Very busy at the bird feeder today! (5 Viewers)

[Disneynut1973]

Hi again Larry

I guess much like your garden is at the minute the numbers should drop off here soon, then I will once again reduce the feeders again for the back end of the summer. Simple supply and demand tactics........... or eventual bankrupcy... which ever comes first!!

Dave

I'm thinking bankruptcy here lol!! I tend to keep quiet just how much I spend on the bird food when hubby is having to eat fish fingers instead of steak

Just a few Starlings and House Sparrows today. Brief visits from a couple of Goldfinch and a Robin. I think the wind and rain is putting them off!

 

[Jabberwocky]

Fairly busy here today.

Before work this morning, 7.15 to 7.35 we had
Pheasant 1 male
Wren
Stock Dove 3
Tree Sparrows 20+
Greenfinch 8
Blackbird 3
Dunnock 4
Chaffinch 4
Robin 1 juvenile
Collared Dove
House Sparrow
Common Whitethroat
Turtle Dove

The Whitethroat was a surprise, it must be more than 10 years since one last showed up in the garden. Turtle Dove arrived on 7th May along with the first Swifts, three days later than last year. Since then the doves have been daily visitors, sometimes a pair and they stay for an hour or so each time.

This evening just a Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Magpie to add.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

CB
No pond, (funnily enough have had a Grey Heron on the lawn a few times):eek!:

I do have a fairly big lawn which undoubtedly attracts the hefty worm eaters such as Song Thrush and Blackbirds, but I do have a very small copse on one side (where I hang the feeders) comprising of a couple of willow trees and around 12 fir trees which attract the tits etc.

The gulls are probably attracted to the large open playing field areas of the high school towards one side of the house.

Regarding the Herring gulls I immediatly confirmed their calls on the RSPB site, so am 100% certain, like I said really chuffed :t: (not many folk could be happy to admit to being chuffed with Herring Gulls in their area:-O)

The size difference versus the black headed gull was easy to pick out in this urban area.

LBBG next:t:

The high school is good for gulls in the winter. Look for the LBBG's in the evening as they head north towards audenshaw resr.

If you have enough space i would recommend you have a small pond.

CB

 

[Jabberwocky]

This years garden juvenile list seems endless. Still wish I had some Wagtails though.
First out of the nest was a Mistle Thrush on 6th May. The nest was high in a Horse Chestnut Tree in the Front Garden so we had regular Mistles while they were feeding. Only saw 1 youngster and it was gone the next day.
Two broods of Blue Tits. The camera box pair laid 10 eggs, 9 hatched and 7 survived to fledge. This in spite of 2 woodpecker attacks. He came to the box and stabbed at the chicks through the nest hole. Female Blue Tit flew at him and bounced off his back and he flew off with her in pursuit.
The other nest was in one end of a sparrow terrace box. This had 9 eggs, 7 hatched and 5 fledged.
Blackbirds not too successful. 2 pairs have fledged only 4 between them. Just last week another 4 hatched but survived only 3 days before being taken, probably by the Magpies or Jays.
Others seen are Starling, Rook, G S Woodpecker, Robin, loads of Greenfinch and Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Song Thrush, Stock Dove and Pheasant.
Had a whole family of Marsh Tits feeding on aphids on the roses. Reason enough not to use chemicals imo.
Last few days yellowhammers have been taking seed to feed yougsters in the hedge but only get a brief glimpse of the young. Finally a Young Magpie showed up yesterday.

Sorry for the long ramble, I'll try to post more often. Will be away in Deryshire for a couple of weeks though.

Catch up with you after that.

Lewis

 

[Bananafishbones]

This years garden juvenile list seems endless. Still wish I had some Wagtails though.
First out of the nest was a Mistle Thrush on 6th May. The nest was high in a Horse Chestnut Tree in the Front Garden so we had regular Mistles while they were feeding. Only saw 1 youngster and it was gone the next day.
Two broods of Blue Tits. The camera box pair laid 10 eggs, 9 hatched and 7 survived to fledge. This in spite of 2 woodpecker attacks. He came to the box and stabbed at the chicks through the nest hole. Female Blue Tit flew at him and bounced off his back and he flew off with her in pursuit.
The other nest was in one end of a sparrow terrace box. This had 9 eggs, 7 hatched and 5 fledged.
Blackbirds not too successful. 2 pairs have fledged only 4 between them. Just last week another 4 hatched but survived only 3 days before being taken, probably by the Magpies or Jays.
Others seen are Starling, Rook, G S Woodpecker, Robin, loads of Greenfinch and Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Song Thrush, Stock Dove and Pheasant.
Had a whole family of Marsh Tits feeding on aphids on the roses. Reason enough not to use chemicals imo.
Last few days yellowhammers have been taking seed to feed yougsters in the hedge but only get a brief glimpse of the young. Finally a Young Magpie showed up yesterday.

Sorry for the long ramble, I'll try to post more often. Will be away in Deryshire for a couple of weeks though.

Catch up with you after that.

Lewis

Some cracking birds there Jabber.

Some cracking pics also. All the pic have a story to tell, Love the Rook pic (I just love Rooks!!), I have had a Song Thrush Juvenile so can certainly relate to any excitment of having a Mistle thrush Juv, then of course the common pheasant and even more common Yellowhammer are found in most gardens these days :eat:3||

Dont apologise for a ramble wth that much detail, its great to see whats going on everywhere. I still learn from others posts, everyone has a different persective on things and I tend to pick up on peoples comments and see if they occur in my garden.
Great thread.... keep em coming :t:

 

[Bananafishbones]

I'm thinking bankruptcy here lol!! I tend to keep quiet just how much I spend on the bird food when hubby is having to eat fish fingers instead of steak

Just a few Starlings and House Sparrows today. Brief visits from a couple of Goldfinch and a Robin. I think the wind and rain is putting them off!

Hi Pam

I had so many Starlings and Jackdaws at times today it was like the scene from the film birds..... this was much scarier though:-O but much like yourself fairly quiet otherwise, nasty weather at the moment doesnt help.

My partner goes to India for a fortnight tomorrow :-C (friday) but at least I can buy more bird food and eat steak.... she will never know :eat:

 

[Bananafishbones]

Juvenile Songthrush on the lawn again this morning, unfortunatly not able to watch it, off to my mums for homemade yummies!!

Have a good weekend all

 

[Disneynut1973]

Lewis, you have some fantastic birds in your garden, it's good to read your update!

Dave, yep that's what I do wait till he's not looking then buy the bird food lol.

The birds seem to be sneaking in when i'm not looking as the food is certainly being eaten. We did have three Magpies in the garden this morning before I left for work which my little one spotted first and got quite excited!

 

[JeffMoh]

Great photos, Lewis.
Hope you see some good birds up in Derbyshire.
Jeff

 

[Moraybirdlover]

Hi Jabberwocky.Lucky you having a Turtle Dove:t:, I adore them but have never seen one!!

Hi all,
We have had a few young families this week. Remember the lone House Sparrow male,well he turned up with a pal a few weeks ago, we then saw a female from time to time, then this week a whole family, 8 in all on the feeder. Do they have a large brood or do you think there may be more than 1 familly? Mind you I can't imagine a sparrow sitting on 6 eggs.
We have had more young Chaffinch and a family of Great Tit's.
Goldfinches still visiting but not seen any young.
Will do a proper watch over the weekend.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Hi Jabberwocky.Lucky you having a Turtle Dove:t:,

I agree. Turtle Dove is the equivalent of a mega for most gardens!!!

 

[Fozzybear]

Blimey, some superb visitors there Jabberwocky!

Stood quietly in the garden earlier I had one of the young Robin fledglings hopping around me, about two or three feet away for a while, which was very cool indeed. The young sparrows are rather more confiding than the adults too, coming down to feed when I'm in the garden if I don't move around much. The greedy Collared Dove is still coming to take food from my hand, rather more confidently now but still a bit nervous if I move too quickly for it's liking, which is not that quick! The Robin has to be quick sometimes as the Collared Dove, Blackbird and Starlings will soon pounce when I toss a suet pellet to the Robin! He's rather nervy and bossed about by all the other birds so doesn't get a look in when the others are around. I think the female is incubating eggs as she's not been around much recently. One of the female Blackbirds was gathering lots of nesting material again this morning so still plenty of nesting going on.

Some photos:

1. young Greenfinch (photographed at an angle through a dirty double-glazed window!)
2. the male Robin
3. male Robin feeding one of the youngsters
4. 'patch', one of the young House Sparrows with a pale band on it's feathers

 

[Moraybirdlover]

Jabberwocky and Fozzy, I love the photos of the adults feeding their young:t:

Great excitement this morning I saw my first Goldfinch fledgling!! I am so chuffed!!:bounce:It was very unsteady in the shrub it was in so I hope it survives. OH not at home so couldn't get a photo.:-C

 

[Fozzybear]

Thanks MBL - don't worry, hopefully the youngster will stick around. Have never seen a young Goldfinch so lucky you!

The Robin, Collared Dove and Blackbird were fighting over the suet pellets just now - they really are addicts! Still have huge numbers of Starlings, about thirty poking around in my lawn this morning (who needs an aerator when you've got these guys!) and I saw a huge flock take off from my conifers the other day - I reckon there weren't many less than a hundred, the noise was amazing!

I'm hoping that the birds nesting in my conifers are low down as I had a guy round to look at them and am getting the top half of them chopped off - they're very high and are now blocking my satellite signal so am resorting to my dodgy analogue tv aerial. I won't have any problem with the guy ploughing through nests though as he's a former nature reserve warden!

 

[Moraybirdlover]

Garden very busy this morning with various families:
Greenfinch 6+,
House Sparrows 10, 2 new males arrived,
Goldfinch 3(no sign of juv. this am),
Juv. Robin plus adult,
Dunnock plus juv. another Dunnock went off with a beak full of seed so must be feeding young,
Chaffinch 5,
Blue tits plus juv.,
Great tit plus juv.
Blackbirds 2m 1f,

Had a garden first a Whitethroat but not at feeder.
Also had 2 House Martins fly over last night not sure where they live, along with several Swallows. We used to have our own Swallows but not this year which I am very sad about.

 

[JeffMoh]

Red-cockaded

We're not getting as much exitement in our yards as y'all are getting in yours. But I did manage to get out birding yesterday morning and spotted two Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. A good bird to take my US year list up to 250.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[Moraybirdlover]

Jeff, Congratultions on the RCW!
Finally got a picture of the juvenile Goldfinch. Not a good picture due to the rain, but definite Goldfinch.ps Seed all thrown to the floor by birds on the feeders above!!

 

[Bananafishbones]

Just found my first garden bird casualty. A juvenile Chaffinch in the front garden underneath the window. 99.9% sure it must have hit the window as I could not see any signs of attack on it, A real shame, especially when they dont even get to see the summer out!!

I will update the garden details tomorrow as I am going to try to upload some photos from my weekend in wales....... New lifer on Friday.. Sandwich Tern, not got to 200 yet Jeff... well done on 250 US birds!!

Good photos added since I have been away, they all tell a story but particularly like the Robins feeding from Fozzy.

Is that a Yellowhammer in the foreground of one of your pics Moray?

Dave

 

[Moraybirdlover]

BFB hope you had a good weekend in Wales, congratulations on the Sandwich Tern! Bet you wish you could have gone birding in India with your partner though!

Ironically it is a Yellowhammer, OH has been trying to photo him for weeks and when he took a photo of the Goldfinch it must have just flown down! He didn't even notice until you pointed it out!

Hi Pam, what is happening in Leeds this weekend?

 

[Fozzybear]

Sandwich Tern is a goodun, saw lots of those in Norfolk and they're really pretty cool. I think I prefer Common Terns even though they're more, well common! I see them quite a bit in my local area and they're gorgeous to watch flying along the river.