Great photos, @Mr. Vine Eye. I too feel very happy to see the birds eating the aphids, even though sometimes they break new rose shoots and destroy the buds. They are very entertaining to watch and they often make me laugh.
@Fire - yes but they’ve been much later than last year arriving. They visit regularly through late spring and early summer to eat the aphids. But completely uninterested in the bird feeders and don’t come at any other time of the year. So when they do it’s very special. I was starting to think they wouldn’t be coming this year.
That's rather odd @Mr. Vine Eye , that your blue tits and sparrows don't appear more often - do you have sunflower hearts in your feeders? I find most birds prefer the sunflower hearts although I don't know how much longer they will be available due to the war in Ukraine. 'Our' blue tits feed nearly all year round and the sparrows too.
It's nice to have something special to rejoice over though. I got very excited when the woodpecker came back.
I agree about sunflower seed being the best all rounder. We were talking just today about Ukrainian sunflowers.
I have a new birdfeeder designed to fox larger birds like magpies and pigeons and for food not to fall to the ground re rats. I saw a great tit using it today and I cheered. Success!
@Marlorena no,I have inspected the cane and in perfect conditions. maybe a reaction on the potassium spray against the mildew? But just guessing, not sure if I need to defoliate the main and just wait if it picks up back again or just prune  the full main out.it is on a wall that gets sun from 09.00 until 15.00 in spring , in the summer until 14.00 but it is getting hot on that wall. Gave it a deep soak yesterday but do not believe it is dryness…
My other guirlande is doing fine , some light infection of the mildew but keeping it at bay … so odd the same rose, same wall, just 2 meters from each other ( door in between)Â
Regarding birds , we are truly lucky we have blue  tits, a couple of robins etc etc. Every morning one of the robins visists my GdF and I see it eating 😀
I love watching the birds too, we get a lot and I can see them picking off bugs, finches, tits, dunnocks, sparrows, wren, robin etc. As well as the sunflower hearts I find a shallow water dish a big lure for smaller birds, mines a glass tart tin, they love to sip and bathe in the shallower water!
Finally rain here, I had watered yesturday too to give a good soak.
Just catching up, hope everyone had a good bank holiday weekend. Lovely to see the roses coming through and the birds arriving. Our Golden Orioles have arrived, it’s such a joy to hear their exotic calls and whistles and is our annual marker of things to come. Everything is poised for action here, but cooler weather and lots of rain means it’s an agonising wait..Â
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
On a more positive note… Framboise folle and Walferdange bathing in the morning sun… I ‘m so curious after that FF , should be raspberry red fading towards lilac - light pink…Â
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The cavalry have arrived!
I find most birds prefer the sunflower hearts although I don't know how much longer they will be available due to the war in Ukraine. 'Our' blue tits feed nearly all year round and the sparrows too.
It's nice to have something special to rejoice over though. I got very excited when the woodpecker came back.
maybe a reaction on the potassium spray against the mildew? But just guessing, not sure if I need to defoliate the main and just wait if it picks up back again or just prune  the full main out.it is on a wall that gets sun from 09.00 until 15.00 in spring , in the summer until 14.00 but it is getting hot on that wall.
Gave it a deep soak yesterday but do not believe it is dryness…
so odd the same rose, same wall, just 2 meters from each other ( door in between)Â
Regarding birds , we are truly lucky we have blue  tits, a couple of robins etc etc. Every morning one of the robins visists my GdF and I see it eating 😀
Finally rain here, I had watered yesturday too to give a good soak.
Framboise folle and Walferdange bathing in the morning sun…Â
I ‘m so curious after that FF , should be raspberry red fading towards lilac - light pink…Â