Birds in the garden Part 2.

It seems there are many more of everything this year, perhaps the hot weather last year with a mild winter has helped numbers increase.

I'm not seeing much activity at the moment, the Blackbird sings every night on the neighbour's TV antennae while the Mistle Thrush sings on the other side neighbour's oak tree, which is nearer my garden. It seems the Blackbird has lost ground to the Thrush, but I see both scooting from under the greenery.

I did see a different bird only briefly a couple of days ago, it seemed to have a light beige-creamy breast, not sure of it's wings, not too dark though. It looked sharp and shot along near the ground behind my trellis between the hedge.

Even though it is pouring with rain the birds have been really entertaining this morning.

At last the Bullfinch has brought its baby to the feeders. I heard a strange loud tuneless cheeping and there it was, a huge baby bullfinch being fed by its Dad.

Then there were the blue tits and great tits, about a dozen or so of this years youngsters who seem to have formed a creche and were hurtling around the feeders and trees.

The Nuthatch has been around again and is making it a regular breakfast visit, as well as large numbers of everything else. The Robins have done well this year too with three young ones still around. I suppose all this rain is a good thing for the fledglings as the cats don't like getting their feet wet and there should be plenty of worms etc, so long as the small birds don't get too cold and wet.

Experienced a bit of life in the raw today (not me personally, I had my dressing gown on). While watching the Goldfinches feeding on the sunflower seeds in the feeder outside my window, there was a flash of wings and a thump and a Sparrowhawk crashed into them, plucking one unfortunate little finch away for its breakfast. I did think it was a pity it hadn't caught one of the collared doves which are becoming a nuisance as they are arriving 15 to 20 at a time and eating all the food I put out. A dove would have fed it all day too.

Hi Pat, haven't seen you around for a while! I tend to agree with you, although Doves are nice birds too it would have saved a lot more small birds. I seem to have some years where I see more Goldfinches, then they disappear. Did you get any pics??

I'm tempted to put up a feeder, I got some wild bird seed recently and a net with peanuts and fat balls from Lidls but haven't got around to putting them anywhere. I have only a few doves, and wood pigeons, don't really want to encourage more. They are probably breeding more because of the good food supply, I have a wood pigeon nesting now in the oak at the front, seems a bit late but food is probably plentiful.

I had a baby wood pigeon drop past my window on the last day of September onto the window ledge, it must have been in a nest in the creeper on the wall. It flew away after a little rest.

Hi Janet, We've all been rather quiet on the European side recently haven't we?

I like your Wood pigeon photo. I've not taken any for a while I'll have to get my camera out again. I've only one wood pigeon in the garden just now, his girl friend fell ill and something caught and ate her. It is probably tempting fate, but the wood pigeons have never damaged any of my brassicas. I'm hoping it is because there is plenty of other food for them. I keep a close watch though and my nets are ready if they do get a taste for greens. The birds are doing well to get in a late brood. We have a pair of blackbirds still going in and out of a nest in the conifers. I've lost count of how many broods they have had this year it's like a production line.

We have dozens of Gold finches every day and feeding all the year round certainly keeps the birds coming to the garden in larger numbers. I suppose it does create an unnaturally high density of birds, but I also try to provide plants in the garden with fruits and seeds for them and habitats for nesting and insects so it is mutually beneficial, I look after them and in return I get to see all the beautiful birds and they eat lots of aphids and caterpillars and other bugs. I can't say they are making much impression on the slugs and snails though.

I put out sunflower kernels in the tube feeder and mixed bird food on the bird table and I've a wire peanut feeder. When the weather is very cold I put a fat block out once a week too, but the starlings usually eat that in a few minutes. I noticed the Lidl garden bird special advertised, it starts tomorrow here. The bird boxes looked nice too and only £4.99 each. I get most of my bird food from the agricultural merchant that I get the hen food from and it is much cheaper than getting it from pet shops or the specialist bird seed catalogues. I think the Lidl foods looked good value though so I might stock up.

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY COMMENTS ON KEEPING DUCKS IN THE GARDEN?

I know a few of you keep ducks, but I would like opinions on how easy they are to keep, do they trample or eat plants. Would a couple of ducks make a mess of the pond? It is about 16 ft x 21 ft and 3ft 6 ins deep with a shallow pebble edge at one side. Could I just let them roam loose in the day time for slug control? Do they have to have their wings clipped etc. I've seen some very pretty Khaki Campbells and am very tempted. I keep my hens in the orchard at the top of the garden and don't let them out as they make such a mess scratching things up and eating everything in sight. I've heard ducks are much better behaved, but can't quite believe it.

Any comments would be most appreciated.

That's a shame Pat about the Wood Pigeon, I wonder if he will find another mate. Yes it has been quiet here, I think the cold summer (and the rest of the year!) has turned us all off, or frozen us to a standstill.

I put in a few cauliflower plants and they all got eaten, I don't have enough sun for some things but caulis can do OK and I do like home grown. The news on AOL homepage had an article about nutritional value of organic grown as opposed to not, a 4 year £12 million study was done! The organic vegs had up to 40% more antioxidants and other beneficial nutrients, milk up to 60% more, and less baddies. No wonder cancer and asthma are on the increase here, but I already knew organic was good, you can tell when you taste it.

The Lidls bird seed looks good, and I thought a good price too. I have to think about a feeding station where I can get good pics!

I can't help with ducks in the garden, but I had a mallard years ago in with chickens and it had a vacuum cleaner for a beak, ate everything.

Here's the nesting woodie, she's sat tight, it's been very cold with a touch of frost in places some nights, I hope she manages to rear them. Taken on the 19th.

I'mpleased to hear that Resin, except there are Magpies and Crows around! A Magpie slipped into the tree opposite it today. The tree is a little earlier than the other oaks around to turn colour, it will be a bit bare for them.

I was shocked yesterday morning! I caught Pussy, (a kitten from my brother temporarily taken care of by me)
on the act of catching one of my sparrows.
He had it in his beak and came running towards me.
Fortunately I acted cool-headed, sized him down to the floor rather rude until he opened his beak. To my relief the sparrow took his chance and flew off like an arrow. It must not have been hurt yet...

I guess if I had been shouting angrily at him he would have run away from me and the bird would have had no chance.
I'm not going to let him unsupervised in my garden any longer. I have build up a trust relation with my bird population during many years, to the degree that they are almost tame, but with the down side that they are less alert to dangers.
This is so hard for me as I like this lovely kitten so much, he has stolen my heart, but I cannot betray my birds...
Difficult now also to feed them. I have a bird feedhouse tied up high out of the reach of potential predators. But birds are messy eaters, so there's always seeds fallen on the floor..
Unfortunately cats and birds are not compatible.

Here is a somewhat blurred picture of him, just to show how small he still is and already caught his first bird!

He is so cute though bonitin! Somehow I think he will believe that cats and birds are very compatible, lol! I can imagine you wrestling him to the ground, I guess you won't be so sad to see him return to your brother now!

I have two little faces peeping over the edge of the nest. I noticed on the 31st October the mother was sat half off the nest, they are growing quickly!

Oh, such cute ugly faces!

Yesterday I got mother feeding them!

Looks like they'll be fledged very soon now, maybe within a day or two

Resin

They grow quickly don't they! I will keep you posted.

Very lovely these wood-pigeon babies, Wallaby!

It will still be hard to part with him though Wallaby!
He is sooooo.... adorable, charming and funny!
When he makes his 'toilette' he thinks he should make mine too. So I get that sandpaper tongue all over my face and hands, unfortunately also the occasional biting forgetting I don't have a thick fur-coat!
As he has no play-mate of his size and age he made one out of me, so I get 'chased' in a hilarious way!

What I don't understand is why cats still have to hunt for birds if they are well fed.

I often see a remarkable resemblance of a cat face with that of an owl, specially with wide-opened eyes!
Its like the owl, (also a predator!) is a reincarnation of a cat-soul frustrated in having no wings to go after the birds.
I also observed how this cat and a cat I had in the past, when fascinated by a bird make a weird sound like if they are trying to imitate a bird.

Cats have an inbuilt instinct to hunt, even if they don't eat their catch they need to practice just in case they have to get their own food.

You're right, a cat does resemble an owl!

My cat makes that noise too, as if they are telling the bird to come and be caught! I think they are swearing at them.

I do wonder if your brother is intending to let you keep him?

Cats Indoors: http://www.abcbirds.org/cats/

Best for cats, as well as best for birds.

Resin

Do your Wood pigeons eat the brassicas Janet? We have them around but I've never had any damage to any of the veg. I'm hoping that if I keep them well fed they won't want anything else. At least we aren't over run with them with our solitary male. (Yet)

You were lucky your little cat let the bird go Bonitin, if I so much as approach my cat when she has caught something she just bites its head off and then looks at me as if to say What are you going to do now? At the moment she is more interested in mice as they have set up home in the wall under my bird feeders. I do try to keep the feeders high enough to prevent all the local cats jumping up to catch things and I got one of the small plastic trays to fasten under the bottom of the feeder which helped stop them, but I've taken it off this weekend as we are getting a huge flock of collared doves, probably 20 or so and they could sit on the tray and eat all the sunflower seeds. They can't fit on to the little perches, so there is plenty of food left for the finches etc. and the greedy doves can pick up the bits they drop off the floor.

Yesterday I heard a strange call in the back garden and just thought it was one of the new influx of starlings mimicking something, but when it did it again I went to have a look and it was a Ring necked parakeet sitting in the pear tree. It flew off after about half an hour and I didn't get a photo of it as my camera needs re-charging. I know they are becoming quite common down south, but I've never seen one round here before.

Pat, I don't grow many brassicas as I don't have enough vegetable space which gets enough sun. I do like to grow a few cauliflowers though, I put in ten plants this year and they all got eaten to death. I have seen Pigeons eat them before but some years they don't get touched, other times I have netted them. You might just find there are many more Wood Pigeons around than you think! I went to the field and a flock of at least 300 flew up from the ground when a train scared them. There are a few woods around but I never realised there would be so many!

You will have to get that camera charged up Pat! I always keep mine charged when it looses a notch of charge, taking pics is a daily routine for me when the weather suits.

I have 2 batteries so one is in the charger when i need it.

Wallaby, my brother has offered me to keep his kitten,
But I have decided not to do that. He is fascinated by the garden, so much more adventure out there! and keeps nagging to be let out there where he can run after falling tree leaves, innocent and funny, but showing too much interest, not only for my birds but also for the toads that still didn't go for their winter sleep.
Anyway I still have to wait to return him until his pet doctor decides its time for his inoculation against cat diseases. Because of a serious car accident he has had a heavy operation done and soon after he got infected with a cat disease probably transmitted by one of the other cats of my brother. So he's denied any contacts with other cats until he is strong enough to be inoculated.
But I will miss him...

Patbarr, yes it was strange that he came running towards me with his prey, as if he intended to give it to me as a present. I know my other cat I had in the past did that. When he had caught a bird he deposited it in front of the kitchen door, that happened several times, always on the same spot. So I concluded it was intended as a present. He must have found me very ungrateful as one time when I had caught him on the act I scolded and spanked him, so he would associate it with what he had done.
For at least two days he literally turned his back to me.

I have about 4 wood pigeons and about 6 collared ones, that number varies , but I've never noticed any damage on my plants, but of course I don't grow vegetables.

I also, like Boojum, have two batteries. Very handy!

It has been an excellent weekend for birds in our garden. We've had 20 different species including Gold crest, Tree creeper, Nuthatch and Bullfinch. There are huge flocks of Gold finches and they are enjoying the evening primroses that I've left to go to seed.

It's been too cold for much of a show here, I guess that's why you have them in the garden Pat, they come for the food! I still haven't got anything set up.

I had some tallish evening primroses my neighbour gave me in 1999, I dug them out a year later as they made so many seed which set around, I'm still digging up self sets!

If you haven't seen my updates in the Bird Watching forum, the two wood pigeons left the nest on the 6th. I saw them both together on Thursday, then just one on Friday, it was by my back door in the sun and sheltering from cold winds, then flew to the apple tree. Mum came to feed it. Yesterday I hardly ventured out it was so chilly, same today but I saw one fly to the flowering cherry tree. I hope the other was elsewhere, they had stuck together for a couple of days.

Pretty photo of the wood pigeons Wallaby :-)

It's been so warm this fall that I still haven't had to put out feed for the birds, and it's Nov. 16th !! We had some snow for two days in late October, but there were still so many berries on the trees then the birds had pleanty to eat. That might change tomorrow thought - we're looking at a very cold and windy weekend, possibly with freezing day time temps.

There have been quite a few black birds around lately. There are a few immature ones so "my" nesting pair managed to raise at least one brood this year. We found a nest that I think was theirs in late August with abandoned eggs in it. It was in a Cottonwood that we were going to cut 1/2 way down - we didn't see it until DH had removed some of the branches around it. We'd cut the top off about two years ago so there was a level stump for them to place the nest on. It was surrounded by new growth all the way around so there was no way to see it. Really good nesting spot. I was so sorry I ruined it for them. I hope they'll nest there again when it's grown back .......

Here's a photo of the nest - is there anyway to tell if it's black bird or redwing eggs?

Hi rannveig, such a shame, it must have abandoned the nest. It looks like blackbird to me, the nesting postion is typical. I found a pic, looks like it was flashed,

http://www.arkive.org/species/ARK/birds/Turdus_merula/ARK009986.html

A pic of the redwing's eggs, they look to have fewer but larger spots.

http://www.isledegrande.com/naturepage04-v3.htm

My resident balckbirds I feel sure had 4 lots of young, there are some fledglings around now!

Such a pity Rannveig, I can imagine how sorry you feel !
The young blackbird looks sad, Wallaby as if he had heard the story..

Thanks for the links Wallaby :-) First I thought I'd scared them off the nest but I think they'd given up on it before we came along and ruined they're nesting site. Laying eggs in August is a bit optimistic here I think .... we found the nest on August 18th so I don't think they'd have had time to get the young fledged in time before it got too cold.

The black bird is cute - I'm always so happy when I see some young birds in the fall - the blackbirds aren't very well established here so I'm always happy to see some increase in the population.

bonitin - I was so devestated at first when I thought I'd scared them off the nest. But on the bright side it was kind of cool to find the nest - never seen one before. I emptied one of the eggs for the girls to keep. I'm hoping that if I'll keep them well fed this winter I'll be forgiven come spring ;-) lol

I thought this was so funny and interesting at the same time, I had to share it here; I couldn't stop watching it over and over again; so amazing....

You can click on the 'watch' button under the seagull pict to see the little video-clip

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/6907994.stm

Edited to give another link with a better quality video;
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/seagull.asp

This message was edited Nov 21, 2007 10:45 AM

Too funny!!

I saw this on the news last week. I think it showed it opening the bag and eating them too. I wonder if it likes any particular flavour?

Yes, Pat, it always steals the same type ; 'cheese crisps' from the mark Doritos! LOL!!

We had another flying visit from the Sparrowhawk this morning, but he missed this time. He flew in a bit slower so all the Goldfinches managed to scatter and hide. He sat on the bird feeder for a while, then walked about on the banking under a rose bush. He then flew onto my partner's car and jumped about on it a bit, then sat in the cherry tree, by which time I had found my camera - so he flew away!

Nice to see him close up though - I think he was a young male.

I wonder where the 'sparrowhawks' have their residence.
It might sound strange but at least three times I have witnessed one taking off with one of my sparrows and always so unexpected, without making any sound and his/her sudden appearance was like a flashlight.. and all that in the middle of a town...
It could be the same one always returning knowing there's a large sparrow population in my garden... It's hard though to witness..

My collared doves managed to land on the bird feeder too after some adaptations I made so they have room to stand and get to the food.

The weather is so depressingly dark, wet and dull as you will notice in my pict. which was taken around noon today!

Here it shows how I enlarged the 'landing' space

bonitin - pretty collared doves and your feeder is really nice too ! :-) Cute little bird in the second photo - can't remember the name of it ;-)

Everything is frozen now so I've started putting out apples for the resident birds (starlings, redwings and blackbirds). It's getting pretty dark here too, sunrise today was at 10:50 and sunset at 15:44.

Thanks Rannveig and thank you Resin for answering rannveig's question! But how is the popular English name for the bigger Blue Tit, the other one with the black tie ?

That's a Great Tit (Parus major; in Icelandic: Flotmeisa)

Resin

Thanks!