Bird updates

Unfortunately, a bit of bad news on the bird front in our garden recently. About a month ago, we found that the robin nestbox at the end of the garden had fallen off its tree. A pair of robins had built a nest and layed eggs without us even noticing before the box fell off the tree, and the eggs were smashed It really is incredible how secretive the birds must have been to build a nest without us seeing birds enter the box once...

Whilst this nest has been a failure, I'm guessing this robin pair have nested again somewhere else successfully. We have a couple of young robins in the garden so they must have already had one brood earlier on in the year.

The birds have generally been feeding quite frequently recently, robins included. One of the species which has visited a lot has been the greenfinch, which has been good to see, because over the last 2 or 3 years we have generally seen fewer of them.

The greenfinches have been sharing the feeders very nicely though, and other birds like Blue Tits have been coming in to feed too.

Blackbirds have also been fairly frequent, and this female has been around all year. She seems to have distinctive markings...

The male blackbirds have been visiting too...

The video below shows a video of a greenfinch and a blue tit feeding together.

Over the last few weeks, I've been having problems loading my posts on blogger, so I've been unable to finally get this post done until now.

Evening finches

When I get home from school, I sometimes hear the somewhat irritating news that it is my turn to clean our 2 rabbit's hutch out. Its irritating until the moment I open the back door to the sight of our garden birds enjoying some evening sunshine on our bird feeders! Yesterday was no exception and some of the birds seemed pretty desperate to stock up on those sunflower hearts. Maybe the midday sun is unbearable for our finches...

I usually bring out my camera whilst I am out with the rabbits, so that I can take a photo of anything that arrives whilst I am out there. It seems to be the various finches that like to feed at this time. The bossy Greenfinch in the photo below was daring enough to feed just a couple of metres away from me- although it struggled to find food in that near empty bird feeder. Those sunflower hearts are just too good to resist for the Greenfinches!

Next up on the bird feeder queue was the Goldfinch (pictured below). They are a little bit more shy than the Greenfinches and tend to perch on the shrubs of next-doors garden before feeding on our nyjer seed feeder. I haven't posted photos of this colourful bird in a while, so I was glad to get a shot of one. The thing I love most about the Goldfinches is that fantastic song they produce when in small groups. They have got to be one of the reasons why it is worth feeding garden birds.

And last, but by no means least is the female Chaffinch in the photo below. It was still quite bright outside when I took the photo, but they are so much harder to photograph than the Greenfinches and Goldfinches. Chaffinch numbers have been very high throughout this month which is why they have featured in many of my previous posts. It was nice to capture the female this time rather than the very bright males.

I thought in the last part of this posting, I would share a video that I meant to show you at least a week ago, but never got around to doing it. In case you didn't know, we have Blue Tits nesting in a nestbox on our conservatory at the moment, and we think that a female could currently be incubating eggs. One of the Blue Tit parents is spending long periods of time in the nestbox at the moment, whilst our male seems to check on her and feed her every now and then. Because this isn't a camera nestbox, it's impossible to be sure, but this is what we think is happening.

The video below shows a very cautious Blue Tit (we think it is the male after ID checking) on the hole of the nestbox. He is seen looking around to make sure the coast is clear to enter the nestbox. Maybe it is me that he has seen, but I thought I was quite well hidden in our office building with my tripod. Ah, well I managed to capture Mr Blue Tit for around 2 minutes before he flew off.



My next posting definitely will include the blossom I wanted to show you. I thought I would show the flower stages of the blossom, so taking the photos has taken a little longer than expected. Still, the post should be all set to go tomorrow, or the day after that. But for now, enjoy your evening finches.

Birds in April sunshine

Its always nice to see the sun shine so much at this time of year. It was pretty warm all day yesterday, and the birds have been busy at our bird feeders all the time. It has mostly been the usual suspects in the garden, but its always pleasing to see some less common birds visit the garden, especially if you have tried to attract them with different foods. The good light is good for taking photos too.

The Long-Tailed Tit in the photo below has got to be my favourite. The quality of the shot probably isn't amazing, but the amazing agility of the tiny bird makes the photo quite quirky. Most other birds would probably be unable to access the fat cake in that feeder, but this one decided to hang upside down off the feeder in order to get to the food! At the moment, there only seems to be one Long-tailed Tit visiting, instead of the small flock that sometimes come.

The Blue Tit pair that are nesting in our nestbox at the moment are frequently seen at the feeders, or on their favourite look-out perch in next-door's garden. The first photo shows a Blue Tit that looks like it is feeding on the buds of the plant they use as a perch. Maybe not quite as agile as the Long-tailed Tit in the photo above, but nonetheless very entertaining to watch as they flit from branch to branch.

The female Blue Tit looks around to make sure she is safe before flying into the nestbox to do some housework in the photo below.

Big, bold and green, the Greenfinch has been a common sight again recently. I don't think we still see them in the numbers that we used to (9-10 at any one time) but they arrive in 4's or 5's and are quite aggressive when they scare off smaller birds and fight with one another. Again, Greenfinches are quite hard to photograph probably because they are quite timid, and my camera doesn't have a good enough zoom to get a picture from a long-distance.

The chaffinch in the photo below the Greenfinch is just one of many visiting at the moment. One of my planned postings for the next week will include some more Chaffinch shots in even better light. I have always thought that they are a bit useless at clinging on to bird feeders, and seem to frantically try to get a grip on a feeder perch.

Again, the photo below isn't the greatest- mostly because of the swing which takes up much of the shot. However, at a second look on the computer, I was amazed at the colours on the Magpies' wing and tail feathers. The shiny blue is stunning-don't you think. I also noticed the fact that the Magpie had managed to turn its head right round so that it was facing the opposite direction to the rest of its body. There is more to the Magpie than you first think!

Just before I finish, I hope you like the change of blog template. I like to present my blog well, so I am constantly making changes to themes, colours, fonts, etc.

The Robin has landed

I have recently been putting out live foods for the birds, in the hope that they get used to their location before they get fed to chicks in the nesting season. Well, thats the plan anyway. The Robins have already found the feeding bowl hanging in a shrub near the feeders. They seem to be the only bird eating them though, so I hope the others find them too. There were plenty of other birds visiting yesterday, which I have also included in this posting.

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

All photos taken in my garden on Sunday 1st February

Sunday morning birdwatch

This morning is very wet here in Bucks, so this morning's birdwatch was a little tricky. I did plan to do it yesterday, but I was both short of time and short of battery power in my camera. I was unable to take the film from the "birdwatch hut" as I now call it, because the rain was driving right into the window. This means the footage was taken from my bedroom (further from the feeders). There was also a problem with uploading one of the videos onto Blip, so I'm afraid that there is only one video so far. I will try to upload it later and update the post. This mornings videos will show some of our garden pests, as well as a few other visitors.

I find that most of the time, the birds I regard as pests tend to visit at the same time. The Grey Squirrel, Magpie and Collared Dove below all visited in the space of about 5 minutes. The Collared Dove was sat on the bird bath getting very wet in the proccess. It did eventually take a drink, and then flew off. The rain outside made the video quality decrease, as you will find with the Magpie clip. If you look carefully however, you will see that the Grey Squirrel actually scares off the Magpie (which doesn't happen very often). Please check back tomorrow for the video of them.

Quite a few finches visited this morning. I often find that in the wet weather, these birds can be the only ones to visit. The Greenfinches and Goldfinches used all 4 perches of the feeder as you will see in the video below. Again, the video isn't the best and the colours are quite washed out but it does give you an idea of how they feed together. The Goldfinch is personally one of my favourite birds, and even in the bad light this morning their colours are still very bright.



I wonder what the birds are doing in Shirls garden in Scotland. I hope she sees some more exotic birds than I saw this morning. Its interesting to compare photos and text about birds in different parts of the world. You would be surprised about just how different the sightings are. Just in case you didn't know, it was Feed the Birds Day yesterday and today, so get feeding! Also, there are plenty of events going on around the country that you can get involved in. I certainly made sure that the birds were well fed yesterday and today.

All videos were taken in my garden this morning.

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!

The birds have returned...

...Well, kind of anyway! The sun is out and the birds are singing. Funnily enough, since the last post about the disappearance of the birds, they are starting to return slowly but surely. However, they are awfully shy, and it has really been difficult to capture these birds on camera. A Greenfinch has showed interest in the bird food and seems to be visiting again (see picture below). I have still only seen one at a time, but its a start.

I have had quite a busy week and have struggled to get out and watch the birds, but I have still noticed a definite increase in the number of birds visiting. They seem to only take brief visits to the feeder perches, as the great tit video shows below. I haven't seen a Goldfinch for a while, but I hope the other birds encourage them to return. I re-arranged the bird feeders after I took the photos and videos below in the hope that the less popular ones will now get used . I also topped up the tables and feeders so we should get some more visitors. With the cooler, wetter, unsummerish weather we've been having before today, the bird bath has been quiet.

Below is a picture of the solitary male Greenfinch seen over the last few days. It, like everything else at the feeders usually stays for a maximum of about 2 minutes before flying off. I could not get very close to this Greenfinch, and had to take the picture from the house. Chaffinches have continued to visit in reasonably large numbers, spending quite a lot of time feeding at the seed feeder at the end of our garden.

Even the House Sparrows are quite timid, and don't appear very often. I say this but they are still visiting often. I think this one is quite young as it has a slight gape on its beak.

A Sparrowhawk is visiting a lot at the moment, which could have caused this Great Tit to be unusually timid. However, it really wasn't happy with me getting close to film it which was a bit strange. Earlier on in the year, the Great Tits were much more tame, so I'm not quite sure why this one is. The photo is a little dark (even after a bit of editing), and my camera shook around a bit while I took the video, but it still gives you an idea on what is happening. At the start of the film the Great Tit is "hiding" in the bush near our feeders, before eventually hopping onto the feeder perch. Even then, it only showed itself briefly. In part of the video, the Great Tit appears to be nervously peering around the side of the feeder. Very strange behaviour indeed!


I will soon post on our messy, overgrown garden.

All photos and videos above were taken in our garden

Garden update

I'm glad I can now post something with some of my own images and videos. The feeders are quite busy at the moment, but larger birds such as Magpies and Wood Pigeons are taking over. The hanging bird table on our feeder pole, and the fat are particularly popular with the Magpies. They are also keen on the peanuts I left loose on the table. I have to admit that they are very entertaining to watch, but they are very intimidating to smaller birds, such as Blue Tits. When the large birds have gone, the smaller ones take advantage, and take as much food as quickly as possible. As I was outside, I noticed the return on the Starlings in our garden. They had a nibble at the fat balls before disappearing.

Male Greenfinch and female House Sparrow:

Young Robin: Collared Dove: Junenile Goldfinch: Starling:

Goldfinch:

Blackbird:

Magpie:

House Sparrow video:

Blue Tit and Coal Tit taking brief snack from feeders:

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I am really getting into recording wildlife on a larger scale now. I already do the BTO Garden Birdwatch and thought I would go a step further by starting up this website. Recently, I ordered a digital camera and I am very pleased with it. I then decided to record my sightings of the wildlife in our garden, and create a blog, which people can visit. The image below shows one of the first pictures taken with my new camera. The best thing about doing a blog is that you can simply just keep adding things to it, and is much easier than keeping a diary. It is great to be sharing the goings on of the garden to you as well. The camera I bought is perfect for me. It enables me to take pictures of wildlife that is relatively far away. Please enjoy the blog in the future, when it has more content!