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we've currently got a bullfinch invasion
they are quite dickish though, hopefully we'll get a visit from the Jays
Some sort of gull ..about 30 of them landed in a field in front of my house in the middle of a blizzard yesterday afternoon..unusual for the fact that it's never happened before ..
I’ve just started getting an interest in birds. I spent a very happy 5 minutes yesterday watching two crows playing in the snow.
I’ve just started getting an interest in birds
For man who probably has a few bird eating spiders is there not a conflict of interest ;0)
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Thats lovely OP.
My Goldfinches have scuttled off somewhere warm (hopefully) and the doves are still scoffing the seeds. The starlings are still huddled together in the trees over the way..
I'm lucky that my window here at work looks out onto some trees, there's a regular gang of Long Tailed tits that flit through the trees most afternoons about 2/3pm. There's always Blue,Great and Coal tits about and a woodpecker that often visits.
We get a fair number of birds on the feeders but nothing out of the ordinary, even though I've seen them nearby.
Bullfinches hang around the field at the other side of the back fence, never had a Siskin or a Nuthatch but seen them locally in trees. We get the occasional GSW, had Long Tailed Tits on the suet balls yesterday, Goldfinches come & go. I put some sunflower hearts out in a feeder 4 days ago & not one has been touched. The Tree Spuggies, Blue & Great Tits, Chaffies etc are sticking to the mixed seed, while the Blackbirds, 2 resident Robins & various pigeons scrat about on the ground for the dropped stuff.
And once again the poor dunnock is overlooked.
I was watching one in our sycamore at the weekend and it started to sing. A really beautiful, mellifluous song. I was surprised as they are normally so quiet and understated.
Dunnocks are ace!
Nice pic OP. Bullfinches rock.
Fantastic. Never managed to tempt a Bullie to the feeders. The Bullies are around and occasionally transit the garden. Mrs Bullie was sat outside the front window on the wall the other day. Close and I got a good long look. Beautiful.
Regular visitors are, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long Tailed Tits, Coal Tits. I think we occasionally get a rare Marsh or Willow Tit. Loads Sparras, Dunnock, Thrush, Blackbirds and Starlings. Mr & Mrs Greater Spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch.
Occasionally we get a Goldcrest and very occasionally a Treecreeper.
There’s the usual gang of Goldies after the sunflower hearts, untidy little sods chuck half of what they eat on the floor, but that does give the little bunch of Chaffinches that have started to turn up something to eat, they don’t seem to like going on the feeders very much, and the Blackbirds and Robin and the Dunnock when it’s around like to take what the Goldies drop. There’s a few Bluetits as well, they seem to like lichens that grow on the Acer that my feeders hang inside, as well as a fat block and some suet pellets in a feeder.
Sadly the local Sparrows have dropped in number, as have the Starlings, and the few Greenfinches seem to have disappeared as well, which is sad.
Today, though, the cold and snow has brought some Redwings into town, I’ve been watching a couple stuffing themselves on my Pyrocanthus berries on my front hedge, along with a pair of Blackbirds.
Now I just need a bunch of Fieldfares to drop in.
Now I just need a bunch of Fieldfares to drop in.
I opened this thread to add the Fieldfares. There's a flock of them in the trees at the back of the house. Lovely to see. I've never seen so many bullies either. The woodpecker has been a welcome visitor along with redpoll. No long tailed tits recently though.
I’m envious of you all. We have a couple of fat wood pigeons, a robin and a massive gang of jackdaws. They’re like the chavs of the bird world.
We had fieldfares in the garden yesterday, a sure sign that it's a bit cold out.
Dunnocks are ace!
the dunnocks live about 3 ft from that photo in an overgrown honeysuckle around our kitchen window...
All I can hear is the Red Kite calling.
All I can hear is the Red Kite calling.
There is a lovely poetry to that line, reminds me of cycling along the ridgeway near Wantage 🙂
Thought I’d add the fieldfares, I didn’t think they’d be too far away if the redwings are hanging about, and now there’s a territorial battle going on with the neighbourhood blackbird, trying to defend his patch out the back from another male, and the pyrocanthus hedge out the front from these Scandinavian interlopers stealing ‘his’ berries!
Lovely to see the fieldfares close up, they’re only a couple of metres from my front window, gorging themselves on all the berries I made sure stayed on when I trimmed it.
a few of our dinner guests, we're getting low on food resorting to grated cheese and smashed up fat balls. Should be picking up more seed tomorrow
Today's crowd..
A couple of flocks of Lapwings went over as well 🙂
Starlings love lard 🙂
That's beautiful. What make is it?
Starting to find dead ones dotted around the farm now. 🙁
missed out on the long tail close up 🙁
The fieldfares seem to have established that my front hedge with the berries is actually theirs, and they’re scrapping with the blackbird pair and the redwings now!
Noticed flocks of birds flying over east to west this morning. The shape of the wings of some of them I recognised as Lapwings. Haven't seen any of them for years.
At lunch time we had a Redwing Fieldfare invasion stripping berries and eating everything else
I had put out.
Even put something out for the Foxes last night.
thrush today
thrush today
Poor you, they reckon yoghurt for that.
Get well soon.
can't seem to shift it
A Red Kite 20 minutes ago.
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sweet
Saw a large loose flock of Lapwing a couple of days ago, 100+ birds flying through the blizzard over the beach. Quite an eerie thing; ghosts flapping through snow, with the just the occasional muted 'peeeee-wit'.
Four Bramblings yesterday. Plus the usual chaffinches, goldfinches, greenfinches, siskins, blue tits, great tits, coal fits, sparrows. Occasionally dunnock, greater spotted woodpecker, magpie, tree creeper,wren. Heard but not seen bullfinch.
I really feel for the birdies in this weather
Loads of redwing in Edinburgh the last couple of weeks, but not seen and fieldfares or waxwings yet. Was a couple of feet from a very tame redwing yesterday as it ate berries in a hedge, lovely birds.
There was a Harris hawk in the tree in our front garden the other day. There's a local fella keeps it, the hospital have him send it up to keep the gulls under control.
Is a redwing bigger than a robin?
Yes redwing is a member if the thrush family, so a about the size of blackbird.
Lovely photos especially in the snow.
One of the things I enjoy about this weather. Brings the wildlife out for us to see.
Got 2 song thrushes arguing with the resident blackbird over the food in the garden. Lovely to see the Fieldfares and Redwings in the field out the back. Also spotted a Mistle Thrush. A rare bird indeed.
Ha, that's the first photo of an actual baby robin I've ever seen on STW!
Here in east Shropshire, we've had 3 Mistle Thrushes (1st time ever in the garden), a couple of Fieldfares and 4 or 5 Redwings over the last couple of days. All were digging the last of the berries off some cotoneaster bushes and a small holly. This did not go down well with the local blackbirds, but they've been completely outgunned.
Im having to refill the sunflower heart feeder twice a day and the dunnocks and robins are getting through mealworms at a silly pace. Helping them feels just brilliant.
My mate had a snow bunting turn up the other day, and a goldcrest as well!
I’ve had a goldcrest in my garden before, but not in recent years, and the starlings I used to get are no longer coming into the garden, sadly.
cold weather brings the oddities 🙂
reed bunting
We have a wren. Also have a wren box that needs installing, hope it's not too late. Also titw tomos las have appeared where we had none before.
I saw a song thrush in our garden yesterday and we have sparrows in the ivy and blue tits in Doreen’s bird box.:-)
Happy to see the other day ,that the red kite has now reached Mill Hill ( outskirts of London)! There’ll be some unhappy cockney rabbits!
We have a wren. Also have a wren box that needs installing, hope it’s not too late.
It won't matter if Mrs Wren doesn't like it. Jonny Wren builds several nests & Jenny picks one she likes.
cold weather brings the oddities
Quite a few Reed Buntings down a farm lane near us, theyr'e mixing with lots of Yellowhammers down there.
We've got a pair of long tailed tits building their nest in the bamboo behind our garage - fortunately the bamboo is growing outside the garage window so you can stand inside the garage and watch them hopping through the culms to the nest. It's awful tricky to get a decent photo though.
A pair of nuthatches have been putting mud around the hole in our bird box for weeks now.
Today's snow means they haven't shown. But even in the blizzards there were 5 dunnocks doing their mating dance.
Spotted redwings for the first time this year in Edinburgh and Paisley. Didn't have a clue what they were initially.
Also realised today that I'd never seen a raven before, as the sight of my first one stopped me dead in my tracks. It was like a ****ing emu!
Aside from the usual dunnocks, blue/great tits, robins, goldfinches, doves, blackbirds and blasted ring necked parakeets, We've had a large gang of long tailed tits arrive along with some coal tits, and for the first time a group of redwings in south west London. Had a few red kites circling the area.
No sign of fieldfares yet like in previous years with snow.
Just seen a Black Cap near the feeders. I hope it doesn’t take up residence in the garden, as the previous one a couple of years ago fought everything off of the feeders. Everything.
(Except the cat. 😺)
“My” Goldies returned a couple of weeks ago after the last snow, they haven’t been scoffing the sunflower hearts as heartily as they used to do.. but the flock does look a bit depleted 😳
So I’m hoping this season brings new births, and lots of them.
Mr and Mrs Blackbird have been consistent in the garden all winter, the Wren I haven’t seen for some time, the sparrows still flutter in then disappear for a few days only to return en masse. The Doves I’ve not seen for about a month or so, the local pigeon fraternity are active though.
The feeders have been full pretty much all winter, I’ve not needed to fill them every 4-5 days like all of last year, I think this winter has been particularly hard on my little flock, and I’m hoping they all flew somewhere warm and sunny.. to return soon I hope.