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Apples on Obelisks – a result!

Yesterday I posted on my flowering plants. As I said in that post there are only a few flowers in my garden at the moment. However last Friday I had a bit of fun adding splashes of seasonal colour by putting apples out for the birds. You can read about that on my post . Apples Grow on Obelisks .

So one week on – what happened? I had now idea if I would have anything to report at all. However after only two days I saw evidence that someone had taken a nibble at an apple from the tree and the obelisk. It was to be a few days later before I actually saw an apple being eaten.

I moved my obelisk to a different location beside my cotoneaster tree where the blackbirds were beginning to help themselves to the berries. I planted that tree beside my feeders especially for the birds so I enjoy seeing them take the berries. By moving my obelisk I was working on the theory that the birds that enjoyed the berries may also enjoy the apples! You can see in the photos below that this indeed worked.

So who have I seen eat the apples. Yep, the blackbirds as I might have guessed but what I didn’t expect to see was a blue tit having a taste too! Yesterday in the lunchtime sun I caught a blackbird eating the apples with my video camera which you can see below – that was an extra result!

Blackbird video, 58 seconds with background music, try 480p quality.

Unfortunately the film doesn’t look quite as clear as my original but I thought it was such a nice piece of film especially when the blackbird turns the apple round. I am delighted to report success with this experiment. I think it was the location of my obelisk that did it. Mmm I wonder what I can try next.

The photos and video shown above were taken in my garden on November 15th 2007.

9 thoughts on “Apples on Obelisks – a result!

  1. Mr Blackbird was sure enjoying those apples. The music matched the mood I think. Happy munching. He probably thought he had accidently landed in some tropical area when he found apples out of season. 🙂 Have a great weekend.

  2. Hi again, Celia and Lisa 🙂

    Celia – thanks. I do have fun with my videos and had great difficulty choosing which clip to use! It was the sunshine with eating fruit at lunchtime that made me choose a tropical piece of music 😀

    Lisa – I think the blackbird is a young Miss and she is definitely looking for her five a day! She was at the berries first. Although I enjoy adding music to my videos I am aware that not everyone will enjoy it but my thinking is if they don’t they will turn the volume off. I find garden birds entertaining and I try to make my videos that way too. Yes, I wonder what the blackbird really thought when it first came across the apples! Thanks – have a great weekend too 😀

  3. Hi again, Mike 🙂

    Thank-you, I tend to browse the music after selecting my clip. I usually have an idea in my head what would suit based on the ‘action’ in the film. I love the heavy guitar for the great tit eating – I always smile when I see that one. It is a pity uploading looses quality.

    The longest I ever spent on any piece of ‘bird’ film was another of a blackbird. I put out cheese near one of the cave entrances of my tiny pond after seeing a wren there. I set up the camera and left it – the cheese was gone in under seven minutes. I spent ages trying to get the blackbird to jump in roughly on cue and left a clear piece of film to build up the suspense in my film. Google clearly picked up on the first piece of movement and spoilt it. Ah well 😀

  4. All ideas work if there’s food involved. That’s enough about me.
    Shirl thats the mosty stylish feeder i have seen this year.
    we still have hedge hogs roaming in the north of England, any about up your way?

  5. I love the hedgehog film and apples on the posts is a great idea. I put some oranges out but time will tell if anything eats those. They were a bit soft. It is cold here also!

  6. Hi again, St and Layanee 🙂

    St – Yep on the whole if you give the birds, and wildlife, time to get used to a feeding station then you can experiment with foods with some success. Thanks, I’m glad you like my obelisk feeder – I have to say that it does look great and I am absolutely thrilled that the birds are using it. As for the hedgehogs I haven’t seen any since my last post on them – but that doesn’t mean they are all in hibernation. It hasn’t been too cold here – it is wet today and so far we haven’t had a really hard frost yet. I’m sure the frosty mornings will come soon and by then I hope all our hedgehogs are okay for the winter!

    Layanee – Thanks, I have enjoyed catching the hedgehog visits on film! I really don’t know where my obelisk feeding station idea came from but it is working well. As I said above it isn’t too cold here we have only had a few frosty mornings which is good as I need to plant some tulip bulbs and lift a few plants yet 😀

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