So far winter hasn't brought anything exciting to the garden but, with the mild weather, it is clear which are the most favoured bird foods. The finches, of course, love the sunflower hearts. The blue and great tits are also showing a preference for sunflower seed and largely ignore the fat balls in the adjacent hanging feeder. I have even seen them waiting on the feeder arms for the finches to leave a free port rather than peck at the fat balls. I also hung a FlutterButter peanut butter feeder next to the seed feeder and that has been totally ignored.
We were getting a small group of starlings who were making a big dent in the fat block and the front and the fat balls in the back garden but they have moved on and I am starting to become concerned that the remaining contents are going to become mouldy.
At ground level I am feeding raisins, fat pellets and dried mealworms. The robin will take fat pellets and mealworms but can't clear the feeders on his own. A blackbird will turn up occasionally and take a lot of the mealworms but we can go days without a visit. Pigeons and magpies were coming into the garden in the autumn and clearing up the fat pellets quite promptly after they were put out but they haven;t been seen for several weeks. The feed suppliers say that blackbirds will take raisins but they are untouched until the badger's nightly visit.
We used to have a pair of wood pigeons who were practically permanent residents but these have been absent since the summer, instead a singleton makes occasional visits. As a result nothing is clearing the sunflower nibs that the finches drop on the lawn below the feeder. I am starting to worry that this might attract rats. So far the camera trap has shown that they are not regular visitors but that could always change.
I dug out my tripod recently and tried setting the camera trap to capture pictures from the hanging feeders. Whatever position I use involves tilting the camera upwards resulting in the feeder being under exposed giving me some nice silhuettes to identify.
I have had a couple of trips to College Lake but without seeing anything remarkable. Plenty of redwin in the bushes and wigeon on the lake though. One visit had a lovely arial display by a large flock of lapwing as well as encountering a trio of roe deer at the far end of the reserve.
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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