Chiltern Birder

I was away from home during the storm so spent Sunday worrying about my garden fence. Coming home on Monday the train was crawling up to the junction after Moor Park when I realised that a parakeet was flying along with us. The weather had turned clear and bright and with the very low relative velocity I could see the bright green plumage clearly. This was definitely the best view that I have yet had of a parakeet, normally I see little more than a silluette, and the first that I have actually seen, rather than just heard, outside of the build up area of London. When I got home the fence was intact although with a disturbing amount of play in one of the posts. The big surprise was that the sunflower heart feeder was missing. I thought that it had just blown off but it was nowhere to be found and I suspect that it had been stolen by a squirrel. I have observed one carrying off a feeder before.

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. ...

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...