Pigeons

[Refugee]

Bees that have got cold or exhausted usually recover more quickly if they are warmed up in full sun light.
On cool sunny mornings they can naturally land on your hands for warmth as this one did.
Our local pigeons have a boxing match to sort out where they are going nest.
We have got starlings in the end of the ridge tile this year.

[Terry]

... also had lot's of Queen bumblebees wandering in, getting stuck and needing rescuing. Wasps seem to be more intelligent, and can find their way out again without assistance.

There's a reason for that, Andy. I only found out recently but, apparently, wasps have excellent eyesight but bees have lousy eyesight!

Bees have excellent directional skills and can communicate good sources of nectar to other bees in the hive - presumably they rely on smell and swathes of bright colour to home onto the flowers themselves. Perhaps it is only their distance vision which is poor and they have excellent closeup vision for navigating inside the flowers?

I certainly don't think wasps are intelligent, they just aim for the light. They then fly into the window pane, buzz around for ages, completely ignoring the open window that they used for entry a couple of inches away, then fly around the room for a bit and repeat the operation, colliding head on with the same window they hit previously!

That reminds me - I must find out what happened to my electronic bat  when we moved - I haven't seen it since.

[Refugee]

We had an odd warm day when the snow drops were flowering and they were absolutely humming with honey bees.

[BusyBee]

We have pigeons as our neighbour puts seed out for the birds. I have my home-made solar food drier which is partly under our apple tree. The pigeons make quite a mess of the clear front which is unhelpful to say the least. I was even more irritated though when they started to make a nest of twiggs on our security light. That soon went!

[Crackle]

The nest is manned solidly day and night now.
Both pigeons work hard at sitting on the nest, then the partner arrives to relieve them whilst they go off in search of food.
It is very good team work and they spread the nest sitting quite fairly, it is heartening to see them working together as potential parents.
This is Mildred on her early evening shift.
   
Mike

[Refugee]

There were two wood pigeons in a tree in a garden at the back of our place having a boxing match.
The winner will get the best partner and nest site once there is a winner.

[Diabolical Artificer]

Didn't know that about bee's eyesight Terry. The wasps here don't do the banging daftly at a window routine, they have a pootle about then scarper out the open door.

Snowdrops are a bit late Simon?

"The pigeons make quite a mess of the clear front which is unhelpful to say the least. " Heard a piece ont radio last night about a pigeon "problem" in a city in Thailand I think. Being Thai's they kill and eat them. I no longer eat meat but have eaten pigeon, you get big breasts.

Don't think that's a pigeon Mike, looks more like a collared dove. They look cosy but. See you've named them, is the male George by any chance? At least you didn't go for Penelope and Percy : )

Andy.

[Refugee]

Didn't know that about bee's eyesight Terry. The wasps here don't do the banging daftly at a window routine, they have a pootle about then scarper out the open door.

Snowdrops are a bit late Simon?

The bees were early.
Look at the file date

[Refugee]

I have seen pigeons fly right into windows really hard.
We had a couple of them when we lived in a top floor flat. I once had one fly into the passenger side window while I was in a stationary van.
I spotted one today that hit a vehicle while it was traveling at speed.
It did not fare well though.

[Crackle]

They are definitely feral pigeons Andy, there are about 9 or 10 of them around at the moment, not all at once and not all have been named, only George and Mildred, apart from one who has a gammy leg which it can only gingerly put it down on the ground, he is obviously called Hoppy. They are all fairly easy to identify as they tend to have unique markings and colours.
We have seen an interloper pigeon pop into the bird table roof and help itself to a few sticks whilst Mildred was sitting on the nest.
There are a few Collared Doves around, they are smaller and tend to be a single pale colour more or less all over with a dark band around the neck like a collar. They also fly into windows, but so far they have escaped with just a bit of a headache. They attempted to nest in our fir tree, but I think the Magpies changed their mind.
We have a couple of wood pigeons around as well, they seem to be the noisiest with their incessant coo coo, coo, coo coo, it really booms down the chimney into the living room.

The newts I rescued from the tiny pond seem happy in the larger one now all the fish have gone, We saw a couple of them wandering around in the water today. I am going to give it a week or so and empty the tiny pond to check if there is any thing else living in it, then remove the dam which holds the water in, its leaking now anyway.