Ring-necked parakeet

We had our middle son and his family here for a late lunch today. 

The bird table sits on the patio just outside the family room and our two youngest granddaughters were fascinated by all the different visitors to the fat ball holder and bird seed holder hanging from it. (We have more feeders under the twisted hazel tree, which is near lots of bushes which provide good cover for the birds, but I keep this bird table on the patio because I enjoy photographing the brave birds who will come nearer the house. I don’t put seeds on the table itself because the squirrels would eat them all.)

The parakeets in particular were very popular with L & H, but they also enjoyed watching several starlings, blue tits (including juvenile ones), magpies and squirrels, all vying for their turn at nibbling the fat balls. The fat ball cage is meant to be squirrel-proof, but it doesn’t meet the requirements of the Trades Descriptions Act.

The family stayed until the evening, but will be returning tomorrow for another late lunch. Smithers and I are really enjoying having them all here while their kitchen is being finished off, but we don’t have the energy for all this cooking like we used to when our sons were younger (and so were we …). Then we regularly had a houseful and thought nothing of it.