Chiltern Birder

Not a rarity but a newcomer to my garden today was a pied wagtail. It landed on the feeder before dropping down to the lawn. On the other hand a robin seems to have taken to sunflower seeds and, with some difficulty, flutters onto a feeder perch to grab one or two seeds before flying off. This is despite there being spillage available on the ground which attracts the chaffinches. I have bought a longer feeder pole which, so far, seems to have defeated the squirrels. An advantage of the height is that I can see the feeders while seated in my armchair rather than standing at the window, with the risk of disturbing the birds. The garden is busy for much of the day now with goldfinches and blue and great tits flocking to the feeders together with random visits by long tailed tits although starling numbers are way down. At ground level in the past few days we have had bullfinch, chaffinch, dunnock, blackbird  and robin. Our resident wren has either moved on or failed to survive the wint

Despite the frost and fog I noticed that far more birds seemed to be singing. In addition a woodpecker was drumming this afternoon. On the other hand, walking into Chesham this morning the winter visitors were still around with a redwing foraging by Codmore Playing Field. In the garden the goldfinches put in a reappearance but only briefly. The main visitors were a mix of blue and great tits who descended on the shrubs as a flock and paid individual visits to the feeder. We also had a chaffinch which preferred feeding on the ground. Moving the seed feeder seems to have also reduced the number of birds visiting the fat feeders.

I took a trip over to Stockers Lake again. Conditions and species were much the same as in my post of 29 December. The one thing of note was that the grebes are into their breeding plumage, we should be seeing some head wagging displays very soon. At home, I had been away for 3 nights and the seed feeder had been emptied. The goldfinches didn't reappear after it was refilled, hopefully they will be back in a day or two. The main entertainment was the squirrel trying to get to the feeder. It took the grey bandit between 4 and 9 attempts to make it. He needed the baffle to be tilted at just the right angle so he could catch the base of the feeder with his fore paws and then swing his body to catch the pole with his hind legs.

I decided to see how many different species come to the garden on a typical winter day. The total came to eleven: blackbird blue tit bullfinch chaffinch dunnock goldfinch great tit long tailed tit robin starling wood pigeon The squirrel managed to crack the baffle with an impressive leap from a bush at the side of the garden. I trimmed back the branches, which I had been meaning to do in better weather anyway, and his follow up attempt resulted in an equally impressive tumble as the baffole tipped him off as intended. I don't know if the next act was chance or design but I caught him making several leaps at the baffle from ground level gradually pulling it down a little. The next leap from the bush meant that he just managed to reach the the central pole. I have how tightened the fastenings and we will have to see if that is sufficient. The bushes will also get some additional trimming in better weather.

Things can change rapidly at this time of year. In the last two days, after a short absence, the blue tits have appeared in the garden in force again. In particular they have taken to the fat feeders as well as grabbing sunflower seeds. It is very striking how, when they take a seed, they fly to a sheltered spot to eat it before returning for the next but will perch on the fat feeder for minutes at a time. Both great and coal tits have also been in evidence.

I have finally invested in a squirrel baffle as they were cleaning out the seed feeder in no time at all. The feeders were placed for best viewing from the living room window but of course that was an easy jump from the fence. The first alternative position wasn't much better but the third location finally worked although I might now keep the bins by the armchair rather than reply of naked eye viewing. Once they had discovered that they couldn't run straight up the pole a squirrel proceeded to study the feeder from every angle, including a branch at the edge of the garden before deciding that there was no way up. Mostly the squirrels are now taking the buts that the birds drop they do try the occasional leap. The baffle is designed to tilt and they just slide off again. From the way, at different times, it is tilted at different angles they have made a number of attempts although I have only observed one. What the baffle has shown up is the sheer volume of food that the finch