March 13th 2025 A Normal Day for The Biking Birder Thursday Part 2 Toys4Life - Making a Difference, One Toy at a Time

                Making a Difference, One Toy at a Time

https://www.toys4life.co.uk/

Marianne, one of the fabulous employees at Toys4Life

          You may have seen Toy Story and know now that toys come to life when people aren't around.

    

          Well, there is a place where unwanted toys can go and become the new Woody, the new Buzz, the new Jessie for a child.

          Called Toys4Life toys in their millions are sent to children all over the UK and around the world.

          Take a look at their excellent website to see how it all works and hoe YOU could help . . .

https://www.toys4life.co.uk/

          Anyway, a drive north along the M5 and M6 in order to take cuddly toys given by Cancer Research shop in Bromsgrove and also with a huge green dinosaur that I bought on Sunday last at the Acorns Children's Hospice Spring Fair. 

          Olaf came along to, having wanting to meet everyone at Toys4Life for weeks.

         

           Cuddly toys from my little car given to the toy sorting ladies; how I would love that job, it was then that I was given the weekly books of children's toys and adieu, off to Part 3!

So please, don't let your toys end up in landfill or in an incinerator . . .

. . . find out how you can give toys to Toys4Life. Make a difference, one toy at a time.

March 13th 2025 A Normal Day for The Biking Birder Thursday Part One - Early Morning Garden Birdwatch

 

          So how does The Biking Birder, patiently waiting for the starting day for his next new Biking Birder, spend a typical Thursday?

          Well, not on his bike, that's for sure. That is to come for on the first of April I will start a three month Biking Birder adventure; The Laurie Lee Trail.

           More on that later.

           So, first things first. Breakfast.

           Porridge mixed with a number of extra 'healthy' ingredients; cocoa, inulin, sunflower/pumpkin and sesame seeds, ground rye seeds, blueberries, cranberries and sultanas! Soya milk being added and a strong soya milky coffee.

          Whilst making it and for half an hour to an hour, I birdwatch the back garden; counting the birds after filling the feeders with either sunflower kernels or Home Bargains Superior fat balls. The latter have been the best fat balls for birds I have ever found. £6.50 for forty.

           Today's birds :

Goldcrest - Regulus regulus, the usual miniscule bird that comes regularly during the day, mostly to nibble at the Home Bargains Superior fat balls. An absolute favourite of both mine and my 92 year old Mum, to see one so close and to compare it to the attendant titmice, one gets to see exactly how incredibly tiny this bird is. Just a teaspoon of sugar . . . 

Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopus major Both male and female come to the fat balls, this morning it was the turn of the female. The most nervous of birds, the slightest movement of me in the kitchen has the woodpecker fleeing for the safety of the nearby Oak trees.

Stock Doves Columba oenas,This morning two of them are on the bottom level of the garden pecking away at the sunflower kernels. So much smaller than their cousin, the Wood Pigeon, Stock Doves are our commonest dove in the garden, though we do see more Wood Pigeons both in the adjacent woods and on the rooves of the other mobile homes on the estate where Mum lives.

Common Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus Two are fighting away for ownership of a tray full of sunflower kernels. The way they stand upright flicking their wings aggressively at each other is always comical.

Carrion Crow Corvus corone One atop an Oak tree calling away.

Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius Just one coming to the whole peanuts offered on the flower beds of the lower garden. Has been up to four at a time before now.

Eurasian Magpie Pica pica  Three in the garden chasing away the Jay in order to scoff the peanuts!

Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus Strange how these only arrived in the garden at 8:15am. Usually one of the first species seen. Three of them together on the fat balls was the maxima.

Great Tit Parus major Two of them mostly in the hydrangeas.

Dunnock Prunella modularis Three in the garden today, usually four of which I presume three are males. Lots of single wing flicking and chasing around the bushes going on; its that time of year! 

European Robin Erithacus rubicula Not the Mary Poppins robin! Two in the garden this morning, close together so presumed to be a pair. Saw another Robin being chased off a couple of days ago; its that time of year!

Song Thrush Turdus philomenus One singing for hours high in the oak tree canopy. Haven't seen one on the floor or in the bushes of the garden for years.

Blackbird Turdus merula A pair in the garden; its that time of year!

Western Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta europaea One coming to both the fat balls and sunflower kernels.

House Sparrow Passer domesticus Just one male sitting on the top of the plum tree outside the lounge window.

Eurasian Siskin Spinus spinus Four coming the sunflower kernel feeders and trays

.

Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs Six in the garden; four beautiful Aston Villa-coloured males and two females. Always feeding on the ground and never on the feeders.

European Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis Four coming and mixing amicably enough with the Siskins and Redpolls. Interesting to see that these are the largest of the three finches that come to the sunflower kernel feeders and trays. Subtle differences in size between the three finch species.

Redpoll (Common) Acanthis flammea flammea/rostrata/islandica Lumped together, birders have lost a couple of ticks from their lists. Incredible that 'snowballs' are now one species with what used to be called Lesser Redpoll. Two coming to the sunflower kernel feeders and trays; smaller than both the Siskins and Goldfinches. 

Ebird checklist for the 14th of March 2025

Best bird of the winter must be the male Brambling Fringilla montifringilla that came into the garden in late February and stayed around for a number of days. A rare bird in the garden, we usually get one every winter.

           Each of the birds listed has been searched for by doing an internet search using ECOSIA. Ecosia plants trees for one carrying out internet searches. 

Plant trees as you search! ECOSIA 

BIKING BIRDER I March 14th 2010 Braunton Dunes and Chapel Wood RSPB Reserve

 

14^th March 2010

Mr Sandman              [The Chordettes]

 

          Golden Plover to wake me from my slumbers, also from the tent just outside Braunton, Devon. I explored the amazingly large sand dunes at Braunton Meadows. 

           I then cycled to the Chapel Wood RSPB reserve. Indeed the reserve did have a ruined chapel. Goldcrest, titmice, Ravens, Buzzard were all seen and also, an extremely hard to discern hill fort. 

          Whilst there I met a RSPB girl whom I had met before at Arne two weeks before. What is this - are they checking up on me?

          The rest of the day was spent cycling to my sleeping spot on Exmoor, which gave amazing views of Lundy and the Taw Estuary as the sun went down.

34.4 miles

2,493 feet up         1,660 feet down