Our Garden Birds

[SueA]

That's lovely grindle, they're beautiful little birds aren't they. Rarely get them here now but did have a few visits from them years ago.

[seaburn]

they are lovely brids aren't they. A couple of years ago we had a solitary male bullfinch but from Oct on we have had a dominant pair and a submissive pair.
Yesterday we had a male black cap on the feeder and an hour later a female black cap [her cap is ginger!] no photos as they are never around when I have my camera to hand.

[grindle]

they do seem to be few and far between these days they are such stunning birds. I know what you mean seaburn I've never got a camera handy when I need it or they're too far away

[balc2]

I hadn't noticed this thread before today! The birds we get around here are mostly 3 kinds of pigeons; Wood pigeon, Collared Dove & the "flying rats" (that dirty the balcony so much & make it dangerous when its wet with their droppings!). We also get Crows & Rooks as well as the most common birds such as Sparrows, Starlings, Magpies which often come really close up to them balcony, occasionally I may see Robins but not near the balcony. We seldom see Song Thrushes or the other species with speckled breast, (I can't remember at this moment what they are called), any longer. I still see them occasionality but not with the frequency I used to see them.

Seagulls can be very common here, when the wind comes from the East especially. Some mornings they wake me up at 5am & it's seems like we are at the seaside! I can't identify them but there are at least 4 different species here at times - though seldom more than two at a time.

I can recognise other species of birds around this area but it is very rare to see them close to where we live.

[grindle]

Had some regular wood pigeons and collard doves here too, the weight of them keeps knocking the feeder to one side as the ground is so soft, I'm going to have to have a rethink, maybe some sort of wooden post to hang the feeders from

[SueA]

We've got a 'feeding station' to hang feeders off grindle which works well, it has a metal pole which goes quite deep into the ground & is very stable, wouldn't work of course if you want it on concrete/patio etc. 😊

[grindle]

I even bought the special 4 pronged attachment for it SueA thinking it would help, but I think the ground where it is is just too wet after all the rain, some of those pigeons are quite hefty too

[SueA]

We get those big fat wood pigeons too, O.H. sometimes looks out & says 'You could feed a family of four for a week off that one!' 😁

[geumgrower]

Very often those great big fat pigeons are suffering from Salmonella poisoning.

[Andrew]

As it's the annual RSBP Bird Watch weekend, just wondered how bird numbers in your gardens compare to previous winters? I'm finding very few smaller birds visiting my garden this winter. I often see a couple of robins and blackbirds, and there was a long tailed tit around, but not seen that for a couple of weeks. Not seen any blue tits, great tits etc though this winter. I am getting several magpies and pigeons, and a crow or two.

I don't know if it's connected, but the nearby school has cut down some of it's tree's and more than halved the width of the hedgerows last year, so wondering if that's why the bird count here is down this year, as less suitable nesting space for the smaller birds. Anyone else finding the number of visitors is down this year?

[seaburn]

I suspect your are correct in your theory Andrew.
Before Thursday we had lots of birds in and out of the garden. Come the weekend to do the count hardly anything in great numbers.

[grindle]

nothing much arrived yesterday, but it was a miserable day, the resident robin and a couple of collard doves and blackbird, normally there's plenty around but not yesterday

[Cherry]

I get very, very few small birds and I am now sure it is because they don’t like the rooks in the oak trees in the park at the back of my house. There are about 4 pigeons, but they are not even eating the fat balls.

[SueA]

We do still get various tits, sparrows, wren, dunnocks etc. but not so many as we used to & haven't seen the woodpecker or jay in the garden for probably a year. I think it's probably due to how many mature trees have been cut down around here too.

[balc2]

On Saturday as I was making my way home from town I walked up a narrow path that has a wild hedgerow all along one side. As I was walking along I suddenly saw a robin. Unfortunately it was very wary & flew away before I had time to get my phone out & take a photo of him. In less than a minute another one came along! It was even more wary & stayed on the bushes & didn't come on to the path were I was walking. Then a couple of minutes later I saw up to 3 more!!! I've never seen so many robins in such a short space of time or place! Obviously I can't be 100% sure they were 5 different individuals but they appeared from different directions making me think they probably were!