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.
Taking my usual walk today it was striking how the autumn colours had come on in the last few days. When the sun came out I really regretted not having the camera with me. There wasn't much to see in the way of variety or numbers of birds. A couple of probable skylarks put up on a cultivated field but the gem was naturally a red kite. Circling over the fields behind my house at tree top height it finally came over my head as I reached the edge of the field. Living where I do I suppose that I should be blasé about them by now but when one comes overhead there is no choice. I still just stop and say "wow!"
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