Kitchen Garden Forum

Walking round the garden yesterday I spotted this body of a bird lying on a branch of a Christmas tree. I think it had been there a while. I believe it is a Merlin, just over 10" long and weighing next to nothing. We see them from time to time flashing through the garden at what can only be described as breakneck speed and sadly that is what seems to have happened. Never seen one at rest and thought what a pretty little bird it is even in this sad state.

Geoff, I think wildlife has suffered losses this winter I was feeding a flock of long tailed tits this winter and sadly I haven't seen them since that hard cold spell.

Poor bird.

Very sad, how some people can think British birds look dull, i never will know!

At present I have two dead Badgers outside on the bank and neither of them appear to be road kills and in the half mile between house and top barn there are three dead Buzzards also without sign of any kind of damage. I suspect that these a all fatalities of the harsh weather this last winter. Here my weather station recorded 10C for the first time this year on Wednesday.
After finding the dead Wrens I have yet to see a live one. I know that the Tit population has fallen dramatically because of the consumption of nuts has dropped from filling the feeder every other day and now it is a weekly affair.
Long Tailed Tits were visiting in a group of about ten are now in a group of four.
To refer to Nature's Babe's previous posting with a pure White Pheasant we, just to be different, have a pure Black Pheasant visiting a present.
JB.

Morning Johnboy, my Mum has Wrens getting into one of her bedrooms, i was wondering if this was because of hunger and looking for spiders and the like!

It might have been weakened by the weather but it definitely had a broken neck. We started using fat balls for the first time this Winter and the Long Tailed Tits have loved them. They have usually been rare visitors but it has been quite a sight to see the ball disappear under a flock of 10 or 12 of them. I've never managed a photograph, must try harder. We still have a large Tit population including an occasional Marsh Tit. Some Blue Tits have even been inspecting my new boxes. We don't get many Wrens but I have seen one a couple of times in the last week. It is definitely Spring with lots of activity from Curlews and the ponds are alive with Frogs, I've even seen the neighbours gardening.

Johnboy if we could mate them maybe we would get some magpie pheasants, smiles.

Morning everyone. It certainly is a Merlin, Geoff. Aren't they beautiful? Such a shame.

I had been worrying about the two wrens which regularly foraged in my small garden, as I hadn't seen or heard them for weeks, then this week, they both appeared. I heard them before I saw them as they were scolding a cat sat on the fence...and boy were they giving that cat Hell!! The cat finally gave in and skedaddled and the wrens just went about their business. I watched them for ages and was delighted when a pair of house sparrows dropped in too.....I don't see many of those either these days. (we live in a council estate with all houses having UPVC fascias and soffits) Then another male sparrow came down and showed interest in the female, causing a right rumpus...what a scrap those two house sparrows had! It went on for several minutes and they both looked exhausted afterwards. Meanwhile, the female had flown off, seemingly bored by the goings on of the two males.
There have been two pairs of blackbirds coming into the garden every day, even during the harsh weather, but now one of the pairs have staked their claim and are chasing off the other two.
Such entertainment and it's all free!

cheers.

Such entertainment and it's all free!

Dear Elaine, such wise words from such a young person, and how i agree with you.

What a shame about the merlin, Geoff. If you say it had a broken neck, it sounds as if it flew into a window at great speed, like sparrowhawks tend to do. I hope it wasn't killed by one of the queen's keepers, in your area!?

Monika wrote:What a shame about the merlin, Geoff. If you say it had a broken neck, it sounds as if it flew into a window at great speed, like sparrowhawks tend to do. I hope it wasn't killed by one of the queen's keepers, in your area!?

At the school where I used to work our hall was higher than the surrounding classrooms and we once found a barn owl dead in one of the quads. It seemed it hadn't noticed that the building was higher in the middle and flown into it. IT too seemed to have a broken neck - it was really upsetting.

Dear OH......you are such a charmer!!!