A crisp autumn morning

And a walk around my garden to get photos of visiting birds. I say that its autumn but the weather isn't agreeing. It has been warm and sunny for about a week here now. Even if you go outside with the garden birds, some of the tamer visitors will say a good morning to you. Especially the Robin in the photos below. Its nice to see these visitors in the morning and to hear their song. The Robin especially has a very distinctive song that is recognised by gardeners all over the UK. There is no match for the sight of a Robin sat on a favourite perch singing his/her heart out. These one was very friendly and sat on a fence post at the end of our garden while I took pictures.


This Robin took a bite to eat after I filled the bird feeders up. As always they are the first birds to return after I have filled up. I should get up early one day and watch the birds. I am sure that there are some rarer species visit at this time. I did do this once and I saw a Bullfinch feeding briefly. People have recommended the dawn chorus too but this I haven't done. I am sure that the Robin would be one of the features of this.

In this country the Robin is a very friendly bird that will happily feed near man. But on Wikipedia earlier I found that actually they are quite timid on the continent. You learn a new thing every day! Soon, I should get some more mealworms for the Robins to feed on. They love them and they are great for the juveniles. The only problem is that I am struggling to find a place to put them so that A) they don't get rained on and B) the larger birds don't take them all.

The Blue Tit is another bird I saw this morning. They are a bit more elusive than the Robin above, but will still quite happily take seed from the feeders while I am out. They are very active and although they are very common they can be difficult to photograph. I find that when the Blue Tits feed, other members of the tit family follow suit, as did the Great Tits this morning. They make a harsher noise than the Robins but its nice nonetheless. Around our area the Blue Tits fly around in flocks, flying from feeding station to feeding station.

Autumn "officially" starts in late September and finishes in November . I think this seems about right so far this year. The first leaf has fallen from our apricot tree and the apples in the apple tree are dropping to the ground too. The falling leaves are the stereotypical signs that autumn has begun. In previous years this has been quite inconsistent with poor summers and sunny autumns. But certainly in our garden autumn has begun!

The Blue Tit was very neat. They must have just finished moulting. It won't be too long before we start seeing some frantic pairing up and nest site investigation from these little birds. They won't look like this for too long!

I realise that I haven't really posted much about plants recently. I do have something lined up though. The birds have been spending a lot of time at our feeders recently so I thought I would focus on them a bit more. What is it like in your garden this autumn? I reckon that this part of the UK is a bit further ahead of Northern England and Scotland. Finally I will leave you with couple of the autumn pictures I took today. Enjoy!

Blue Tit and Robin photographs were taken in my garden on 27/09/08. Yellow leaf and rotting apple pics were taken on 28/09/08.