New, Old, and Funny Faces.

I’d promised Crow the recipe for peanut cake for my birds, and although Carin provided Crow with her peanut cake recipe, because I’d been failing to post mine yet (due to tiredness) In contrast to Carin, I have no measurements for my 'recipe', but here goes:

Lard or Suet.
Peanuts,
Seeds, (Sunflower, Mixed, any melon, papaya, and or other)
Niger Seeds,
Peanut butter
Uncooked Muesli
Breadcrumbs,
Raisins or Sultanas
Anything else which is at hand, or comes to mind.

Chop your peanuts, seeds, or other nuts, finely in the food-processor.
Melt lard in the microwave, and mix all other ingredients in until all liquid has been absorbed by the dry ingredients.
Spoon into your moulds. Choose whatever you think suitable, which can be plastic tubs of any size or shape.*
Then let it set in your refrigerator or freezer.
Whenever you do not have any lard available, the easiest is to mix the above ingredients with an egg and fill a bread tin. \Then put in preheated oven for a spell.
I always cook my food without salt. And therefore they often get those little leftovers too. These will go into other bird food, most of the time, depending on the situation, and food.

*In contrast to Carin, I myself find grape/or other soft fruit punnets unsuitable; the little loose–soft-plastic cover at the bottom is stuck to the bottom on two places with glue and getting the glue off the bottom of tub, I have not managed yet. Some of it is always left behind at my house, and using it as a serving tub with peanut cake, seems very unsuitable to me. I just pierce some holes into other plastic tubs, leftovers from shopping. Fruit, vegetable, grated cheese or mushrooms, and with so many products coming with an excess of plastic, I could choose anything from the collection, waiting to be put into the purple recycle bin.

Last year I had one sorry Sunflower which had germinated very late, and grown during August September before. However it was much too late and when I got Lynn’s Olympus it was still only about 1 ft. tall. This was mid to late October!
Today I noticed another Sunflower seed, which has germinated. It is still late, but we’ll see how far it will come.
The main problem it will face is that it germinated just a few cm.s away from the Fennel. This means that it won’t get too high anyway. And if it will be able to get high enough and ripen its seeds? Not like they used to when I was a child and the neighbours begged my mother to have me get me get rid of my little birdtable of my bedroom window feeder. Which of course stayed put!

It has been silent here for some time and it is about time that I post something here before it is September!
Mainly, the weather has been too wet to get out these last weeks, yet it was not too wet for a pair of Bullfinches. Most other birds find it often hard to stay put in the planter, on the wall, shelf because of the strong winds. And with some not having completed their moult, it can be extra awkward, cold and wet on you, being a small bird.

Junior has been keeping me company in the rain though, and thought it best to bring his other young mates too. Well, probably I should stick with the term “Friends”? In Avian worlds, as in most other wild animal terms, and the meaning behind mates often describes a different kind of friendship. I had to get used to this way of thinking, because most of my writings are set in the world of wild creatures. And it takes a lot not to impose human ways of thinking.

The Swallows have been flying to and fro about and beside the house; still, there is a lot less of their chittering, their lovely way of chirruping, as only Swallows can. And my Coal Tits, which had been busy elsewhere this summer, are back too. It felt as if they had been on some kind of holiday, or as if they were moulting over the last 12 weeks or so. Perhaps their breeding failed, then tried again and after that settled down for a moult. ?
I remember that when I only just had my camera, I set myself the challenge to get my best Coal Tit picture. Everyone who has a camera and Coal Tits in their garden/balcony, allotment or yard, will know the task I set myself. And although my Coal Tits were quite good in the beginning in not doing the grab, leave and hide their food, from the birdtable, which was still standing then. Also perhaps because they would line up on the wall/Fennel or planter for their turn on the peanutfeeder. And they still line up on the Fennel; it is the perfect spot from which to see who’s about, is there a tense atmosphere between species? Only yesterday, there were a lot of squabbles between Robins (adults and juveniles, alike) Sparrows, Great Tits and Chaffinches. I also think that the winds played a part in these. The birds were all trying to hold on, to stay on course, and to feed whilst rain was bucketing’ down, Atlantic winds were targeting them, all the while they were trying to raise their energy levels and to gain a little weight to help them through the cold nights. We, like many others in these islands, most likely, have been having a cold spell recently. The highest, daytime, temperatures are often not more than 15/16Cels. I wouldn’t mind usually, in combination with these winds, however, it is feeling a lot chillier.
A few times I got myself ready in the hope that I would be able to leave quite sudden if the weather would let up. A few days there was a mixture of Bright Spells and Scattered Showers, yet, as soon as I waited, it was soon clear that these would be a bit more than Scattered within 10minutes or so, after I’d leave.
Of course the Wild Flowers would be flattened too.
Tomorrow, it looks like rain till say, 4pm. And with low tide at 6pm, this would be perfect. Who knows? Will it be favourable to me, tomorrow, for once?


Some of mySparrows'GangCoal TitsBlue TitsSurprise visit of this Bullfinch male, last week.RobinOne of the Great Tits (female)Regular Visitors, Pied WagtailsNewest Robin juvenile, which has been using our dinerSome of-yesterday's-peanutcakeand some of last week's peanutcake, made with other fats and different consistency