THE GREAT-TIT

The Great-Tit is by far the most frequent visitor to my balcony, and they seem to breed successfully every year. Most of these photos were taken from the library window. The library is directly under my bedroom, and next to the kitchen, so we, the family, decided it was more convenient to have our meals in the library as the dining room is in the part of the house that is now closed off. It is a pleasant room with lots of light, and just outside the window there is a shrub where birds perch in the shade and eat the food taken from my balcony. Here are a few shots I took in June. Dear fellow bloggers this post was already ready to post, for I haven't been to my blog in over a week as I have been ill, and I suspect it was COVID. having experienced the same symptoms when I caught the bug before, my symptoms were high fever, sore throat, a paroxysmal cough, which I still have, nausea, vomiting, and stomach ache. Feeling of acute exhaustion still persist, and that is why I have not been visiting your blogs. I need some time to fully recuperate and then I will visit with pleasure. Since I wrote this Pedro has now contacted the same virus and is in bed with a high fever. I can hear him coughing late into the night. I hope he recovers sooner than I have.

Great-Tit feeding it's chick.

Young bird, and it's expression is so adorable. 

Young chick asking to be fed.

Young chick

Young bird.

Young bird.

Another Great-Tit chick asking to be fed.

The youngsters grow as large as their parents, which makes it so difficult to ascertain which is which.

I will be linking up to "Wild Bird Wednesday" and "Saturday's Critters".

MOSTLY BIRDS BUT OTHER CREATURES TOO

 All these shots were taken in June and July. I have just chosen a few, a mishmash of anything in my     garden. Two shots are of the male juvenile woodpecker that came to my balcony on it's own.

As you can see there is very little green grass left after the blazing sun burnt most of it

I saw this lizard jump up and catch the damselfly in flight,

Buganvília

The Red Underwing Moth  Catocala nupta

I saw this moth outside the kitchen door which is always in the shade. I had to lighten it a little, -

perhaps too much, as a lot of the detail has been lost.

Blue-tit

One morning I saw This Hoopoe on top of our lookout.

I will be linking up to "Wild Bird Wednesday" and "Saturday's Critters"

ADULT FEMALE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER AND JUNIOR.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker raised two chicks but one didn't make it. One day a female chick came with her mother but it was plain to see she had been injured, perhaps in a fight with a larger bird, but she was in a sorry state. She had lost one eye and the socket looked infected, she had also lost a claw and had several angry looking wounds on her body. That was the first and last time I saw her, but the other chick a male, although dirty, looked healthy, and accompanied it's mother everywhere, and to my delight came to my balcony often to eat the cake crumbs. Although the adult fed from the top of the wooden box, in true woodpecker style the youngster made a hole in the bottom corner of the box and ate from there. which meant that lots of fine cake crumbs fell to the ground, but the robin made short work of them. I wish these captures could have been better images but the railings and the wrought iron gate over my window impeded my endeavors and the the head movements didn't help either. All photos were taken early morning in deep shade, so had to be lightened for me to share them but many are still dark.

These are the only photos I managed to take of the adult female and the male chick  together in a tree.

Here you can see the the mother feeding her chick.

Again you can see the chick being fed. 

At this early stage of the chick's development, the adult female fed it regularly.

The female Great Spotted Woodpecker was such a devoted parent, she tirelessly fed her chick although at times she looked exhausted.

All the mother's attention was focused on feeding the young chick with great care and tenderness.

I felt privileged to witness these precious moments.

Linking to Saturday's Critters, and Wild Bird Wednesday  If you would like to check them out, click on the icons on the right sidebar. You won't be disappointed to see birds, and many different creatures from around the world. You too can join in by posting a pet, or any creature you like on Eileen's blog. "Saturday's Critters", or a bird on Stewarts blog.