Spotting and counting birds on the school run and out and about in town; failing to feed them in the back garden; making a bird whistle and having a lot of fun feeding seagulls and pigeons.
It’s time for a challenge shake up. So far, we’ve proudly and determinedly done a different challenge each day, trying to get as much diversity in as possible. Now, almost a whole month in, we’re in need of a new idea. I’m beginning to chase my tail and panic and B is beginning to get grumpy when I brightly say “so what’s our challenge going to be today then?”
It looks like the weathers’ going to be unsettled all week and both our energy levels are pretty low. The weekend challenges (Stargazing – 341 and Pebbles, puddles and lots of splashing – 340) weren’t the longest but both felt pretty intense and were out of our comfort zone. We’re in the mood for snuggling indoors and giving up the whole thing. I am trying desperately to think of a re-boot.
I’m really aware that B keeps trying to pick up the same challenge again a few days later and I’ve been stomping on that. I’ve been wondering if I’m right too. After all the challenge doesn’t specify that we have to do different things each day. I’d just presumed that, because I thought it would be more interesting for both us and any readers out there. What if, instead, we do a week long challenge on the same theme but with variations? I wonder if it would give a different pace and stop us rushing back and forth.
I spot a wagtail bouncing across the road as I ponder what the topic will be and that’s it, sorted. It’s going to be bird week! I’ve been meaning to do something bird related for ages. I’m vaguely aware that there is a RSPB challenge at this time of year. I look it up – RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch – but we’ve missed it by a day and it also involves being in one place counting birds for an hour. I’m not sure if B has that sort of patience but maybe if we practice this year, we can do it in 2026?
339 – Bird Spotting
Monday 27 January, Windy and rainy, 8°C
We start off on the way home from school. Who can spot a bird first and who can see the most? The chimneys are the best spot. B sees 6 crows, 2 pigeons and a seagull. When we get home, we put seeds out on the ground in the garden and sit and wait and watch. There is a magpie up on the neighbouring roof but it doesn’t seem interested. Then the inevitable happens – our bunnies find it first! And thoroughly demolish it. As they do we spot a robin and a blackbird hopping around behind the bunnies wondering if they’re going to leave any for them.
In the morning, we wake up to the sound of a magpie cawing loudly in the tree outside B’s window and find a pigeon loitering by the remains of the seeds. Maybe some made it to a bird in the end? Its windy on the way to school. No birds on the chimneys but we catch some flying past, clearly fighting lots of wind gusts. One seagull, one crow and then a flock of about 9 pigeons which swirl around the rooftops near the school, going out of site and then coming back again. We decide they’re the school pigeons.
338 – Feeding the seagulls
Tuesday 28 January. Cloudy and windy with showers. 8°C
B and I agree before school its going to be seagull feeding day. We debate what’s healthiest for them.
B: Let’s get some chips?
Me: How about seeded bread? We’ve got some to spare? Are you going to eat the chips too?
B: No.
That sorts it. We head down to the pier armed with our bread and with a plan to see which birds might be hanging about. When B was little, she loved to commune with the pigeons. She had two pigeon friends (Daisy and Maya) who persistently followed us everywhere we went. She was always so delighted to see them, would greet them happily and look for something to feed them. As she grew a bit older a few others appeared. We gained Daisy and Maya’s dad and then some pigeon queens and kings in unusual colours. Eventually she worked out that it probably wasn’t the same pigeon each time but she’s still fond of them.
Today though B is more interested in the seagulls. There’s a corner of the pier which juts out and if you throw food from there, the little white gulls catch it mid drop. B walks down the pier looking a bit worried.
“What if there aren’t any, or they don’t see us?”
I flick a bit of bread into the air and a passing bird sees it, turns and swoops down to find it. Soon we have about twenty, about fifteen metres below us in the sea, alert and watching.
B is immediately in her element. “Don’t throw any. I want too!” I grab a bit anyway to make a 338 number on the railing. Around me I hear a growing clamour of very excited birds trying to get her attention. After throwing bread randomly B works out she can eye a seagull hovering and throw the bread right to it. The gull usually caught it in mid-air and if it missed another would catch it on the way down. I’m really impressed with the way they stay in one place and their persistence. Occasionally B has a pause and they settle back down on the surface of the water, about 15 metres below. As soon as she throws another piece of bread they rise up again immediately, squawking straight back up to eye level again.
After we’ve got rid of most of the bread, we turn round to find one lone pigeon quietly picking up crumbs behind us and he gets the last bits.
337 – making peanut butter bird snacks (and getting distracted)
Wednesday 29 January, Cloudy 8°C
I have a great idea for today. Hunting around for bird snacks I’ve found the bag of peanuts I got to distract the squirrels in the park. We’ve got a box full of seed too (mainly eaten by the rabbits). The internet informs me you can make peanut butter just by putting nuts in a blender. I’ve recently rediscovered a little attachment I had to mine for nuts and B wants to use it. I sense a plan.
Then I make a classic error. Having laid out on the way to school what we’re going to do, on the way back I mention to B an idea I’ve had. I was re-formatting the post about her climbing the garden tree and wondered if we could get some sort of hoist and pulley system installed up there sometime.
B thinks this is a great idea… too great possibly. It definitely trumps making peanut butter. We start off ok, she loves making lots of noise with the blender. But once we get the peanuts into a buttery sort of goo she loses interest and goes hunting for something to make a hoist and pulley with. I try and pull her back.
“Hang on. I didn’t say we’d do that today. We’re doing bird feeding today. It’s bird week.”
B: “I thought we were going to use it to attach the bird feed to the tree”.
I’m not paying enough attention. I’ve found the box of pinecones by the back door and am having a go at attaching wool to them (so they’ll hang) and covering them in the sticky peanut butter. Then I try and make a 337 with the peanut butter in a plastic mould thing I’ve found. It’s not going well and I need B’s help.
Meanwhile B needs my help because she’s trying to make a hoist and pulley system in the tree (see the playing with the garden tree post for more details). We both need each other’s help but are too far down our respective roads to pull it back, me covered in peanut butter goo and her up the tree trying to do complex knots. It all ends crossly and I reflect that bird week isn’t going hugely well.
I hang the peanut butter pinecones on the tree the birds tend to perch on but don’t see any eating it. Two days later I pass and see that it looks like it’s covered in mould but a few days after that it looks like it’s been eaten. Might do a bit of research and try that one again in a few months time.
336 – Making a bird whistle
Thursday 30 January. Cloudy, 6°C
It’s B’s turn for an idea. Bird week is not going as well I expected. She loved feeding the seagulls and enjoyed the first day of spotting the birds and watching for them but doesn’t want to do it anymore. She’s refusing to look for them on the way to school (suspect this is an age thing. Three or four years ago I think a new game like that would have had longer appeal.)
Me: Do you know where we’re going?
B: Yes, it’s a surprise.
Me: You know it has to be bird related right?
With hindsight I’m kicking myself for putting restrictions on her. The whole ‘returning to the same ideas thing’ seems a bit more ephemeral and complex than just doing the same thing all week.
B spot an unusual brown pigeon flying into the tree opposite and gestures to be quiet and sneak up to look at it more… but as we wait to cross the road it flies away. She’s not sure where to go then. There is a complete lack of helpful birds to follow. A small one has darted somewhere but we can’t see it. I suggest we look for nests in the trees but then realise there aren’t any.
We head into the little park and B starts picking leaves, splitting them with her finger like with a daisy chain and connecting them to each other. I pick some too and we find we can roll them into a whistle sort of shape. We do one with just leaves and another with a catkin in the middle.
Then we are done. Time to go home and the end of bird week I think. I’m not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow but I’m going to move to prioritise fun and see if that works better. We’ve got the tired and grey feeling of late January and are lacking energy. Wonder if I can find something to help with that?
334 – Birds in the City
Saturday 1 February, Cloudy. 8°C
I thought we were done with bird spotting for a bit on Thursday but I’m learning this challenge has a tendency to surprise me. We’re heading into Cardiff for the day to meet friends and B suggests we see what birds we can find.
Me: I thought you were bored with birds?
B: No! You have to stop trying to plan Mummy, and just go with the flow more! That’s what nature’s like after all.
She’s more enthusiastic than she has been all week and the birds are out in force. On the walk to the station we find crows, pigeons, magpies, robins, blackbirds and possibly some other small ones too high up to distinguish. Once in Cardiff we have fun watching the seagulls which are generally sitting on things not designed for them and spot the first nest of the week by watching the magpie’s in the trees.
At lunch we debate what to do for the 334 picture. B writes something out on paper in preparation and we wonder if we can get it near to a bird. A few hundred metres on our way and we find the answer. Pigeons and a good feeding spot. We search our bags and find some cooked couscous leftover from B’s lunch. We make a little pile on the floor in a corner, add the number and wait about three seconds before a pigeon obligingly comes to investigate. I’m a bit worried we made a mess but it’s all gone very quickly.
Though we are now definitely going to move on to other challenges next week the effect of bird week lingers on. The next day B is seeing them everywhere. She spots the big baby seagull (almost fully white and black now) on the roof of the supermarket and laughs and points out a whole host of noisy sparrows in a hedge as we drive past. I’m hoping we keep tuned in. It makes mundane things so much more interesting.
