Video - a nuthatch hiding in and eating from our window feeder

We've had a pair of nuthatches using our window feeder intermittantly since the harsh early winter when they came out of the nearby woods to discover the bird food we've left out. At the moment, they are feeding their young and the feeder is getting hammered. In fact, I was just dropping a handful of sunflower seeds into the feeder when a nuthatch flew in. I don't know which of us had the greater shock, but the crows underneath got a few extra seeds as a result.

In this video, we see a nuthatch suddenly sit very still. What had happened was that a bluetit had arrived briefly on the telephone line (you might just catch it flying about early into the video) The nuthatch obviously had a glimpse but wasn't sure what was there, and sat stock still, not even daring to eat the sunflower seed in its beak. When the "danger" had apparently passed, it went back to feeding.

Apologies for the brief burst of laughter - we were watching River Cottage and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's cries of "yes yes yes", followed by the mooing of a cow were too much for my adolescent brain....


And here it is on one of the tree feeders.

Blue Tits feeding their young at Higher Hodder Bridge

Walking across Higher Hodder Bridge, I noticed a lot of activity from Blue Tits, and it soon became obvious that they were going into nests built inside cracks in the bridge itself. I thought at the time that what they had in their beaks was nesting material, which struck me as a bit odd, as they should have finished their nests a few weeks ago. It wasn't until I could look at the photographs back home that it was obvious that the blue tits had caught flies that they were feeding to their young.

Camping in lake (erm Lakes)

Camped in Langdale this weekend. Couple of nice days and a good walk. Plenty of fine ales (Coniston Bluebird, Hawkshead Red) and some interesting culinary delights like my home made smoked mackeral pate and the ODG's chilli and chips.. filling!
Didn't expect to see the otter who visits the ferry pier on Windermere in Ambleside.... so we weren't disappointed when we in fact didn't see the otter who visits the ferry pier on Windermere in Ambleside!
Pants took some shaky shots of a white stoat running about near the stream where we camped. There were early bats buzzing about outside the ODG and lots of tawney owls twit twooing but not much else of interest.
Spent lots of morning breakfast times photographing chaffinches and blue tits who became increasingly brave in coming right up to us to eat the crumbs we put down.
Woke this morning to the sound of rain (which we had all night) and unsurprisingly discovered we were camping in a lake and that the campsite was flooded out. A very speedy de-camp was called for, leaving us soaked through and with no option but to head home.