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Where Have All the Birds Gone?

VoyagerxpVoyagerxp Posts: 651
in Wildlife gardening
Is it just me or have birds gone, i mean for the last month or so i've had no birds on my feeders. i've not even heard much tweeting from the trees and bushes in my garden and surroundings. The only birds i seem to have in my garden are pigeons which are a pain lol.
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Posts

  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
    I find it all goes quiet when the sparrow hawk is about.  :/
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Many birds go quiet once the breeding and chick rearing fest is over and in August the adults moult their feathers so keep quiet to avoid being easy pickings for predators.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Uncle MortUncle Mort Posts: 77
    Bugger, I have just gone and purchased a new seed feeder and filled it with premium seed feed.

    No takers whatsoever today  :/
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    They'll come.  The new youngsters will want feeding and the moult doesn't last forever.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Certainly the swifts and swallows have gone from my area. But I have noticed that in previous years. We have a lot in early summer and then they move away.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    The adults go back to Africa.  The youngsters follow a bit later on.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Mark56Mark56 Posts: 1,653
    edited August 2018
    Yes, it is the annual moult, they’ll look disheveled and need shallow water to wash in. I’ve seen the blackbirds re-appear
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    It's not quiet here! The garden is full of wings and there are far more round the feeders than I get on birdwatch day!
    I fill the seed feeder in the morning and it's empty by early afternoon. They've all introduced their babies to the feeding station, baby woodpecker is here every day stuffing him/herself on peanuts and fat balls, so fat it looks fit to burst, while poor thin overworked parents get a look in whenever they can. There are dozens of finches of various ilks, and all their babies, and great tits and bluetits likewise, and some robins lurking in the shadow of the cotoneaster. The stock doves and the odd pheasant drop in from time to time and Mrs Mallard brings her 7 ducklings, that she has reared all on her own, without losing a single one, the clever thing.
    The blackbirds come over occasionally, but they are busy helping tidy up the blackberries, now that the gooseberries have gone (they were only the size of raisins, so I didn't bother picking them!)and the last blackcurrants. Thousands of elderberries coming up soon...
    The birds sang when it started raining and I felt like it too :)
  • Valley GardenerValley Gardener Posts: 2,851
    What a lovely post @Buttercupdays,I really enjoyed reading that,and I'm so glad all your feathered visitors are ok,I did think that we weren't seeing the blackbirds as there are so many blackberries about now.No one can reach them,so there are loads here.
    The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    "The adults go back to Africa. "

    I see lots of swallows and swifts over parkland, just not over my house later in summer.

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