Chaffinch

Yesterday was a day with a LOT of rain interspersed with occasional sunshine. As it was quite dull and I was trying to catch some action pictures of the birds my ISO was high and some of these are a bit grainy. but I enjoyed watching the chaffinch. He's not an everyday visitor like the robins, sparrows and coal tits.
I was watching some web-cam footage of some baby great tits, and my goodness, the clamour seven tiny little beaks and birds came make. If our robins are experiencing anything at all like that, no wonder they are both out foraging almost non-stop, even if they get wet in the process. Ciarán said he saw one right in the back room of the house this afternoon, perched on the lunchbag on his desk. No food there for robins!

 

Doing the stomp dance

In the naughty corner

Shake those tail feathers

A briar rose flowering at the end of the garden. Most of what grows between us and the railway line is brambles, but there are also a couple of wild roses which I love for the flowers now and the bright red hips later on.

It's quite a rainy forecast for this week too, with the possibility of thunder late in the week. At least it's good for the garden,  but I feel I can almost see the grass growing.

Birds of a feather - and not. feathered

I love the way photography captures things that happen too fast for the eye to perceive, like birds' wings outstretched in flight, and here  the robin's tongue. He'd been standing there on the patio looking very fat and puffed up, and all of a sudden he regurgitated some sort of pellet, and then happily went back to picking up worms.

And an older robin picture...

I mentioned that the collared dove was so hard to capture a good photo of. I thought I had a fairly good one last week, but managed to get a better one today, even though it was through the window.

At some stage in the afternoon I thought I heard C coming home on his motorbike, so I went down to open the back gate - no bike. It was the first distant noises of some helicopters on an advance flight before Obama's visit. I can't add a Black Hawk to my bird collection - I only caught a glimpse of that and a very poor photo, but I did manage a couple of  OK shots of the Chinooks. So different to the usual traffic helicopter and occasional search-and-rescue ones we see. Now that I know what to expect I'll be prepared if I hear them again on Monday, and will try to get a shot that's not taken into the sun.

Moorhen / experiment

I was walking over from work to C's office yesterday, and took a half hour for lunch in Stephen's Green. (I had the baby shawl ready to post, but the Post Office on the quays said that they couldn't take any parcels till after Obama's visit was over, and she didn't think that the GPO would take it either. I'm glad it was light, since I had to carry it round all day). Afterwards I was thinking I should have gone to the canal to see if there were any chicks, but as it was I enjoyed watching this moorhen on its nest. When I first spotted the movement out of the corner of my eye it was because one bird was passing another leaf to the bird in the nest. The first bird then went off foraging in the undergrowth and I didn't see it again, but the one on the nest spent a lot of time moving leaves and bits of grass around to get it just right. It's not clear to see from the photos, but the nest wasn't quite on the bank, it was maybe  eighteen inches - two feet out into the water. And if I hadn't seen the movement I'd never have looked twice at it.

 

 The experimental part of this post is that I've tried uploading the video to YouTube first to see how that goes. I'd suggest turning the volume down - it's mostly background traffic noise!

Coal tits

I think I need to look into uploading videos to YouTube and embedding them - I had nothing but trouble last night, and had to break this down into two to get it to upload at all - and the quality seems to go down a lot too. Oh well - video is still a learning curve for me.

Here are my scruffy little coal tits - I think you might see the rain in the first clip.

I know different birds have different characteristics and the robin has always been known for being unafraid, but I remember three years ago the little coal tits used to just dive in and fly out and we'd barely see them, whereas now they're happy on the feeders even if C is working on his bike nearby. The big birds, on the other hand, like the pigeons and collared doves fly off at the slightest movement. I've finally managed a couple of photos of the collared doves (for another day), but it's not easy.

Hot off the needles

Latest knitting project; I had been hoping to make it in either yellow or green, but after trying several shops it seems that 3-ply only comes in white. Apparently there's not much demand for it at all, let alone in colours. I know I made one in yellow some years back, but that wool was mail order from the Shetlands, and I didn't think I'd have time for that this time round. And indeed, I finished the shawl on Monday and the baby arrived on Monday also, just a couple of days early. The centre of the shawl is easy, just time-consuming. The lace border requires more focussed attention. I got a lot done in the car on two trips up to the North with C, who was attending music rehearsals. I'll admit that trying to knit while listening to the music was less successful, and did call for a bit of ripping, but as the pattern becomes easy to remember after the first twenty repeats or so, that was not too big an issue.

Looking at the card now I should have switched the tree and the sun around, to have the sun in the opposite corner to the little chick, but it's too late now. Thanks for the inspiration to use this stamp after seeing your little duck, Lorraine.

I hope to go into town after work on Thursday and get some more wool for another baby project. It's hard to know when and where all the diversions are with the Queen's visit, but since I normally walk into town I don't think it will be a problem. C had no trouble at all this morning, but said he had to take a long detour on the way home.

These barriers were waiting to be set up on one of the Liffey bridges, along with a notice saying that any bicycles would be removed. They're making it very hard to cross the road anywhere other than at traffic lights! I'm pretty good about only crossing at lights anyway, but the one exception is this stretch of the quays where it's normally easy to cross, and much nicer to walk along the river side.

Wet, wet robin

As I mentioned, we had some very heavy rain showers yesterday! From the activity around the feeders, and not just birds feeding but also flying off with food in their beaks I think there must be a good few hatchlings in the trees along the railway line. Here the robin was trying to gather up as many mealworms as he could to fly off with, after having eaten some himself.

The other photos were taken at the coconut feeder. Of all the birds the robin seems to be the one to arrange himself in a rather nonchalant, pensive pose which amuses me.

At the same time, the smaller birds cling on to the nut and perch quite comfortably while they're picking away - they don't seem to mind much whether one claw is dug into the fat or hooked around the nut - but the robin seems to use his wings much more to keep balanced.

Birds here, there and everywhere.

I would be embarassed to admit how many bird photos I have taken in the last two days. I'll just try to pick a few and spread them out all week.
Last week when I was getting more of the fat-balls I got the half-coconut as well, thinking that I hadn't seen a blue tit in ages, and maybe it would tempt one into the garden. Well - as you can see it did, but a lot of the other birds seem to be enjoying it too. I was so happy to see a blue tit again. We see a pair of coal-tits most days, and they're used enough to us that they don't fly away instantly, but while they're endearing little birds I always think they're a bit scruffy looking, and they don't have the cheeky charm of the blue tits.There's something about the face of a blue tit when you see it front onwards that always makes me smile.

We had more thundery showers today - not as much thunder as yesterday, but some pretty heavy rain when it came. I was weeding one of the borders while the soil was soft after the rain, and found a nigella bud for last week's SCS challenge.

...and flowers

The hawthorn is out in full bloom all along the roads and hedgerows now. It feels to me as if it's been out for a long time - I'm sure we noticed it on a trip to the North in early March, but along the canal banks it's cascading down in falls of blush and cream..

We had a lot of heavy thundery showers this afternoon - the lightning must have been to the front or side of the house, as I didn't see it. I like the smell of warm wet earth after a dry spell!

Birds...

I tried to post last night but Blogger was down. I had to get some more rolls and extra bacon when we had an unexpected lunch guest yesterday, so I walked the long way to the butcher's, down the canal. We saw several thrushes in the woods - it was hard to take a good photo because of the low light levels - I had to push the ISO level up, which has made them a bit grainy.. I was puzzled, too, as to what sort of berries it could have - all the ivy is long gone at this stage. But this afternoon I noticed a couple of ripe mahonia berries on the patio, so perhaps that's what it was.I could be wrong, but I think it's actually managed to tuck three in there.

The hooded crow I saw on a green area, when I was trying a second local shop for ciabatta. No luck - we had to have our BLT on demi-baguettes instead.

Feeding Birds

Chaffinch

Robin

I think the sound in the background of the robin clip must be a train. It's not that I don't hear them - I do. If I'm awake early and hear the first one go past at ten to six, it usually registers on my awareness that that's the first train I've heard, so it must be ten to six. And if I'm going out in the car and going to be crossing over the railway line, I might realise that I've just heard a train go by so it's a safe bet that the level crossing will be open. But to hear the level of noise on the video surprised me. I've seen that little robin starting to venture into the back porch where all the seed is kept, but he's so much more timid than last year's ones - the slightest movement and he's gone again.

I tried a different curry over the weekend, using a Mughal-style Masala. C is not (to put it mildly) a fan of cardamom. I don't like it on it's own, but as part of a background flavour I tell him it's like trying to paint a picture and not having any yellow - or whatever colour. So I use it anyway, and just do my best to remove all the pods before serving, or he's bound to bite into one. Anyway, this recipe had a LOT, so I was surprised that he said he liked it and I could make it again some time. Admittedly I cut back a bit on the cardamom - there was so much in the Masala that I left out the extra 1/2 tsp of ground powder that was meant to be added also.


Spicy Lamb ( I used beef, our last curry was lamb).
2 1/2 lb lamb or beef, cubed.
1 tsp ground turmeric

2 tbslp oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1" ginger root peeled and finely chopped (I usually grate it)
1 tblsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper / ground red chilli
1 tblsp lemon juice,
salt
* 1 tsp Mughal style Garam Masala
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 green chillies, seeded and chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
3 tomatoes skinned and chopped
fresh coriander / cilantro to garnish

*Mughal-style Garam Masala - this makes 4 ounces, I knew I'd never use that much, so I scaled it down.
4 ounces green cardamom pods, husked (I'll admit I'm not clear if this is the weight of seeds or of the pods before husking - I went with seed weight)
2 cinnamon sticks broken in pieces
1 ounce each whole cloves and black peppercorns
1 tblsp ground nutmeg.
Roast in a small heavy pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Grind to a fine powder and store for up to 6 months in an airtight jar.

Stir the turmeric into the meat and leave for half an hour.
Heat the oil and fry the onions, garlic and ginger till soft and golden-brown.
Add the curry powder  and cayenne and fry for one minute.
Stir in the lemon juice and salt, then add the meat and stir till it's coated with the spices.
Add the Masala, cardamom, green chillies, mint and tomatoes, cover and simmer till tender - obviously longer for beef than lamb. I added some water as well, as we tend to prefer a wetter curry. This was quite hot, even though I scaled the cayenne back a bit. The chilli peppers available just now are pretty hot.

I don't think I ever posted a favourite card for April. There are three or four I really liked and enjoyed making, but I'd say these two are my favourites.