I know it was only last week when I first mentioned the birds nesting on or in our house this year. However, they had been there for a while before I posted and both sets of chicks have now fledged. Once again we managed to miss seeing them leave their respective nests. Read on
I’ve been meaning to post for a while as we’ve got two groups of birds with chicks at the house. Once again the starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are nesting in the eaves of the house. They nest in the roof each year and the chicks hatched a few weeks ago. They must be getting quite big by now – they’re certainly noisy. We’ve also got Blue tits (Parus caeruleus) nesting in the sparrow terrace. This is... Read on
The garden is slowly coming to life after a rather cold winter. Encouragingly we’ve had a lot more birds in the garden recently. In fact, just now, we had four species at the same time: Dunnock (Prunella modularis) Collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) Wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) It may not seem like much for those who live in the countryside but for a city garden that used to be very barren I think... Read on
The weather was quite nice today and there was even a bit of blue sky. I thought I’d take the opportunity to replace the supports for the raspberry canes. I bought some met-posts and put some 50mm square posts into them. I then treated the wood and ran wires between them. Hopefully these posts will be more sturdy than the others and won’t allow the canes to be blown over as happened last summer. Whilst... Read on
V and I have been doing the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch for about four years now. Unfortunately the birdwatch is usually a rather depressing activity as our garden doesn’t get that many feathered visitors. We’ve always thought this was probably due to the fact that the garden was very empty when we bought the house. There were no trees or shrubs and therefore very little cover for the birds. Over the last four years we’ve... Read on
I saw a pair of robins in the garden today. They were feeding on the seed feeder and also on the Cotoneaster berries hanging over the fence from next door. We will encourage more birds into the garden… oh yes! Read on
I was really pleased to see a pair of Godlfinches (Carduelis carduelis) in the garden today. They were feeding on the seeds within the heads of the teasel plants. Read on
Earlier last week I bought a starling peanut cake tube from CJ WildBird Foods. We put it up in the garden yesterday and were completely inundated with starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) today. At one point we counted more than 15 starlings in the garden! Amazingly they’d eaten all of the tube by this evening. Starlings feeding in the garden Read on
We’ve been seeing an increasing number of birds in the garden recently (a blackbird and once again the starlings are nesting in our roof, the chicks hatched this week I think). I think this is partly due to the food we’re putting out but also the fact that the trees we planted are starting to provide a bit more cover. I popped out into the garden before work this morning and was pleased to see... Read on
Over the last few days I’ve noticed a blackbird (Turdus merula) in the garden. In a lot of places I suspect this isn’t a very notable event but we’ve had so few birds in the garden since we bought the house that it’s good news for us. We’ve been working quite hard on encouraging birds into the garden so hopefully the regular visits by this male blackbird are a good sign: Read on
It was a very nice evening so I was out in the garden and, looking up, saw my first swallow (Hirundo rustica) of 2008. Obviously this doesn’t mean it’s now summer but it’s clear indication that it’s on its way. Read on
An exciting day in the garden today. We’ve now got five crocuses in bloom (four yellow and one purple) and they’re really cheering up our view of the garden. Also, for the first time, I saw a robin (Erithacus rubecula) in our garden. I’m a huge fan of robins as they don’t seem that bothered by people, eat loads of slugs and they have a fantastic song. Seeing one in our garden for the first... Read on
I cleaned out the bird’s peanut feeder this weekend and also replenished the seed feeders. We still don’t have a vast number of birds visiting the garden but the numbers are increasing. Regular visitors now include wood pigeons (Columba palumbus), collared doves (Streptopelia decaocto) a male blackbird (Turdus merula) and most recently we’ve been visited by a wren (Troglodytes troglodytes). Apparently wrens are the commonest breeding bird in the UK but due to their size... Read on
In September 2006 we bought a Wiggly Wigglers’ Sparrow Parade. We put it up around this time last year and, in spring this year, we were pleased to see that a pair of blue tits (Parus caeruleus) had taken up residence. The blue tits successfully produced a brood of chicks but we don’t know how many as they left the nest while we were on holiday. Anyway, as the weather is getting colder we thought... Read on
