An egg, young birds and photos by GINKs

We see and hear many young birds now. Teenagers who with their fluffy feathers are anyway bigger than mum and dad. Standing there with open beak, shimmying their wings. Yelling Feed Me Now!

European starlings bringing caterpillars

The starlings, flying in and out constantly. Complaining bitterly – those youngsters are never satisfied!

Dikkop egg, inspiration on the 'desk' I stand at
(Today just this one is from my Canon)

Before we came to live here, this was a vegetable garden. Then a fallow field. The dikkops like to nest on open ground. We still hear them, calling in the night from the rough ground on empty plots in the neighbourhood. Anna gave me this dikkop egg. I keep it on my desk. In a little dish, painted with a spotted guinea fowl feather.

That irritating thing, when you try to peel a hard-boiled egg, and it comes away in grotty chunks attached to the shell? WHY? and How to avoid it!

House sparrow family

Birds land on the perch on top of the bird house. Peer down to see if that bleddie Ungardener has refilled the seed yet. Which side shall I fly down to? 

Pin-tailed whydah, our Lil Cuss

Oh f*** there’s the Lil Cuss again!

Weaver mother and baby

Because we mulch with straw and leave as much as possible of the Ungardener’s free spirited plants standing – the birds are glad to eat naturally. Not dependent on handouts. 

Young Cape robin

The Nuxia was planted for young Cape robins. Have been waiting to photograph the adults, but we only see this youngster. Seems to be his patch and the parents are elsewhere.

Young masked weaver

On this young weaver, you can just see his black mask beginning to fill in.

  

Red bishop

And finally, just because they are glorious birds, the red bishops. He is dressed in red and black. No cheap satin pantomime costume for him. His red silk velvet jacket sits, just so. When ready to perform he fans out his black Jacobean ruffled collar. Then does a little song and dance routine for his lady love. Hops to the next branch and repeats it! Again, and again! Sadly the first bird only performed for me, there was no lady around. And our yellow weavers saw him off. There’ll be no Red Bishops in our neighbourhood! They come to the bird feeder, but they don’t nest here.

Tatyana said she has lost the manual for her camera. While he was still choosing a camera, the Ungardener downloaded the manuals. To see if the hype added up. Can you really …? And does it …? Is there a …? He is on a learning curve. Instead of sitting patiently with a numb finger, holding the shutter half down to focus where-the-birds-will-be he can lock the focus where he wants it. pdf Manual for my Canon

And the GINKs in the title? Well there’s us. Any more out there?

PS If you are fan of Saxon Holt Floradoragardens lots-learned-at-photography-workshop BTW He is currently recovering from a detached retina

PPS I have been tagged by Hungarian CultivatedGarden. If you are a cat person then we three have that in common!  

Pictures by Jurg (and Diana), words by Diana of Elephant's Eye