Where have all our garden birds gone?

[Phil Bullock]

10 minutes ago, hmrspaul said:

There is a family of Long-tailed tits in our urban garden, and I caught an adult feeding a youngster beside our feeders.

 

 

 

That is a wonderful picture Paul - they are such little characters, you are honoured. We see them in the garden here in winter but then they disappear.... to re-appear next year.

 

Meanwhile the local sparrows are doing their best to address the national shortage.... having fledged a clutch of 3 already they are collecting more nesting materials for another go....

 

[dhjgreen]

Male Bullfinch eating forgetmenot seeds (picture by Mrs dhj)

Edited May 17, 2020 by dhjgreen

[Barry Ten]

1 hour ago, Phil Bullock said:

 

That is a wonderful picture Paul - they are such little characters, you are honoured. We see them in the garden here in winter but then they disappear.... to re-appear next year.

 

 

 

 

That's been the pattern with our LTTs (or lollipops, as my wife calls them) but this last year they seem to have remained in the garden right through the seasons.

[jonny777]

No long tailed tits here, but I have a family of newly fledged coal tits in the garden now. No photos, as they don't stay in one place long enough and two parents are flitting back and forth to the feeders. I'm not sure how many juveniles there are, but I counted five. 

 

Ten years ago, I recorded greenfinches in the garden on 30 weeks out of 52, but the one I have just seen on the sunflower heart feeder this evening was the first I have noted for 13 months. 

 

Hopefully, this is an indication that their population may be beginning to recover from the devastation caused by the Trichomonas parasite. 

[Bernard Lamb]

It is like being in  a time warp this year.

Sparrows are abundant and at least half a dozen come to the feeder with many present in other gardens up the road. On a walk this morning I saw a Sky Lark, the first within a mile of home for many years and a flock of over 100 Starlings. There are a few that come to the garden but this was like old times with them circling about. Wood Pigeons are nesting in a Laurel tree just outside the back door and are struggling to carry twigs twice as long as they are.

Bernard

[Tanllan]

This little chap came into our garden this afternoon and was hopping round my wife's feet at one point.

[Mallard60022]

Several 'families' of House Sparrows now, one with three young Gang of a dozen Starlings with Juves too; they look a bit evil with those black eyes. Sure the Blackbirds are on second broods. There are usually several Sky Larks that nest up near Botany Bay Xing on the ECML but I have not been up to check this year (yet).

Not seen hardly any LTTs this year.

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, jonny777 said:

 

 

Ten years ago, I recorded greenfinches in the garden on 30 weeks out of 52, but the one I have just seen on the sunflower heart feeder this evening was the first I have noted for 13 months. 

 

Hopefully, this is an indication that their population may be beginning to recover from the devastation caused by the Trichomonas parasite. 

Yes, they seem to have returned as we have seen them everyday now for a week or more and not just one

 

Rather off topic but still to do with nature, whilst in the shed I watched a wasp, not the large yellow & black but a smaller almost all black one, caught in a spider's web.

The spider, obviously eyeing up lunch went in for the kill but the wasp fought back so ther spider had to back off and the wasp escaped.

I don't know what happened to the spider, as after the wasp had gone there was no sign of the spider, I wonder if it got stung and fell off the web.

 

[Flying Pig]

3 hours ago, jonny777 said:

Ten years ago, I recorded greenfinches in the garden on 30 weeks out of 52, but the one I have just seen on the sunflower heart feeder this evening was the first I have noted for 13 months. 

 

Hopefully, this is an indication that their population may be beginning to recover from the devastation caused by the Trichomonas parasite. 

 

I've seen 2 greenfinches locally in North Wilts this spring having not recorded any at all hereabouts for a number of years.  

 

Our signature breeder on the estate where I live seems to be starling.  There were 110 adults feeding on the nearby playing field last week. I've yet to see this year's juveniles.

[jonny777]

12 hours ago, Bernard Lamb said:

It is like being in  a time warp this year.

Sparrows are abundant and at least half a dozen come to the feeder with many present in other gardens up the road. On a walk this morning I saw a Sky Lark, the first within a mile of home for many years and a flock of over 100 Starlings. There are a few that come to the garden but this was like old times with them circling about. Wood Pigeons are nesting in a Laurel tree just outside the back door and are struggling to carry twigs twice as long as they are.

Bernard

 

Our local sparrows now have fledglings in the garden demanding food. With the coal tits and a couple of juvenile blackbirds making occasional forays out of the bushes, and a pair of blue tits searching for insects/caterpillars for their (presumably ) nestlings, it is like Clapham Junction with birds flitting around in all directions. 

 

The baby starlings haven't appeared yet, and I tend to hear them first rather than see them, as they fly around squawking continuously in groups of three or four following an almost exhausted parent from one likely food source to the next. 

[The Lurker]

There was drama in the Lurker garden this morning around 10 to 7. I noticed a magpie hopping around at the end of teh garden under the conifers that screen us from the neighbours. There is a magpie nest in one of the trees. I had just decided by virtue of the behaviour of the bird and its size that it must the first of this year's brood to have fledged and thought to myself that it was a little risky for it to be there as there are cats and foxes in the area, when a fox rushed into the garden, and investigated one of the bushes before going behind it. About a half minute later, the juvenile magpie came out of the other side of the bush and escaped across the garden. The fox did not immediately appear but then i noticed one of the adult magpie perched in the bush. Then both adults were in the conifers, fairly low down,obviously distracting the fox. It emerged at a rush,leaped up the fence about 6 foot high) andonto the roof of a shed in the garden at the back and tried to climb further up the tree, after the adults. That lasted several minutes. I could not see what happened to the fox after that and I have not seen the juvenile magpie re-emerge although I did see the adults again. I guess the fox could not have climbed high enough to get to the nest (it must be a good 30 feet up) and I don't know if in fact there were two juveniles, one of which has been caught, but the fact that the fox chased after the adults makes me think it was unsuccessful. I will look out for further evidence of the juvenile over the next couple of days. I didn't have the window open at the time so could not hear any cries and did not want to disturb the drama. However, since then I have come upstairs to work and have heard magpie alarm calls.

 

And while this was happening a male blackbird hopped from a tree, onto a fence, and down into next door's garden!

 

 

[jbqfc]

our blue tits are doing there best to get the chicks to to fly the nest  this morning sitting on the bush opposite the box with food shouting to them then going in to feed them when they don't come out 

 

John 

 

[eastglosmog]

This blackbird is going to end up in a cat if it does this too often - fortunately my cat is getting to old for this kind of thing.  I had even been out and shooed it away, but it came back!

 

[eastglosmog]

Defying my old cat again!

 

[Kingzance]

Lucky to have my camera with the right lens fitted yesterday when this one flew overhead:

[The Lurker]

this morning I saw the magpie fledgling in the garden for the first time since the incident on Monday. I assume it is the same one. Based on last year, the chicks generally fledge at different times, until we end up with three or four demanding to be fed by the parent.

 

After my report of swifts on 4 May, I then didn't see them until this week, mainly in the hour before sunset and just after, although I have seen one today from my "office" window.

[jbqfc]

tonight we have 12 starling fledglings lined up on the garage roof demanding to be fed 

 

John 

[Barry Ten]

Pleased to say that the birdbox which we cleaned out and refurbished last week (after the great tit hatchlings died) has now been taken over by a house sparrow.  She got in there pretty quick considering there is no shortage of nesting spaces around.

[PhilJ W]

A pair of the sparrows evicted when the shrubs they were nesting in were hacked down by the local council didn't go far. In fact they went to an adjacent smaller shrub that wasn't hacked so badly and have produced a brood who have just fledged. All the more remarkable is that the nest can't be more than three or four feet above the ground. 

[Mallard60022]

3 hours ago, jbqfc said:

tonight we have 12 starling fledglings lined up on the garage roof demanding to be fed 

 

John 

Noisy b#####s are they not. Really hissy sort of screeching; gets annoying after a whole day unfortunately.

P

[PhilJ W]

I found some ant nests in the garden this afternoon so I dug a couple out. As soon as I was out of site a robin and blackbird swooped onto them taking beakfulls of grubs. 

[jbqfc]

11 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

Noisy b#####s are they not. Really hissy sort of screeching; gets annoying after a whole day unfortunately.

P

 

yes that's how i know they in the garden just put the morning ration of mealworms so they will back soon 

 

the blue tits have finally left the box this morning  i managed to seen the last two go 

 

John 

[jbqfc]

the weather here in Crawley is a bit of a challenge for the birds today windy very heavy rain thunder lighting and large hale stones 

 

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

In the case of our blue tits, from the birdbox, to the beech hedge it is set in before 8 am.  Very impressed, brood of eight flew, most we have ever seen at this or our previous address. They started a little later than usual this year, and clearly the oak moth caterpillar supply was plentiful. By regular observation, the adults pretty much only used the oak tree 30m immediately North of the box, (and up to 30m vertically, tall these Sessile oaks) straight line flights to and fro except for an occasional seed feeder or birdbath interlude, both of which are under the flight path.

[PhilJ W]

A couple of hours ago there was a terrific noise outside. It was three magpies having a fight.