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The last couple of weeks of my university term have been very hectic to say the least, hence the lack of activity on this blog in this time. I've had 4 or 5 deadlines to meet, as well as a couple of other bits and pieces to do. I have to say that I'm more than relieved to finally be at home for the Easter break. I've been back for a couple of days now and I'm settled back into the ways of living at home where I'll be for the next month.

The weather since I've been back has been bitterly cold- particularly today. The garden has been covered with a layer of snow which hasn't disappeared in many places just because it hasn't been warm enough to thaw it all. Ever since I filled the feeders up yesterday, the garden bird activity has been pretty frantic. Since I've been back, a female Bullfinch and a Siskin have both been seen in the garden. The latter is a bird we've only seen once in the garden previously, and that was about 3 or 4 years ago, so seeing that was quite a surprise, especially as I was in the garden doing a few jobs when it visited. A Coal Tit pair have also been visiting the garden quite a bit over the last couple of days which has been good to see. 

Below are some of the dreadful photos I managed in the short time I spent outside with my camera before my hands were nearly frozen and I decided to head back inside again.

Obviously at uni, as I'm in halls, there's no garden to keep track of, so It's been good to catch up with the garden back home again. Hopefully should be getting back into the swing of things as far as blogging is concerned, and will get round to reading other blogs over the next day or two. Until next time though, wrap up warm and lets hope Spring arrives at all this year. 

Norfolk birds

So, here I am posting about our family holiday to Norfolk which I have just come home from. We stayed in a nice cottage in northern Norfolk (rather near where Springwatch is currently being filmed at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve this week). The variety of wildlife seen around the garden and grounds of the cottage was amazing. I think I will share my Norfolk wildlife and plant sightings over at least 2 posts. The grounds of the cottage were amazing. My favourite part of the grounds was the small lake pictured below.

Pretty much as soon as we went into the back garden of the cottage for the first time, we saw Blue Tits were nesting in a small hole in a wall. The adults were seen flying in and out of the hole with insects all the time and it was difficult to follow. This activity was constant until later on in the week when the Blue Tits stopped feeding the young. We think that they must have fledged, although we have not seen any fledglings around. Of course it is possible that the nest was predated but the hole was too small for anything large to get in and take the young. The picture below shows the hole.

Also nesting nearby, but in the grounds of the cottage rather than the back garden were Goldcrests. In a conifer tree, a pair of Goldcrests were rearing young in a tiny nest on the end of the branch. The young looked very close to fledgling when I saw them on the first day of the holiday. It looked like there were 2 or 3 chicks crowded inside the nest. One of them decided to exercise his/her wings outside the nest, before returning to the nest cup. I just managed to get a picture before it hopped back inside the nest, which is seen in the top left image of the photo montage below. The nest was empty the next day so I am assuming they have fledged.

Other fledglings that were seen around were Great Tit (main picture in montage) and Coal Tit (bottom left photo in montage).

Also nesting in the garden of the cottage were Blackbirds who had built a nest high up in a shrub. Unfortunately, while the male was around, it only appeared to be the female who was feeding the chicks. Nevertheless, the female came in frequently with mouthfulls of insects.

The first picture below is of the female perched on the garden wall about to fly into the nest. The second photo is of the nest, which I managed to take a quickly and quietly. If you look carefully, you should be able to see the beaks of a couple of chicks. Maybe they will fledge next week. The photos were taken this morning before we left.

A flock of 15-20 Long-tailed Tits visited the garden twice and were very entertaining. They always look busy and never seem to stop. These little birds were flitting around the branches of a tree in the garden. I love the way they follow each other around. The biggest flock we have seen in our garden at home was made up of around 10 or 11 birds, so I was impressed to see such large numbers in Norfolk. I got a few photos of the tiny birds in action.

In the lake in the grounds of the cottage were Mute Swan cygnets and Egyptian Goose goslings. The cygnets were very closely watched by the adults and any threats to the cygnets were scared away very quickly. Also on the lake were Tufted Ducks and Mallards. The Egyptian Geese were often seen sat on the edge of the lake in the sun. The goslings were still quite small and were seen huddled together looking like a pile of feathers.

My highlight bird-wise in the grounds has to be the Barn and Tawny Owls that were seen flying around in the evening. A few evenings during the week, we walked to the barn near the lake to watch the Barn Owls. I think the Barn Owl must be roosting in the barn at the moment. We have seen it come out of the barn in the evening to hunt over the surrounding fields. I don't think they have young yet as they didn't return to the barn with any food.

Barn Owls are such incredible creatures and it was fantastic to see such good views of them as they hunted silently in the dark. We only saw the Tawny Owl once, but heard it much more often. They could well be roosting or nesting nearby too. Also seen near the barn were bats in large numbers. We also saw a Treecreeper one evening just as it was going dark on a tree near the barn.

Away from the cottage, we saw plenty of other birds. National Trust properties often have gardens that are fantastic for birds. We went to Felbrigg Hall, a National Trust property near the cottage. Click here for the link to the website. As I was looking around the gardens, I came across a House Sparrow terrace nestbox in use by a Great Tit. It was seen bringing food into one of the holes.

A Chaffinch was seen singing on a tree.

And Jackdaws were seen at another NT property, Blickling Hall. Click here for more information on the property.

Many other birds were seen on various walks throughout the week. On the beach near a town called Sheringham, Little Tern were seen at the shore. I had to check the bird book to make sure they weren't Common or Sandwich Tern. They certainly were little and were struggling to fly against the wind. Just slightly further along the coast near some cliffs, I saw a species of pipit. This bird, I was unable to identify even with the bird book. I am guessing it was either a Rock Pipit, or more likely due to its brighter outer tail feathers, a Meadow Pipit.

Also seen in Sheringham were Starling:

And finally, on a sunny walk in the countryside, a female sparrow on the roof of a house. It's great to see the declining House Sparrow in its well-known habitat.


Other bird highlights were: Nuthatch, Marsh Harrier (seen at Blakeney Point), Reed Bunting, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipit, Yellowhammer, Chiffchaff, Cuckoo and Great Spotted Woodpecker. Blimey, isn't it amazing what you can see in a week!

Finally this posting comes to an end. I did chatter a bit didn't I?

Sunday birdless gardenwatch

Firstly I would like to say that I did realise that it isn't Sunday today... just! I would also like to say that I am exaggerating a little when I say that the garden was birdless. So actually the title for this post is a little misleading-never mind! There were a few around but the feeders weren't exactly filled with birds. I am happy to say that our main feeder has been half-emptied today. Just my luck that its Monday, I missed the action while I was at school and it was nearly dark by the time I had got home. Nevertheless I saw enough yesterday to post about and enjoyed going outside to look for the birds for a change.

So, why were our feeders quieter yesterday. As Shirl correctly mentioned in her wildlife blog, it is probably due to the more mild weather we had then. Today, it was absoloutely freezing, and low feeder levels matched this dip in temperature. Tiny Coal Tits were a feature in our garden yesterday. I talked about these last week too but I must say that I couldn't resist talking of them again. Blue Tits and Great Tits were also present in numbers but the Coal Tit is a bird that is a bit rarer and more fun to photo.

The Dunnock is a bird that will visit when every other bird isn't around. In fact, I think they prefer visiting the quiet feeders. There were 4 of them at the end of our garden and they flit in and out of cover. They are quite shy, but as long as you are careful, they allow you to go nearer to them. I find that they tend to prefer the seed mixture that we have in one of the feeders and the bird table.

There weren't many of the usual dominant Greenfinches or Chaffinches, so it gave an opportunity for the smaller birds to come in and feed. The Dunnocks don't tend to feed on the fat feeders but some of the others have been very busy feeding. Coal Tits, Blue Tits and Robins have been taking food from them. In the winter I find that it is important to provide some high-calorie foods that will help the birds keep their energy levels up through the cold winter months.

Its interesting to see what has been going on in Shirl's garden. The chaffinches she saw yesterday weren't in our garden in such large numbers but I'd love to see them in our garden this weekend. Although our feeders were quiet yesterday, the Jay has visited again. Every time it comes, it gets closer to our bird table. Fingers crossed that I will see it again soon. The Blackbirds aren't really feeding on our lawn as much as last year but there are definately more of them around. They have been in numbers in bushes either side of our garden.

All photos taken in my garden on 9/11/08

Saturday morning birdwatch

This morning, I took the time to go out and try to film and watch some of our garden birds. It probably won't just be this morning either. With Shirl at Shirls Gardenwatch, we planned to do a weekly posting each on the birds visiting the garden either during that week or just on the morning of the post. They shouldn't be long posts, but a light read for the weekend. Please forgive me if mine does end up being long! I do love to watch the birds at weekend mornings, and then come inside to some breakfast. I will be sitting inside my "birdwatch hut" most Saturday mornings which I have previously talked about to watch them.

I find that in my garden, between 8:00 and 9:00 is when the birds mostly come in to feed. So, I went out at about 8:30 and set up my camera in our office building, looking out onto the feeders. I had my camera resting on something, which isn't ideal. I would like to get a tripod soon so that the footage is smoother. I was quite happy with the outcome this morning however, and I caught quite a few birds on film. I edited the videos as little as I could because I didn't want to lose any quality, which is why the clips are quite long. They took an age to upload!

Possibly one of my favourite garden birds is the Coal Tit. They are so hard to film though because they are so quick. They visited several times throughout the morning with the Blue Tits. In the videos below, notice how quick the Blue Tits and Coal Tits visit compared with the Greenfinches. In the first video below you will notice a Chaffinch in the background. They are a bit more brief than the Greenfinches, and are more reluctant to come in and feed. The Greenfinches struggle to get inside the cage feeder as the holes are quite small. This means that some of the smaller birds use it more.


The next video, below is mostly of the Blue and Coal Tits. At the end of the clip, you will see a Greenfinch scaring off a poor Coal Tit. They are much more dominant and are larger too, so they get top spot on the feeders. The Blue Tit seems to be struggling to think of the best way to get into the feeder, and takes longer than usual at the feeder. In the bottom video, most of the birds are finches. The female Chaffinch stays before being scared off by something.



Throughout the week, the bird feeders have been busy and I have definately enjoyed watching them. Another tiny bird, the Wren has been visiting recently. They aren't seed-eaters, so they must be finding insects in our trees at the end. Also recently there have been a few visits from a Great Spotted Woodpecker, but they don't stay long and are quite secretive too. Also, as soon as I had finished filming the clips above, I saw the return of the Starlings on our roof. Lots of action here at the moment, so hopefully these birds return during the week ready for next Saturday.

So there you are... some of our garden birds. Hope you enjoy Shirl's post too. I was going to just say that if you wanted to join in to this weekly or fortnightly posting about birds, please do and let me know. Its great fun, and certainly gets me out of bed in the mornings!
All videos taken in my garden on 18-10-08.

Garden birds update

Its almost like a circus outside at the moment with the birds. We are getting large flocks of tits, especially Blue and Long-tailed. Yesterday, there were 7 Long-tailed tits, and 6 Blue Tits, along with 4 Greenfinches, 2 Goldfinches, 4 Chaffinches, 1 Goldcrest, 2 Great Tits, 2 Coal Tits, 2 Dunnocks, 2 Robins, and of course the usual pigeons, doves and magpies. They seem to fly from feeding station to feeding station, eating as much as they can. I think most of our birds have finished their moulting for the year, and the feeders are needing constant refills. I would really like to get a picture of the tiny visiting Goldcrest, but because the are so small, it means I have to try and get close to them. So I decided to stick to the more common birds this time! Fat is the best food to attract Long-tailed tits, and the one below is enjoying some of our fat block.

The quality of the video isn't as good as normal because it is taken through glass, and it was raining outside.

The Goldcrest that is visiting occaisionally at the moment is very shy and its difficult to get close up to them. They don't take food from the feeding stations, but they seem to like the conifer tree at the end of our garden. Its amazing to think how small the nest of this bird will be. I looked the Goldcrest up in a bird book, and it does say that they are likely to nest in conifer trees. Fingers crossed that we get them nesting in our garden. Talking of nests, I was planning to, at some point get a Camera Nestbox or Feeder cam. The trouble is that they are mostly quite expensive. Any suggestions?

Just a quick note on the weather. It has been awful here over the last week or so, making the return to school seem even more tedious. It has got to be something to do with global warming, because this isn't the way I normally remember summer!

Not quite what I was looking for

A trip to Wendover woods occupied me yesterday. I went in the afternoon, and unfortunately, the place was quite busy, already reducing my chances of seeing some wildlife. It was busy, mostly because of picknickers, but as soon as we had walked a short distance from the car park and picnic benches, it was a lot quieter on the paths. The woods are great for birdwatching, and renowned for being home of a very special and rare bird: the Firecrest. However, I later found out that there were only 10 breeding pairs of Firecrests in the entire forest.

We arrived in the early afternoon, and walked on the nearly 3 mile-long "Firecrest Trail". According to the leaflet about the place, the tiny birds are heard more often than seen. They make a very high-pitched song. Unbelievably, we heard a song matching the description of that in the leaflet, but we later found out that it belonged to another very small bird, the Coal Tit. From a distance, I have to say that I thought that it was a Firecrest. With a closer look through the binoculas, I saw not just one Coal Tit, but at least 10 of them. Coal Tits are known to prefer conifer trees, and these woods were mostly conifers, as you can see in the photo above. Coal Tits are beautiful birds, but they are quite common, so it was no real surprise to see them. Firecrests are very rare where we live, so it would have been great to see one. Throughout the walk, we ended up seeing hundreds of them, along with a suspected Sparrowhawk, and some Long-tailed Tits. But no Firecrests. It was difficult to take a picture of the Coal Tits, because they were quite high up in the trees, and more timid than most that I see in our garden.

Below are some photos and illustrations of Coal Tits and Firecrests from the RSPB website. Shame they are not from my camera! Firecrests look very similar to Goldcrests, which sometimes causes some confusion.

Top image taken by me at Wendover Woods, and all others are from the RSPB website.

All quiet at the bird feeders

I was quite busy today. I woke up this morning and thought I would go outside and do a spot of birdwatching. I was a bit put off by the miserable weather, but decided to go out anyway. So, I walked out at about 9:15am with my camera and a pair of binoculars only to find... well, nothing actually.

I was patient and gazed at the empty feeders with patience, but honestly there was absoloutly nothing. I went back indoors, and got a drink. I then thought I would give it another shot about half an hour later. So, I strode out again, and this time I had a bit of luck. I saw a Dunnock, followed by a Blue Tit, 2 Great Tits and a Coal Tit. I struggled to get pictures or footage, but the Dunnock finally stayed long enough for me to record it.

Over the last few weeks there has been a much less activity at the bird feeders and tables. The Greenfinches have disappeared completely. I wonder if the poor weather is putting them off?! This hasn't been the case in the past, and somehow after some serious thought I don't think this is the cause of the problem.

There has been a cat visiting our garden recently, which could be scaring the birds off. However, when I was outside, the cat wasn't there and there were still no birds. I do also know that birds are moulting at this time of year, which could mean the birds are less active. I'm just confusing you and myself now.
I wonder if this is the case elsewhere in the country?

Have a good day and fingers crossed, I can get out to do some more birdwatching.

A first for everything

Most years, we get plenty of Ladybirds in and around our garden. My dad grows a crop of vegetables every year. The crops attract large groups of Blackfly and Aphids that the Ladybirds would normally eat. This year, the veg is growing as good as ever, and there are thousands of Blackfly and Aphids. But where have all the Ladybirds gone. I have seen only 1 so far this year (which I have pictures of below). I saw it crawling across our lawn. Even this one didn't look very well. It stopped for a few minutes on a dead leaf, which allowed me to fetch my camera.

So where have all the Ladybirds gone. Well, I did a Google search to see if I could find anything of interest. I searched "seven spot ladybird being outcompeted", and clicked on the first result (a Wikipedia page about the Seven Spot Ladybird or "Coccinella septempunctata". Towards the bottom of the article, I saw a little part, which said, "In the United Kingdom, there are fears that the seven-spot ladybird is being out-competed for food by the Harlequin Ladybird". I have proof! And, having seen the picture of the Harlequin Ladybird on Wikipedia, I know that I have seen this type of Ladybird in our garden and shed. I wonder if others have found this pattern too? Leave a comment on this topic if you wish.
Here are the photos:


Harlequin Ladybird. The colours are known to vary widely, so you may not see one like this. Picture from Wikipedia.

Seven Spot Ladybird in garden:

I thought I might just add in a quick note about some interesting and unusual birds seen in our garden over the last week or so. We have had the usual visitors such as House Sparrows, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robins, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, etc. But we also had a Sparrowhawk fly over the garden and land on a nearby greenhouse. It then flew over 2 more times in the next few days (including once today). A Great Spotted Woodpecker also visited and took some fat. I have only ever seen Coal Tits on their own, but yesterday I saw a group of 3 take it in turns to feed. They really don't stay long. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of any of these rarer birds, but I hope they give me another chance by returning.