Tiny bird nests are little works of art I always think
The two male blackbirds here are going mad for apples, cheese and bits of suet feed as well as the ordinary mixes I put out. Really pleased to have them coming in now. The colder weather has got them hunting for easier pickings.The starlings seem to be going for the big home made suet feeder I made a while ago and don't go immediately for the food on the ground so it lets all the others get their fill. Seeing more blue and great tits regularly and dunnoc k here, yet my garden a few hundred yards away had loads every day - by far the commonest bird in the garden. I'd been away from the area for about four years -surely there hasn't been a huge decline in that time?
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Johannele - that's fascinating to get some insight into bird species from Finland. I'm assuming you'll be having the fieldfares and redwings coming back to you in the spring?
Sorry if im missing the point, ive seen a blackbird with lots of white in his plumage, so much, i thought it was a magpie at first! Ive also got a couple of sparrows in the garden with lots of white in their wing feathers, do you guys think i should report this, not sure who to though!
Ive also had a male kestrel hopping around the compost heap after the mice, what a beautiful bird!
Fishy My only one was on Skye on one of those rare sunny midsummer days that year when the rain wasn't horizontal - we saw so many birds that day - the weather had been bad and the raptors had chicks to feed so they were busy hunting - we saw too many buzzards to count and 5 sightings of golden eagles - although some of them may well have been the same bird - 5 different eagles in that area smacks of overcrowding!
Another day we went over to the Outer Hebrides and saw a Corncrake!!!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks for the comments about the blackbird guys, i was worried it might be something they were eating!
Thanks Dove, but the sparrows are definately sparrows, there is quite a big population of them in the garden, it looks like they live in the roof, im just hoping they dont do too much damage!
There has been a very swwet looking little wren hopping around here this morning
Fishy65: Last time I saw a big group of fieldfares was in December, in our rowans. Haven't seen them since so they might have left for the winter. But I think that some of them actually may stay here during winters, if there is enough food. The redwing is unfamiliar to me. They do breed here, but I have never seen any in the garden. (And big thanks to wiki for helping me out with all the english bird's names! )
Posts
Tiny bird nests are little works of art I always think
The two male blackbirds here are going mad for apples, cheese and bits of suet feed as well as the ordinary mixes I put out. Really pleased to have them coming in now. The colder weather has got them hunting for easier pickings.The starlings seem to be going for the big home made suet feeder I made a while ago and don't go immediately for the food on the ground so it lets all the others get their fill. Seeing more blue and great tits regularly and dunnoc k here, yet my garden a few hundred yards away had loads every day - by far the commonest bird in the garden. I'd been away from the area for about four years -surely there hasn't been a huge decline in that time?
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Some observations from my garden (in Finland): great tit, blue tit, yellowhammer, greenfinch and magpie. Not too exicting today.
Johannele - that's fascinating to get some insight into bird species from Finland. I'm assuming you'll be having the fieldfares and redwings coming back to you in the spring?
Thanks for contributing Johannele - that's wonderful
Rather than noting the birds in my garden today I'll report on the birds I saw as I drove through North Suffolk down to the coast at Southwold.
Pied wagtail
female kestrel
flocks of lapwing
common gulls
herring gulls
black headed gulls
turnstones
a flock of unidentified small-ish seabirds floating on the sea
crows
rooks
magpies
wood pigeons
collared doves
blackbirds
starlings
a large covey of French partridge
pheasants
house sparrows
tree sparrows
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ive also had a male kestrel hopping around the compost heap after the mice, what a beautiful bird!
Partial albinism in blackbirds is not that uncommon, in the grand scheme of things http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/funfactsandarticles/watchingbirds/identify/abnormal/albinism.aspx - but sometimes it does result in wrong identifications - I've heard of a blackbird with a lot of white feathers being mistaken for a ring ouzel.
A sparrow with white in its wing feathers is often a female chaffinch http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/c/chaffinch/
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The only Ring Ouzel I've ever seen Dove was in the 'Hidden Valley' in Glencoe
Fishy
My only one was on Skye on one of those rare sunny midsummer days that year when the rain wasn't horizontal - we saw so many birds that day - the weather had been bad and the raptors had chicks to feed so they were busy hunting - we saw too many buzzards to count and 5 sightings of golden eagles - although some of them may well have been the same bird - 5 different eagles in that area smacks of overcrowding!
Another day we went over to the Outer Hebrides and saw a Corncrake!!!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks for the comments about the blackbird guys, i was worried it might be something they were eating!
Thanks Dove, but the sparrows are definately sparrows, there is quite a big population of them in the garden, it looks like they live in the roof, im just hoping they dont do too much damage!
There has been a very swwet looking little wren hopping around here this morning
Fishy65: Last time I saw a big group of fieldfares was in December, in our rowans. Haven't seen them since so they might have left for the winter. But I think that some of them actually may stay here during winters, if there is enough food. The redwing is unfamiliar to me. They do breed here, but I have never seen any in the garden. (And big thanks to wiki for helping me out with all the english bird's names!
)