July 2007 (1)
2 July
Calmly installed in the
willow for a small nap, four small great tits.
Difficult to sleep in
peace. One of the young would like to play and pricks without slackening
his/her sister (brother?).
...which tries to ignore
it and continue to sleep.
You really don't want to
play?
Finally quiet.
A visit of
small blue and a beautiful take off.
4 July
Greenfinch observations.
The greenfinch uses the same intimidation attitude as the sparrows, open beak
and partly spread wings, well puffed up feathers, it affirms his presence
firmly.
The
sparrows, less able to break the sunflower seeds, when they are in a number, pester
them as they do when they see a titmouse eating sunflower seeds. The greenfinch
behaves then aggressively and puts them in their places.
Young
sparrows begin to be autonomous. One still sees a bit of yellow beak.
In the
interior garden one observes large gangs of sparrows now, which come to bathe
on the small terraces, with a lot of youngsters, all for the better.
5 July
A little sunflower makes
the happiness of the greenfinch.
Shelling technique. Its
conical and powerful beak is a very good nutcracker. The seed well held in the
beak, a pressure and the two shell pods fall on both sides.
6 July
Adult and a
baby great tit who still does not haa the yellow colors of the adult.
It is
summer and the birds do not need, normally, to be fed.
We continue,
now and then, to prepare some peanuts on the balcony, which make the joy of
great tits… and ours, of course, to see them. But we try to do not make it a habit.
We do not restock systematically the braid, which consists of whole seeds (even
if the tits would prefer them unshelled), when it is empty. We renew it irregularly.
The same is true for the handful of seeds in the feeder.
Young manage
perfectly well to break the shells using their fine black beak. We hear their
energetic TAC-TAC-TAC.
We now see less often our small blue. Sometimes an adult quickly passes but alone and it remains a short time. Are they startled by the agitation of the great tits and the greenfinches or, as last year, have they leaved and we will seldom see them during July and August?
7 July
To beg their food, the
young greenfinches, take this attitude: beak large opened and wings lowered and
spread which offers us this pretty feathers cape
The two
small greenfinches badger without slackening the adults while chirping
permanently. They follow adults continuously. Sometimes the adult ends up
flying away followed by his offspring. Out of weariness it always ends up
nourishing them.
The small
ones have a very bird eyed chest.
They train
to shell seeds but they prefer them, still and by far, ready to gulp.
Young acquires
very quickly the characteristic edges of the primary wing feathers: bright
yellow color and the yellow of the base of the tail feathers.
At the beginning
of the meeting the greenfinch seems careful and flies away immediately at the
least movement. But it returns very quickly and, at once, it ignores us and our
presence does not perturb it any more.
Petite pluie avant le soleil.
[Campsis
x tagliabuana
'Mme Gallen']
14 juillet
Plumes, plumes, plumes...