A rather damp misty day today with that grey light that seems to drain the colour from things at any distance. Giving the front garden some much overdue tidying I was distracted by a pair of blackbirds taking berries from the rowan tree in the garden. There was a good crop this year and most have now been taken although this is the first opportunity that I have had to see this in action. While I was watching I realised that there was a lot of activity in the treetops in Broomstick Lane and saw a flock of redwing making their way along the canopy towards Ley Hill. They stayed in the high branches and followed the line of the lane very precisely with none spilling out to the lower trees in the gardens.
At least one brood of starlings have been regular visitors to the feeder and today the fledglings got the hang of taking the food for themselves. Other broods must be less developed as adults were still taking away quantities of fat. The tits aren't so common at the moment, I don't know if this is because they have dispersed, if wild food is available or if pressure from the starlings has driven them off. Single blue tits are dropping in fairly regularly and a coal tit took fat away as well. The woodpecker seems to have become a regular visitor and still has a brood to feed. He definitely comes before the starlings in the pecking order and keeps them off the feeder until he has finished. The new feeder with perching rings is popular with the chaffinches and the goldfinches, the latter suddenly seem to prefer the high energy mix to the nyjer seed. With all this demand for feeding young ones the fat is going down very rapidly and I am putting larger quantities out on the ground t...
Comments