photo: Britta HügelDecember 2nd --- Since three days (and nights) it is very cold in Berlin. My rose geraniums (Pelargonium odoratissimum) still bravely defy the cold - but I have to think about my oleander: I have enough space, but all rooms are heated, and in winter the plants want it cold. The cellar is no alternative - in Berlin we have long-distance heating - and the pipes run through the cellars - good for furniture that you want to store there - but, as it is warm, it's No country for Old Geraniums.
And I have to think about the birds too. They are regulars for water - the sparrows, blackbirds, a pair of jays, (the magpies do not come). The doves and hoodiecrows I shoo away- especially since I know the Latin name of the hoodies: Corvus corone cornix (Apples autocorrection turns that foresightful into "corona"..)
I love the tits (birds) - and for all of the above mentioned (and sometimes a squirrel) I put out grains etc to feed them.
Sparrows are the typical birds for Berlin: cheeky, bragging and in loud huge groups. They go to MacDonals and eat French fries, they sit on coffeetables and pick at your cake, if you don't watch out - and when I read in a photo-book that is impossible to take a picture of a sparrow I went out and proved the opposite.
What do those photo books know about birds? Good job.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I remember your beautiful photos of bird, Joanne - they are really great!
ReplyDeleteIt is a great satisfaction to watch birds feeding in the winter.
ReplyDeleteI like that too, Emma - they come always at a special time, always the same. In summer I give them water.
DeleteWe have so many birds in our garden Britta of which, many are the little sparrows. They fly continuously from one side of the garden to the other eating anything they can find including lichen, insects and berries !
ReplyDeleteI am waiting for Tom's comment as you liking ' tits ' will give him something to say !!! { sorry Tom } haha. XXXX
Hahaha, Jackie, that's why I put "birds" into brackets - I was expecting the same :-)
DeleteThe sparrows are loud and cheeky, in some bushes here in the front gardens sit - really! - over a hundred birds! I think they are funny, especially those who live on chips. XXXX
Sparrows are so hard to find here these days. I really miss them from my childhood and love to see them when travelling. So cheeky and plump!
ReplyDeleteYou may like to think of crows in a new light as I discovered yesterday that it's the crow feather that is the plucking pick on the keys to the harpsichord. That is, if you like harpsichord music, of course, otherwise disregard this tidbit! xx
I know that in some parts in Germany sparrows are very rare now - so one year the sparrows were on "the red list of endangered bird". I sometimes have the feeling they all came to Berlin!
DeleteI know that crows are super intelligent - and I only do not like them when they live in a tree in front of my house: big balls of nests with thirty or more crows in them - not very melodious singers, Pipistrello, I can tell you (in Berlin almost every street has many many trees - and here in the parallel street they sit and consult wether they should make a little move to live in ours...
I love the harpsichord - listening to it, and it is also beautiful to look at. xxx