Magpies

Last week I was watching a squirrel eating mealworms on my balcony when a large bird tried to land on the railing, but the squirrel chaced it off and the bird landed in a nearby tree. It was in shadow but I took some photos anyway and lightened them in edit to discover it was a magpie. The images are not good, but I am going to share them  because Magpies never usually come so far up, but I have seen them in the avenue of chestnut trees. The next day two magpies came, but as I raised my camera ever so slightly they both flew away as they have excellent eyesight and that slight movement didn't go unnoticed. They are very intelligent corvids like the Common Ravon, Carrion Crow and Jay. The Magpie's brain-to-body-mass ratio is comparable to the great apes and humans.

The Eurasian Magpie.

These Magpies are mostly seen in the north of Portugal but when my late husband and I used to holiday in the algarve in southern Portugal we saw the Iberian Azure 

-winged Magpie which also has a long blue tail.

The Iberian Azule-winged Magpie   Cyanopicacooki

I will be linking up with "Wild Bird Wednesday" and  "Saterday's Critters."

Now that the weather has improved and we are getting warm sunny days, I had been taking photos of wild and cultivated garden flowers and some birds and squirrels, seen on and from my balcony but doing some gardening too. I have however sprained my wrist because of pruning so many bushes, but my knee has suffered the most because of standing long periods of time whilst doing this,so I have had to take things easy, with leg raised and ice packs. I should have known better but I never learn. I had this ready to post, just changed a few sentences.

 Wood Pigeon

Broom

Great-tit

Same as above.

Growing out of the stone wall-

Yellow Woodsorrel

Collared Dove

Blackbird

No ID for this wild plant

Hanging over a wall on the farm

These flowers are all over the slopes

Mexican Daisy

Wild Lily.

Fire Bush with Longhorned Beetle.

Carpenter Bee

The garden smells heavenly with the perfume of these wild flowers. They grow  

on a large bush which grows several meters tall. I can't find the ID, but if anyone knows, I would be most grateful if you would let me know.

Groups of these white flowers grow under trees in the garden

Pretty succulent plant growing near the pond

SQUIRRELS

I'm on my second tub of mealworms but the only birds that eat them are the Coal-tits. The strange thing is that on the tub lable there is a picture of the creatures that do eat them, fish, lizards, hedgehogs, squirrels, mice, turtles, tortoise. and what looks like a parrot, and an exotic bird, but "my birds" such as the Great-tit and the robin ignore them to my disapointment, because I know how benificial the meal worms would be to their diet. The squirrels devour them, they can't get enough of this high protein food. Here are a few  different squirrels taken on different days when they arrive on my balcony they head streight for the mealworms, and then the peanuts.

Saw me here. :)

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

.Very few birds are visiting the feeder these days, but I'm always on the lookout. One day I was looking through the window when I saw a whitish ball perched far away in a tree. I imediately zoomed in with my camera and when I looked at the photos on my computer realised it was a Wood Pigeon, and here are the photos I took. They are usually very shy birds, and often fly away if I get too near to where they are well hidden in a tree, so I was pleased to get just three photos  I took a few photos in the garden after lunch on the first dry day we had had in ages, although we did have a mini shower which lasted about 5 minutes in the morning.

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I will be linking up to Saturday's Critters.