During the recent storms my sunflower seed feeder vanished, possibly stolen by a squirrel. With the old feeder I observed that chaffinces didn't seem able to perch and use it although goldfinches and bullfinces were fine. A day or two ago I saw a pair of chaffinches perched quite happily and feeding on the new feeder. I think that the perches are ticker and a little longer than the old ones which presumably makes a difference for the finches.
Mostly though it has been blue and great tits on the feeders with robins, blackbirds, dunnocks and wood pigeons taking food on the ground.. The badger seems to visit on most nights as any uneaten raisins are cleaned up, and the feeding tray pushed around and turned over,
My next door neighbour as a broken slat on their kitchen ventilator and a pair of robins appear to be nesting inside. I hasten to add that these are static ventilators built into the brickwork not fans. Other than that the lesser celandines are in bloom under the front hedge, I tweeted a photo which I thought rather dull but which got over 500 views in 5 hours.
The garden has been disturbingly quiet this month when traditionally the feeders will be continously active. I am seeing a handful of blue and great tits on the feeders but no finches and only the occasional long tailed tit. Normally I woukld expect goldfinches and a few bullfinches on the feeders and chaffinches and redpolls on the ground at this time of year. It has been a strange winter, very mild apart from one cold snap so I hope that they are simply don't need to come into the gardens. On a better note I saw a pair of sparrows in the front hedge this morning so, hopefully, they might be spreading from their stronghold in privet hedges at the other end of the village. Away from home a family trip to Yorkshire netted three pairs of goosander on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal between Shipley and Saltaire. I think this is the first time that I have been close enough to get a good naked eye view. I have been neglecting this blog, probably because most web browsing is now done on t
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