After 4 years here, this year got a Blackcap...the song is truly amazing (they are warblers) and I think the blackbirds and thrushes now have a new competitor! Also seen a bullfinch...what a lovely deep red colour against the new green of the trees.
I've seen a Goldcrest once in my garden - very cute. We also had a group of Long tail tits during winter but they seen to have dispersed now. We also get the usual blue and Great tits and lots of robins (they don't seem to be very territorial round here). I've also seen Great spoted woodpecker at my peanuts and a family of phesants walk through the garden sometimes. I've just invested in a new feeding station so I'm hoping for some interesting visitors - so far it just seems to have attracted a magpie... Never mind you can't chose who you get visiting!
Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Sparrow hawk, Long Tailed Tits, lots of Robins, Great Tit, Blue Tit. Plus hundreds of sparrows, lots of blackbirds and occasional raids by Starlings.
I've had goldfinches n a bull finch visit recently. My blackbirds fledged 2 days ago - now waiting for the blue tits to leave nest box. Saw first bat of the year on Mon - does that count as a 'rare' bird?!
A pair of nuthatches Are back and forth all day. They love the suet pieces, as do all the other birds that visit. At the moment, I also have 3 ducks ( a male and his harem) who visit regularly and sit under the feeder waiting for titbits to drop
No greenfinches for several years and no goldfinches here at all but we have had more chaffinches than previous years and the usual assorted blue, great and marsh tits, house and tree sparrows, assorted small brown jobs including warblers and dunnocks and wrens, robins, blackbirds, turtle doves, greater spotted woodpeckers and, recently, jays who come in the day time and not just at dawn.
We used to get magpies but, touch wood, not for the last couple of years although we get crows now and there's a pair of jackdaws trying to build their nest on our central heating boiler's chimney pot. There are moorhens and mallards and Egyptian and Canada geese and herons in the stream bordering our boggy paddock across the road. I am told there are snipe but haven't seen them. We get great egrets in winter and little egrets in summer and there are barn owls and buzzards in the woods across the paddock next door and we get occasional sparrowhawks swooping in.
Our main bird feeders are in the veggie plot behind the kitchen window but in winter I hang extra peanut and fat ball feeders along the edge of the terrace so I can see the birds from the sofa in the living room. This morning I have put out dried insects for the first time. It remains to be seen how long it will take before the birds spot them or if we get new visitors.
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)."
Well after resigning myself to the Magpie yesterday I've already got fed up with it today. It seemed one magpie managed to clear out nearly all the bird food I'd put out - so now I'm in battle with it. I've just tried to fashion some "magpie bafflers" out of some plastic bottles to stop it getting at the bird food. I'm just a bit worried that I've made them too inaccessable the little birds wont get to the seed either
In my garden I've seen a male Sparrowhawk, a pheasant, red legged partridges, a green woodpecker, I've heard nuthatches, green finches and great spotted woodpeckers nearby, and seen herons, buzzards and red kites overhead. Nothing rare, but nice to see. I still like the blackbirds, robins, wrens, collared doves, wood pigeons, sparrows and dunnocks, crows, magpies, rooks and so on.
I've also seen a vulcan bomber, the red arrows and two Lancaster bombers with a Spitfire and a Hurricane. The last ones were very noisy.
I love feeding the birds, sunflower hearts seem to do the trick for a lot of species but right now they are going crazy for dried mealworms (probably coz of chicks to feed). I am in NW England and I recently moved from the middle of a privately rented house in a council estate, where I had a tiny patio "garden". I still got lots of birds on my bird feeders, the highlight probably being 2x Grey Wagtail (well not on the feeders but scurrying around on the patio picking up leftovers).
After recently buying our first place (with a real garden with 4 actual trees - part of my criteria for the house and I'm so pleased to finally have some bird habitat!!), I get goldfinches, house sparrows, blue tits, 1 coal tit, great tits, collared doves, starlings (17 is my garden record so far - though they are right hooligans demolishing my neat feeding area within minutes), wood pigeon, wren, robin, greenfinch (only a couple of times) and my biggest "rarity" (for me) was a few weeks ago when a Blackcap was in one of the said trees, followed by Reed Bunting pair a few days later! So happy to have a garden now and I am finding that birds much prefer the feeders hung from tree branches than from the metal bird feeder station I was using previously in the old patio.
Posts
After 4 years here, this year got a Blackcap...the song is truly amazing (they are warblers) and I think the blackbirds and thrushes now have a new competitor! Also seen a bullfinch...what a lovely deep red colour against the new green of the trees.
I've seen a Goldcrest once in my garden - very cute. We also had a group of Long tail tits during winter but they seen to have dispersed now. We also get the usual blue and Great tits and lots of robins (they don't seem to be very territorial round here). I've also seen Great spoted woodpecker at my peanuts and a family of phesants walk through the garden sometimes. I've just invested in a new feeding station so I'm hoping for some interesting visitors - so far it just seems to have attracted a magpie... Never mind you can't chose who you get visiting!
Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Sparrow hawk, Long Tailed Tits, lots of Robins, Great Tit, Blue Tit. Plus hundreds of sparrows, lots of blackbirds and occasional raids by Starlings.
I've had goldfinches n a bull finch visit recently. My blackbirds fledged 2 days ago - now waiting for the blue tits to leave nest box. Saw first bat of the year on Mon - does that count as a 'rare' bird?!
We've got a mistle thrush family. We haven't had those about here for some years. Not seen a song thrush lately though
In the sticks near Peterborough
A pair of nuthatches Are back and forth all day. They love the suet pieces, as do all the other birds that visit. At the moment, I also have 3 ducks ( a male and his harem) who visit regularly and sit under the feeder waiting for titbits to drop
No greenfinches for several years and no goldfinches here at all but we have had more chaffinches than previous years and the usual assorted blue, great and marsh tits, house and tree sparrows, assorted small brown jobs including warblers and dunnocks and wrens, robins, blackbirds, turtle doves, greater spotted woodpeckers and, recently, jays who come in the day time and not just at dawn.
We used to get magpies but, touch wood, not for the last couple of years although we get crows now and there's a pair of jackdaws trying to build their nest on our central heating boiler's chimney pot. There are moorhens and mallards and Egyptian and Canada geese and herons in the stream bordering our boggy paddock across the road. I am told there are snipe but haven't seen them. We get great egrets in winter and little egrets in summer and there are barn owls and buzzards in the woods across the paddock next door and we get occasional sparrowhawks swooping in.
Our main bird feeders are in the veggie plot behind the kitchen window but in winter I hang extra peanut and fat ball feeders along the edge of the terrace so I can see the birds from the sofa in the living room. This morning I have put out dried insects for the first time. It remains to be seen how long it will take before the birds spot them or if we get new visitors.
Well after resigning myself to the Magpie yesterday I've already got fed up with it today. It seemed one magpie managed to clear out nearly all the bird food I'd put out - so now I'm in battle with it. I've just tried to fashion some "magpie bafflers" out of some plastic bottles to stop it getting at the bird food. I'm just a bit worried that I've made them too inaccessable the little birds wont get to the seed either
Any tips anyone?
In my garden I've seen a male Sparrowhawk, a pheasant, red legged partridges, a green woodpecker, I've heard nuthatches, green finches and great spotted woodpeckers nearby, and seen herons, buzzards and red kites overhead. Nothing rare, but nice to see. I still like the blackbirds, robins, wrens, collared doves, wood pigeons, sparrows and dunnocks, crows, magpies, rooks and so on.
I've also seen a vulcan bomber, the red arrows and two Lancaster bombers with a Spitfire and a Hurricane. The last ones were very noisy.
I love feeding the birds, sunflower hearts seem to do the trick for a lot of species but right now they are going crazy for dried mealworms (probably coz of chicks to feed). I am in NW England and I recently moved from the middle of a privately rented house in a council estate, where I had a tiny patio "garden". I still got lots of birds on my bird feeders, the highlight probably being 2x Grey Wagtail (well not on the feeders but scurrying around on the patio picking up leftovers).
After recently buying our first place (with a real garden with 4 actual trees - part of my criteria for the house and I'm so pleased to finally have some bird habitat!!), I get goldfinches, house sparrows, blue tits, 1 coal tit, great tits, collared doves, starlings (17 is my garden record so far - though they are right hooligans demolishing my neat feeding area within minutes), wood pigeon, wren, robin, greenfinch (only a couple of times) and my biggest "rarity" (for me) was a few weeks ago when a Blackcap was in one of the said trees, followed by Reed Bunting pair a few days later! So happy to have a garden now and I am finding that birds much prefer the feeders hung from tree branches than from the metal bird feeder station I was using previously in the old patio.