Kitchen Garden Forum

Just my annual reminder that the Garden Birdwatch is next weekend - 30-31 January.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

Since the snow has gone there seems to be very few birds in the garden at the moment. The same thing happened last year on the said weekend.

I've noticed that as well. I was wondering if despite my best efforts of feeding them and changing the water twice a day a significant number of my local population succumbed.

oldherbaceous wrote:Since the snow has gone there seems to be very few birds in the garden at the moment. The same thing happened last year on the said weekend.

We are forecast some snow here by the wekend (believe me or not ) so I may have a better than usual count.

Birds always seem to go into hiding around the time of the bird count.

I think there are less in the garden now as they are less reliant on us once the snow has disappeared.

Since I left work (YAY!!!) in November, I have had time to watch the birds which come to my small garden and unfortunately there aren't many. I used to think it was due to my beautiful cat, Tibby (even though she wasn't much of an outdoorsy type) but sadly, she died last summer. However, there are 11 cats in 3 neighbouring houses so I reckon that is the answer to my lack of bird visitors.
I took a stroll down to our local shop this morning and there were birds aplenty all along the avenue so I reckon my Big Garden Bird-watch will have to be from down the street as there are obviously lots of them in the immediate area.
Cheers.

The other week I mentioned a Wren Roost and watched about 20 Wrens entering a hole in one of the barns. I have not seen a Wren here since the severe cold so this morning I did an investigation and I very sadly have to report that I found 16 dead Wrens all huddled together.
I can tell you that as old as I may be I was damn near close to tears.
JB.

That is awful JB

How sad. JB. Let us hope that this spring is kind to the survivors and they breed lots of little wrenlets this year. Birds are very resilient, aren't they, and tend to compensate for losses quite quickly.

We had a wren working round the edge of our garden pond when it was all iced up but it did seem to find things to eat. Overall, the number of visiting birds seems to be ok, including some goldcrests, bramblings and the occasional reed bunting. The most obvious absentees are greenfinches and siskins and the best to watch is the great spotted woodpecker!

Dear Johnboy, what do you think caused the deaths, the cold or starvation?

I was saddened to read this.

Sometimes we are not quite as tough as we think we are!

Hello JB. Aw poor little wrens. They are so tiny, they probably succumbed to the cold despite snuggling together to conserve body heat. Maybe they hadn't been able to find enough food to sustain them. Whatever the cause, it's very sad. Nice to know there are some men around who are not afraid to show emotion about such things.
Cheers.

JB I am really sorry to hear this, they are beautiful little creatures. So sad that even huddled together they couldn't keep warm.

There always seem to be lots of wrens about in summer, but Johnboy's experience shows just how vulnerable small birds are - very sad. The wrens in my garden are still dashing about and they seem to like eating the spider cocoons round the windows and on the greenhouse. They also check a rotting tree stump I've left in too.

I've been surprised how many birds are still around as like others have said when the snow goes they usually vanish, especially for the Bird Watch weekend.

This week there are huge flocks of gold finches, a dozen or so chaffinches, even nine bullfinches this morning which is a record. The bird of the week is a tree creeper which has been several mornings running digging grubs out of the pear tree bark. I expect them all to have disappeared at the weekend though - until Monday.

As expected, half the usual number of birds this morning, none of the more exciting ones, two cats, a rat and a squirrel. Hope tomorrow is better.

Sadly when we had snow I ahad about a dozen long tailed tits at my birdfeeder, I haven't seen them since.