down the cardboard roll. 

Compost.

Simply rip up the cardboard roll and add it to your compost bin. Helps create rich compost.

Animal Tubes.

If you have hamsters or mice or even a snake, these tubes are great and cheap passage ways for them. The small rodents will even gnaw at these (good for their teeth) to add to their bedding. For larger pets like rabbits or guinea pigs you can stuff them with alpha alpha hay and bits of dried food to create a boredom buster treat, as they will tear them to shreds. 

You can also use them for dogs. We fill these with treats then stuff the ends with newspaper. The dogs love them, helps with dogs puzzle abilities and keeps them occupied when they are left alone. Results are a bit messy but what's that compared to two happy dogs.

Cable Wraps

Cheap and effective way to keep all those messy cables together. All you need to do is cut length ways down the tube. Place the cables inside the tube wrap around tightly then fix with a little duct tape to seal them in.

My task I set for myself was to organise my pen and pencil box, see below the photos of the box before I began. Finding a colour to use was such a pain, I did little to no colouring, drawing or writing.

What you need:

One plastic storage box with lid

Cardboard toilet roll inner tubes

Scissors (for the kitchen roll size tubes)

The box I used was approx 1ft x 1/2ft x 1/2ft. Firstly I placed the rolls in to see how many I would need and noticed the amount of wasted space between the tubes, so I decided to fold them into rough squares.

I realised I was 2 tubes short so I simply cut a kitchen roll inner tube in half.

Now I had enough rolls I placed them into the box side by side to fill the box as tightly as possible. 36 rolls were needed in total for this size box. Now the box is ready to be organised.

Standing the pens and pencils up in the tubes, I sorted them into colours and the drawing pencils into gradients of shade.

The result: a rainbow of organised colour and room for some scissors too.

Simple and Effective.

Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesdays - Pancake Day

Ideal for a yummy, quick and easy breakfast. 

Today for pancake day we treated ourselves to some Oat and Banana Pancakes. Wheat free too. Not that I don't eat wheat. Love my Bread.

Ingredients:

2 Bananas

2 eggs
1/2 cup of oats
Splash of milk
Splash of vanilla essence (but this is for my personal taste)
Butter for cooking

Method:

Turn you hob on to get it heated up whilst you make the batter.

Break up the banana and crack open the eggs then add all of the ingredients into a jug or blender. Mix them all together to make the pancake batter. I used a stick blender to achieve the smooth consistency. 

Place your pan of the hob then add a small knob of butter to grease up your frying pan. Allow your pan a few minutes to get piping hot.

Using a tablespoon, scoop out 2 spoonfuls of the mix into your frying pan and using circular motions with the back of the spoon. Smooth out a small cup size pancake, I can fit three into a large frying pan.

Leave to cook for 20 seconds (the first batch will need 5 seconds longer as the pan is still heating up) and start to gently lift up the pancake from the frying pan ready to turn over. Do the same for the others and leave each for another 20seconds to cook. If they aren't cooked fully, just simply turn them over and allow to cook for a further 5-10 seconds to finish.

Et voila, you have small circular-ish pancakes.

We served ours with maple syrup but you can serve them with anything for fruit to chocolate to ice cream. Enjoy.

All ingredients in a jug

Blended to a smooth batter using a stick blender.

Circular motions with the back of a tablespoon to create the shapes of the pancakes.

Turning over time, using the spatula gently to prevent tearing.

The first side will be browner then the second side.

What the second side looks like in comparison.

Note: If you stack the pancakes ready on the plate as you make them, it will keep them hotter for longer.

Pancakes a go to get in my belly, served with maple syrup. Oh yummy times.