Kitchen Garden Forum

I can't remember an autumn when we've seen so few small birds in our garden despite putting daily food out for them. The chaffinches, greenfinches and blackbirds all seem to have virtually disappeared. Maybe there are still plenty of berries and seeds for them out in the hedgerows but our daily visitors now seem to consist mainly of wood pigeons and magpies. and the even present robins.

We are getting a reasonable amount of birds although one day was particularly quiet as we had a sparrowhawk drying itself out in one of our trees. It was sitting there ages with its wings spread out blowing in the wind. Previously it had been sitting on the greenhouse in the pouring rain

A video of it is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFir2_1y8e0

Not one of our best videos as it was zoomed in and tended to focus on the tree branches etc,

We get lots of sparrows that wait in a queue to go into the bird bath. The blackbirds have been around as usual as have the blue, great and coal tits, robins, dunnocks, wood pigeons and collared doves. These make up the majority of the our bird visitors. Not too many sightings of the greenfinches though. It's starling numbers that seem to be dropping for us - we have hardly seen any about for almost a year now.

Hi Glallotments,
Good footage! Suspect a first year female. Show of downy feathers sitting in the apple tree. Certainly a little bedraggled and tail feathers not preened as usual. It has got absolutely soaked at one point and has not sufficient ken as to how to proceed. This is typical of a young bird.
As for the birds at my place. They are eating a whole wire container of peanuts every other. The Greenfinches have increased and there are also two pairs of GS Woodpeckers that argue over feeding protocol.
Blue, Great, Long Tailed and Coal Tits with Sparrows and the Dunnocks hoovering up all the bits on the ground. There are literally hundreds of Fieldfare in the orchard and the Redwing still about up and down the hedgerows. Two pairs of Mistle Thrushes with several pairs of Song Thrushes and the same with Blackbirds and the Robins are always arguing.
A pair of Bullfinches yesterday and Goldfinches and Linnets always flying overhead. A pair of Pied Wagtails are always after flies on the lawns.
In all quite a rosy picture from here.
JB.

You are lucky to have so much variety. We are kept busy filling feeders too.

I thought the sparrowhawk was juvenile as I noticed some white feathering and guessed that was a sign.

It did fly off apparently dried out but I'm not surprised it was drenched as it just sat on the greenhouse in the pouring rain.

Hi Glallotments,
Sadly young birds like this are not in receipt of the full shilling and generally they will die quite quickly. They simply do not know how to care for themselves properly.
What I failed to mention in my previous posting is the total lack of Chaffinches this year. By now we normally have several pairs but to date none.
JB.

Hi Glallotments. That was brilliant! I really enjoyed that Beautiful birds, Sparrowhawks.

I had wondered why we were missing the garden birds recently...we don't get a huge variety, only the usual.... house sparrow, starling, chaffinch, dunnock, wren, robin and blackbird, blue and great tit, occasional goldfinch and linnet and a real treat for me, a party of long tailed tits.

Our back garden runs alongside the public footpath, ours being the second one in. Last Sunday, I was walking the footpath on my way home, when something whooshed past my face, so close I felt the draught from its wings! Once I recovered from the surprise I searched for the culprit and there on our fence, was a beautiful sparrowhawk! It flew up onto the roof opposite and sat there for a long time surveying the gardens below it, totally ignoring a magpie which was scolding it from a safe distance. It finally flew off when three black headed gulls started dive bombing it.

I was really pleased to see this lovely bird and it certainly explains the absence of "the regulars"! I have seen it a couple of times since, so it must have moved into the area but I do miss my little regulars.

Cheers.

We've stopped feeding because of regular visits by the sparrowhawk, but there's plenty of food in the hedgerows, and as long as we don't start feeding again they won't miss it.
Jonboy - we have tree sparrows - no house sparrows! They nest in boxes all round our house. My husband is a keen bird watcher like you and has tenaments of boxes, which they seem to thrive in.

Hi Jane,
Tree Sparrows are now becoming quite rare and although I do manage to see a few pairs, generally in the Spring, they do not stay with me.
Glad to hear of your husbands keen interest.
After an absence of about 15 years the House Sparrows returned a couple of years ago and now there are many pairs around. What we lack are Starlings. The progeny of the season gather and fly around in flocks of a couple of hundred and land on my lawns and I suspect are feed on Leather Jackets. They stay around for a few weeks then disappear. We get no nesting birds at all.
The bird of the time at present is the Fieldfare with literally hundreds visiting the orchard daily.
JB.

We have a couple of sparrow terraces in our garden but the problem is that blue tits and great tits take them over and ignore the boxes meant for them.

I have always read that the tit family won't nest in th terraces as there are too many holes close together and also that they prefer smaller holes. Maybe our birds haven't read the same books that I have.

It's starlings that we are short of too.

I haven't actually seen our sparrowhawk take birds from our garden (may have on the sly) but our bird feeders/tables etc are close to places that the birds can go and hide in. I know it's not a pretty thought but they have to eat too - it's the nature of things so I don't let it put me off feeding the birds. It's when I see a well fed cat stalking birds that I get cross! (Sorry cat lovers!)

We have had a sparrow terrace in the garden for several years, too, glallotments, and it's always blue tits which take over the central box. I don't think it's by chance - the middle box must be beautifully insulated by the two side boxes. One year we also had a wasps' nest in a box!

As for visiting garden birds at the moment - following an "invasion" of feral pigeons last autumn (they nest under a quarry railway bridge about half a mile away) we are only putting out fat feeders this winter because the pigeons just took over all the other feeders. So, on the fat feeders there are all the usual crowd of blue, great, coal and the occasional flock of long-tailed tits, also robin, house sparrow and chaffinches (hanging on for grim life), a regular female great spotted woodpecker and, below, picking up the bits, wrens and dunnocks. Whne the weather gets colder and the food on the moor runs out, we usually also get reed buntings. Oh, and lots of blackbirds, occasional redwing and fieldfare and, yes, sparrowhawk!

Hi Monika,
Last year our blue tit took over one of the ends but it is fairly near to our magnolia and the bird had a good place to rest and look around before heading in. This box is also on the side of the house so preseumably has some protection from the house wall. It also faces east and so warms up in the morning and is sheltered from most prevailing winds.

The other is on a fence but again has good access. What is surprising though is that it is quite close to very active feeders.

We have noticed no shortage this year. October was fairly quiet, apart from the usual hundreds of resident house sparrows. For some weeks now we have had a return of the itinerant starlings, chaffinches and blackbirds have returned in some numbers, robins and dunnocks are more obvious than they were; we also have blue tits, coal tits and great tits, wrens, wagtails and the ever present jackdaws, rooks and crows and our two tame herring gulls. The latest arrival is a (presumably juvenile) buzzard which comes every day to perch in the trees on on a fencepost, regularly swooping down to eat a worm, or, if it's lucky, a vole. Doesn't seem to worry the chickens and ducks in the slightest.

I was watching two goldcrest working through a bird cherry opposite our house this morning. They are always on the move, not still for a second and 'tseeping' away all along.
Last week we had a mixed flock of tits in the garden, including at least 10 long-tailed tits, lovely to watch.

We live near woodland and sometimes we get woodpeckers very early morning before most people are up, they are quite shy, we have had both the green and greater spotted. I have also seen a little owl in our lane, they are the only owl that hunts in daytime, at night we hear mostly tawny owls, there are screech owls too. In winter I love to see the tiny goldfinch, and leave seedheads in the garden for them, they brighten dull days.

Chaffinches arrived in an unusually large number and are flocking rather than individual birds. The Tawny Owls have been very active in the last couple of weeks and suggest that it is a pairing period.
Having not seen any Tree Sparrows for a considerable time was delighted to have a group of 8 yesterday morning. These were also noted about three quarters of a mile away the previous day.
Greeted by total silence yesterday morning and then saw the Sparrow Hawk sitting on one of the power line posts.
Sunday morning was the best. A shoot on the estate behind me on Saturday had sent me about 50 Pheasants on the lawn and many more down the plot and when I ventured out there were three immature stags hiding behind one of the conifers who were off like the wind and all cleared a five foot high wall with total ease. When I went into the green lane alongside my plot I clear off some Muntjac Deer as well. These cannot get into the plot as they cannot jump high enough.
JB.