Garden changes

Our garden is really looking different now to what it did in the summer. It is now mid-November and autumn is well underway. I like to see autumn as the time when the garden is preparing itself for a potentially cold winter to come. Our garden is definately showing signs of this and I couldn't resist taking pictures of the brilliant colours our garden has to offer at the moment.

One of the most obvious changes is the falling of leaves from the trees in the garden. We have an apple tree and an apricot tree in our garden, and it is very interesting to see the differences in the colours of leaves from these 2 trees. The apricot tree leaves turn a brilliant yellow colour at this time of year, where the apple tree leaves turn a browny-orangy colour. I must say that I prefer the apricot tree for its colour. If only it produced more than about 5 apricots per year in the summer! I took the photos of the apricot tree a week or so ago and now pretty much all the leaves have fallen off now.

The leaves falling off the trees mean that it is a lot easier to see the birds. Our apricot tree is a very popular place for the Coal, Blue and Great tits to break up the sunflower hearts in the feeder. The birds probably feel safer in our evergreen conifers at the end of the garden at this time of year. Dunnocks are birds that also use the trees for cover and I have been able to see them a lot more recently. The conifers do look a bit out of place at the moment too, where everything else is changing colour.

One of my favourite colours in our garden at this time of year is the red-orange colour of the Goosberry plant leaves. They really stood out, and I thought it looked nice with the blurred bird table in the background. We only have one of these plants, so again, in the summer we don't get much fruit from them.

The colour really makes up for it though and makes the plant look amazing. Another berry plant in the garden is the Blackcurrant plant. This has spread over the years, and now is a large feature in the garden. The colours that this plant produce are very different to that of the Goosberry bush. The leaves appear "washed out". The photo is above. The last fruit bush I am going to talk about is the Rasberry one. This produced similar colours to the Goosberry plant, as you can see from the red and pink in the photo below.

I wonder what all your gardens look like at this time of year. Our garden probably varies greatly to all of yours.

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

Unusual colours

My most recent visit to the Rye (local patch) provided me with some great experiences to share with you. Firstly I would like to say that the visit was actually the weekend before last, so this post is a little late. I simply had too much to talk about then, so I have left the post until now. This time of year is great for ducks as they have aready moulted and have a new, clean, colourful set of feathers. But even moulting won't change the colour of one of the ducks I saw!

I didn't see anything too incredible in terms of uncommon birds such as Herons and Kingfishers, but I saw some interesting variations of more common species. One thing I was surprised to see was a swan cygnet. I must admit that they look very cute, but I was surprised to see one at this time of year. The water was very clear that day, and it created a brilliant reflection on the water's surface. I took a pictures of it and the one that just shows the head was one of my favourites.

Some of the birds at the park really don't show themselves very well. A good example of this is the Grey Heron. It will quite often be wading right under cover of overhanging trees, so it can be very difficult to see them, despite their size. My mum does a daily run in the park and she says she sees the Heron 2-3 times every week. I guess I have just been unlucky so far with the days I have been, because I haven't seen one since I started visiting regularly. Maybe my next visit will be my lucky one. Fingers crossed for that.

To be honest though, overall I was pleased with what I saw there. As I told you in my last post I am very new to water birds so a strange, so the duck in the next picture completely baffled me. I saw it and knew that it wasn't something I had seen before. So I took a few pictures, went home and got the bird book out. Much to my surprise, no such duck was in the book. I thought that it might be a bird from another country, like the Fulvous Whistling Duck I saw on the South Coast.

But, at closer look at the photos, I noticed that the duck was very similar in shape and size to the Mallard. I then looked at my previous Mallard photos and confirmed that they were indeed of the same shape and size. It was even with a group of Mallards. So I considered that some Mallards change their plumage for the winter. I was obviously wrong here, and a bit of research found that the Mallard doesn't change its plumage this significantly.

So then I really was stuck. I wasn't sure, but I had heard of leucism before and wondered if this had anything to do with it. As Wikipedia says, "Leucism is a condition characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals." I have seen pictures and read about other people's experiences with leucistic birds. I began to convince myself that this was the explanation. It really did look strange in the crowds of other ducks.

The fantastic Birdforum helped me to my answer once again. I asked the question, "At a small river near us I spotted what I think is a Mallard, but it has strange colouring. Is it leucistic?" I posted a small picture of it too. The response was very quick and helpful and said, "Domestic mallards come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours. That one cold be said to be leucistic, as it is lacking in stong pigment, but shows plenty of other mallard charicteristics."

While I was looking through these pictures, I was wondering if this condition, affects the bird's life in any way. I don't know if they stand out more to predators, or if the colours actually help the duck in the breeding season. It was the only white coloured duck there, but I'd love to know if anyone else has seen something like this one.

All photos taken at the Rye on 14/10/08