Birds in your garden

Garden birds around feeders

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AHILL said:
Feeding station at work is very quiet compaired to last year.
I have not seen the Green, Bull or Gold finches all winter
blue & great tit numbers have fallen dramatically
But Dunnock, Robin & Blackbirds seem to be more visible this year.
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I have noticed the same in my garden !
 
Linets have a nest at the bottom of my garden. Never even seen one around before, there's always one using the feeder as a lookout. Just need to improve my photography
 

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No pictures but I caught a glimpse of a yellow rumped bird,
doing mach 3 across my garden earlier, however it was enough of a glimpse, to identify it as a green woodpecker.
I've never seen one in this area before, in all the years I've lived here :)
 
Not the most technically brilliant bit of photography, but it is the first Bullfinch we have seen in the garden since we moved here 3 years ago (and taken the species count up to 30).

Shot on my old X-T2, which sits in the spare room with the 100-400 & 1.4x fitted for occasions like this. Noise isn't bad for 3200 ISO.

Bully2 by Steve Jelly, on Flickr
 
A 40 minute session with the camera while at the table with a coffee this afternoon. Nothing exotic, but it's just as enjoyable.

Somebody needs to tell this chap he's a HOUSE Sparrow....

Apple Sparrow by Steve Jelly, on Flickr

A table for one...

Blackbird1 by Steve Jelly, on Flickr

Somebody is still waiting for his blue to turn up....

baby tit by Steve Jelly, on Flickr

This Greenfinch is sitting on my shortwave wire antenna. I'll tell the Mrs it attracts the birds and maybe she'll stop going on about it :LOL:

Greenfinch by Steve Jelly, on Flickr
 
Admin #1 said:
So this year has been very quiet for birds in my garden, last year i couldn't keep up with them emptying the feeders and always use sunflower hearts, niger seed, peanuts and fatballs.
Anyone else seen a drop in garden bird activity :shrug:
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Echoed my sentiments exactly, i can't remember a year so far as bad as this one for me.
 
I'm posting these to see if anyone can tell me why there are so many of these type of pigeons hanging around our garden for a good part of the day..apart from access to seed. They don't associate with the wood pigeons but hang out together. In fact ,two of them..the dark/light grey ones, appear to be an 'item' as one often gently pecks on the face of the other. Two have leg rings. I can't see numbers but I've seen orange, white (owner's ID/and or 2020) and red. (2017) Also, when I go out into the garden they stay on the ground. I can get quite close, a couple of paces away. Obviously used to people. Yesterday, two sat on the grass at the shallow end of the pond. They go in that end for a good old wash 'n brush up standing on the rubber matting in just a few centimetres of water. That very shallow end (giving access to the patio) is to allow anything that wants to get out to be able too. What's prompted me to post these photos is because today I counted 12 of them. Up until today it's just been four grey/black and the black/white one but a white one has joined them, neither this one nor the black/white one have leg rings. If they're from a loft not far away are they able to come and go as they please ? They have food in the loft so maybe that's not why they're here. They actually 'sit' for hours on a neighbour's roof. (Photo one) There's been the odd racing/homing pigeon stay a day or two but never this long and never so many.

8.jpg

9.jpg
 
JohnC6 said:
I'm posting these to see if anyone can tell me why there are so many of these type of pigeons hanging around our garden for a good part of the day.
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They are feral's, or slightly possible from someones loft, that may of may not have moved away.
Being able to get close suggests that some of them may have been owned at some point.
They never associate with woody's.

As to why, TBH I don't know why, I get get up to 30 sitting on my and surrounding roofs, other times, I get a couple.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to the times of day or frequency of visits, sometimes I donn't see them for a week or so.

They are a real PITA for raiding food, I put out.
Hence I bought a ground feeding cage, to stop them.
Occasionally a skinny one will squeeze through the bars, and generally, it panics enough, when I approach,
not to be able to escape back out ;)
 
Cobra said:
They are feral's, or slightly possible from someones loft, that may of may not have moved away.
Being able to get close suggests that some of them may have been owned at some point.
They never associate with woody's.

As to why, TBH I don't know why, I get get up to 30 sitting on my and surrounding roofs, other times, I get a couple.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to the times of day or frequency of visits, sometimes I donn't see them for a week or so.

They are a real PITA for raiding food, I put out.
Hence I bought a ground feeding cage, to stop them.
Occasionally a skinny one will squeeze through the bars, and generally, it panics enough, when I approach,
not to be able to escape back out ;)
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That's a good idea, a ground cage. Recently, all that comes into the garden (apart from the pigeons) is a blackbird and the two resident robins. Not very good,really. I do see four Goldfinches fly over into a near-neighbour's tree a couple of times a week but they don't stop off here. It's just nice to see four, though.

No sign of the pigeons as I post.
 
JohnC6 said:
That's a good idea, a ground cage.
Click to expand...
THIS is the one I have.

It doesn't stop young magpies, or squirrels though.
The Magpies are just interested in the meal worms, and the squirrels ( I have 2 )
don't actually eat that much grain, so its no big deal, but the pigeons, before I had the cage,
would empty a ground feeder dish, in less than an hour.
 
Unfortunately Only sparrows visit my garden, I must have been feeding several generations of them or several different families of them.
 
Cobra said:
THIS is the one I have.

It doesn't stop young magpies, or squirrels though.
The Magpies are just interested in the meal worms, and the squirrels ( I have 2 )
don't actually eat that much grain, so its no big deal, but the pigeons, before I had the cage,
would empty a ground feeder dish, in less than an hour.
Click to expand...
That looks good..thanks.

I get my wife to whizz-up redskin peanuts for the squirrels in her blender. I saw a squirrel yesterday as it was digginhg up whatever it had buried months ago in the veg patch..lol.It had a green casing and it looked similar to a conker but I don't think they eat them.
 
JohnC6 said:
I get my wife to whizz-up redskin peanuts for the squirrels in her blender.
Click to expand...
I mix whole peanuts with sun flower seeds in quite a substantial hanging basket type feeder.
The squirrels are quite keen on that too.
Its amazing the way they can get them out, without destroying the actual feeder in the process.
 
You missed this one :D

"I get my wife to whizz-up redskin peanuts for the squirrels in her blender "

Edited..."I get my wife to whizz-up redskin peanuts in her blender, for the squirrels.

We don't keep squirrels in the blender :D

They are so agile. I watch them running up and down the trees opposite in autumn when there aren't so many leaves and there are two trees nearby..a 40ft Eucalyptus and a conker tree just a bit shorter and I've seen them leap from one to the other..they're a few feet apart..but not for long,I suspect. We've spoken about massive trees in peoples' gardens. There are two of these Eucalyptus trees nearby. They must cut out a lot of light.
 
Treecreeper
Hay-on-wye
friends garden yesterday

TCreeper_Hay.jpg
 
Long-tailed Tit. There was a flock of about 8 Long-tailed Tits and several Blue Tits in the hawthorn in the garden when a Sparrowhawk zoomed in - failed to catch any thing. Too quick to get a photo of the Sparrowhawk but managed a couple of shots of the LTT's before it arrived

Long-tailed Tit (1) by Ian Wilkinson, on Flickr

Long-tailed Tit (2) by Ian Wilkinson, on Flickr
 
Here is a rare sight.. I have a small garden and a pond with a gravel 'stream', but this was one of the last birds I thought I see here...

Images are poor as it was a rush and double glazing between us... sorry, but thought I'd share.

One Jack Snipe..


Jack Snipe.jpgJack Snipe 2.jpgJack Snipe 3.jpg
 
Very nice Gav (y)
Of course with these -7 & - 10 temps here, water is hard to come by.
I always keep my "bird bath" ice free when its like this.
 
Cobra said:
Very nice Gav (y)
Of course with these -7 & - 10 temps here, water is hard to come by.
I always keep my "bird bath" ice free when its like this.
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Cheers Chris, I did think it must have been passing over and stopped in as we have moving water.
With wind chill our garden hit -13 last night, the stream only just held off being frozen solid, I lifted a sheet of ice out the pond almost 1/2"-3/4" thick this morning.
 
Gav-canon said:
Here is a rare sight.. I have a small garden and a pond with a gravel 'stream', but this was one of the last birds I thought I see here...

Images are poor as it was a rush and double glazing between us... sorry, but thought I'd share.

One Jack Snipe..


View attachment 376153View attachment 376154View attachment 376155
Click to expand...

Fancy getting one of those in your garden. Excellent shots..great detail. Nothing 'poor' about those shots.

I've spent hours at Slimbridge, along with others, in a hide trying to get a shot of one which are usually doing their usual hiding in the reeds behaviour. No doubt this one tempted by the water in your garden.
 
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