So Feathers have been open for a year, time shoots past when you’re having fun and fun has been the name of the game. We have had such a wonderful twelve months, the shop has been much more successful than we dare dreamed it could be, the Nature Area has been simply phenomenal, I have kept my stunning good looks, our customer base, (both regular and new) makes working at Feathers a pure joy - I would do it for nothing *don’t tell Joe*.

We now have almost 400 customers receiving the newsletter, most inform me that the instructive, constructive, intelligent, informative, unmissable, highly perusable newsletter makes ideal reading while lying in bed with your first cup of tea (that is of course Joe’s bit) - most think my contribution is a load of dribble.

April and May has been a quiet period for the shop as our garden birds manage very well on the abundance of natural food available to them, this gave Joe the opportunity to get some of the more boring things done, cleaning all our feeders, tidying up our little store area, getting married, sorting out the ever present tax man/woman, re-arranging the shop to accommodate our ever expanding stock, plus it gave me the opportunity to top up my tan.

Now is the time to ensure your feeders are kept topped up, thousands of new families will be relying on your feeders to help them get through the most stressful period of their lives, apart from the usual predation, which we can’t do much about - Window Alerts can help stop the high numbers of young birds that crash into our windows.

Last Easter Monday 25th April we opened Feathers from 10am - 4pm and in that time I did not get one single customer so we decided not to open on the 2nd of May (Bank holiday Monday). The following week we received complaints saying customers came to the shop but annoyingly it was closed. So this coming Monday 30th May I shall be in the shop waiting in anticipation for you, even just social visits will be Ok from 10am - 4pm. Be there or be square.

Last week a very rare, unusual photo was taken in our Nature Area, it is me WORKING, now for many I expect you will be thinking this is a deliberately posed shot, well I can assure you IT IS NOT. I spent quite a few minutes toiling away with the strimmer - agreed, a bit of a rest in the hide with a cuppa afterwards was my reward for the huge effort I contribute periodically in helping make Feathers as successful as it is.

Last year we didn’t have any Swallows nesting around the shop, hopefully a pair are considering using one of the storage rooms next door. This male spends some time sitting on the wire and singing his heart out.

I look forward to seeing you this coming Monday.

Allan

Birds of a Feather

Apparently nobody told the birds it was our anniversary as this is our first month since opening that we haven't had a new species! None-the-less it's still been an interesting month, with the ever majestic Swifts returning again to nest in the Church. From their first flight, young Swifts are seemingly ignored by their parents yet will join thousands of others to make their way back to Africa in August. This strenuous journey will be made without stopping as swifts spend 95% of their life on the wing, even sleeping while flying, and often incurs huge detours to avoid heavy rain.

The Swift is of course only one of around 50 different species (around 16 million birds) which migrate to Britain for the summer, many species arrive in huge numbers but some are ever decreasing. In the past 40 years, numbers of Spotted Flycatchers have declined by around 85%, so it goes without saying we were absolutely thrilled when this wonderful bird arrived to potentially nest at Feathers for another year. You now have a good chance of spotting the Spotted in or around the Nature Area, flying from a conspicuous perch to catch insects before returning to the same place.

May is also the month for the first fledglings to appear. Blackbirds, Dunnocks and Robins get things started, some even appearing in late April, followed by Sparrows, Starlings and the finches with Tits only beginning to appear now. The feeders outside the shop and in the Nature Area have shown a huge increase in activity plus comments from customers seem to be suggesting the same, a welcome change from what seemed to be a very, very quiet April. We seem to have 'acquired' around 50 Starlings who, between them, manage to demolish up to 3 suet cakes and 7 fat balls a day. Expensive to say the least but there's no denying they're great fun to watch! The Siskins, who never seem to have left the area, were evidently breeding nearby as around 5 young were brought in by the parents. Allan managed to grab this super picture of Daddy feeding a fledgling.

Moving away from birds briefly, I'd just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who sent their best wishes or even brought in pressies for the wedding! It was an absolutely perfect day though I can't take any credit for it at all, my now wonderful wife did all of the hard work and it paid off so a massive thank you to Charlotte! Last but not least another big thanks to David and Yvonne who came in to look after the shop on the day, they did a wonderful job and left feeling dead chuffed with their £2 an hour and a 6 pack of fat balls (each!).

Joe