Making rain

Its been sooo extremely dry, the last couple of weeks,
 so I made my own rain for the plants, in order to not be like a dry valley.

Blackbird after his bath, relaxing, preening

Its still extremely hot.
Too warm for me to sit in the garden.
This blackbird is trying to cool down as well.
After taking his bath, he is preening and relaxing,
Taking his time.
As you can see he is molting,
His neck is quite untidy.

Sparrows in my garden!

I could not believe my eyes, when I noticed a group of sparrows in my garden!
Many times I begged to some friends who have lots of sparrows in their gardens,
to give me some of their sparrows.
They never did.
Today, maybe because of the extreme hot summer days,
I suddenly saw this flock of sparrows landing in my birdbath, coming for a drink.
I was amazed to see them.
Immediately I filled the basket with some oatmeal, maybe they wanne stay!

Hollyhock 2

After a long holiday-silence,
The same hollyhock as one month ago, has almost finished blossoming.
However, during this time the plant has made lots of seeds.

Hollyhock

The hollyhock, Alcea Rosea, Stokroos, is blossoming abundantly.
I love the red color of this one
and it has lots of buds coming!

Bull finch again

Yesterday I was so happy to see the fiery bird again!
He arrives very quickly,
takes a sip from the water and as soon as he sees something move, he's gone.
So that makes it difficult to get him on my camera.
Yesterday I had only one shot and I thought it was not sharp.
Looking at it today...I was surprised to see the photo is sharp!

Woody again

As long as I put some yummy things in the basket,
the woodpeckers come.
They love the food, and mostly I can hear them coming...
Tjeck, tjeck....tjeck...
and yes there he comes, sometimes they come together.

worn-out coal

A  worn-out coal-tit resting.
His head bald I guess because of moulting...
I looks a bit funny.

Bullfinch

Being up early this morning, I sat down with my coffee.
Then I noticed I was not the only one being up early.
The Bullfinch was up too!
Enjoying his bath in the birdbath!
This was so nice!
What an amazing colours!!!!!
A good start of the day.

Orange-pink blur

In my garden I noticed an orange-pink blur flying by.
I knew it had to be the Bull-finch (Goudvink)
A moment later he sat in the birdbath having a drink.

Woodpeckers

The woodpeckers are coming every day now,
as long a I fill the basket.
Its such a great sight to see these birds coming and going.
Here is a female young.
She has no red dot on the back the head.
The males have red dots.

Green Woodpecker

This is awesome.
A green Woodpecker in my grass
searching for ants.
He is a very shy bird...I am very happy I caught him with my camera.

Woodpecker

Yesterday, I suddenly noticed some woodpeckers.
I had put some old cookies in a feeding basket.
Not only the blue-tits and the finches had found it.
The woodpeckers had found it too!
First I thought there was only one, but suddenly I saw four of them!
One parent and three young.
Here is one young looking how to get in the feeding basket.
Such a treat! 

Bullfinch

To my great amazement and surprise,
a Bullfinch landed on the birdbath to come for a drink.
To me a rare bird in my garden.
The male has an astonishing beautiful pink/orange breast.
In dutch he is named Goldfinch, However a goldfinch in England is another bird.

(Pyrrhula Pyrrhula, Bullfinch, Goudvink)
When you once have seen this bird, you will never forget this beauty.

young coal in shock

Some days ago I saw a young coal-tit lying on the ground.
He had hit the glass-window.
He sat in a shock, his head totally bended backwards...
It did not look good.
I took him in my hands and spoke/prayed to the bird that he would be well.
He needed some time to recover.
Meanwhile it started raining.
I put him in feeding table, so he sit there dry.
and also that when he was done, he would be free to take his wings.
I was happy that after a while he was gone.