As I post this, our garden is covered in snow. My school has been closed both yesterday and today. I actually took the photos for this post on Sunday. I would have posted this then but I lost my USB camera cable. Luckily I have found it now and can view my pictures properly. I think it is important that we put out bird food - especially fat products out at this time of year to make sure the birds get all the energy they need to survive the cold.
As well as seeing some of the more familiar birds in our garden I am also starting to see some birds return to our garden in this cold weather. The Blackbird, surprisingly hasn't been as frequent as usual over the last couple of months, although they are now visiting our garden all the time. They mostly like the fat products I put out for them, and the one in the picture below is right next to the fat block. I hope to see them more and more in the future.
Some of the people who have commented on my Big Garden Birdwatch have mentioned my sighting of the Song Thrush. I am happy to say that it has returned and I saw it again today. They don't seem to like the bird table as much as the Blackbirds, but seem to pick up fallen seeds from the feeders. They are definitely ground feeding birds and are also turning over leaves to look for insects at the end of our garden.
The Greenfinch returned just in time for the Big Garden Birdwatch too, and has been visiting more frequently recently. I saw 3 of them together on Sunday and the one in the picture below is just one of them. They like the sunflower hearts more than the seed mixes, so I am putting both seeds out at the moment. As soon as the sunflower hearts are gone, they disappear from the garden. The Goldfinches and Chaffinches are visiting frequently as usual. We seem to have a very brightly coloured male chaffinch in the garden at the moment, nearly in its breeding plumage.
I wonder if the Blue Tit in the photo below is the same one which has been visiting our camera nestbox. Looking back at the videos, I must say that they look very similar, especially the colouring. I have another Blue Tit nestbox visit to post about soon. The frequent visits are very promising for the nesting season ahead. I am not sure if both the male and female Blue Tits have visited yet, or if there is only one taking a look around. There certainly hasn't been 2 in the box at the same time yet. I will keep my eyes peeled
6 comments:
I have never tried feeding worms to the birds. Everyone says they love them so. I might try it this year to see what happens. Great shots.
Great photos Joe. Hope to see some of the nest box cam images in the not too distant future.
Interesting what you're saying about the song thrush... one of our's as we have a few comes and feeds off the table every day... they're such beautiful birds... photo of this on my blog..
Hi again Joe :-)
It's great to hear about the success of your feeder layout and foods. Funnily enough, like Miranda, I too have had song thrushes take food from a bird table and mine is the roof type too! This was not my recent visitor but a couple that came a while back. But I agree, you are more likely to see them on the ground :-D
Ah... the blue tit ID's in the nextbox. That is a challenge. Take snapshots with your camera if you can showing the side profile of the head - that works for me. I need to get some myself as we have visitors and roosters in ours with and without the camera! Another fun year ahead - I'm sure you will be fascinated with yours :-D
Oh yes... the plant challenge answering/leaving comments did take some time... it was great fun though :-D
Hi Lisa, Andrew, Miranda and Shirl:
Lisa- Ah the worms. They are fantastic for our garden birds. This is our second year of feeding them. If you are not keen on the live food, then you can always buy dried mealworms. These have slightly less "goodness" in them but are much more practical.
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Andrew- Thanks for the comment. Glad to hear you liked the photos. I am beginning to learn more about bird photography, but, of course it is difficult with my 10x optical zoom camera to get close-ups. The Greenfinch is a bird I have never photographed properly, so I was happy to get that snap. I hope you will enjoy my next camera nestbox posting.
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Miranda- Interesting to hear you are getting Song Thrushes visiting at the moment. They are becoming quite frequent in our garden now. I have seen your thrush story on your blog too by the way :-)
They are not often a bird which you associate with bird tables, but they are certainly breaking that trend at the moment.
Thanks again
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Shirl- Thank you! Sometimes you just have to experiment with feeder positions. I have found that the mealworm bowl isn't fully protected from the rain, so I think I must try to sort this out. I loved your Thrush photos by the way. I should try putting out sultanas too.
Hmm... I think I will have to get better with the ID of the Blue Tits. I have a feeling that it is the same bird. It would be nice to make sure though:-)
Yes, as this will be my first camera nestbox year, it will be that bit more fascinating
I wanted to thank you for stopping and leaving a comment on my birds blog.
I also wanted to say that your bird collection is quite different from mine. I think the only birds we have in common are your House Sparrow and Starling. There might be others.
Your robins are very small and colored different from those that we have here. And most of our birds are different.
I like your blog and think you are doing a great job. Since you are talking about bird feeders and placement I will say that I think I have tried everything over the past half century and only feed shelled sunflower seed, we call "chips", plus shelled, raw peanuts and suet. I have no waste and nothing to spoil or clean up.
But that is another story for another visit another day.
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