Chiltern Birder

It was a fine spring like day today with the lesser celendines under the front hedge finally starting to flower which attracted a buff tailed bumblebee. In the back a siskin was sampling the sunflower hearts. He posed for some time as I stood at the bedroom window and studied him carefully through glasses. I think that this is only the second time that I have seen one in the garden. The lesser redpolls are still regular visitors clearing up the pieces of sunflower seed that the goldfinches drop. Between them and the pigeons that patch of lawn is getting pecked bar. While I was watching the siskin a dunnock turned up as well but not for long as the lack of a red breast didn't stop the robin from seeing him as a threat. I know that robins can be vicious little devils but I thought that the behaviour was triggered by colour.

It was quite an exciting moment this morning when I spotted three redpolls on the lawn. I think they were in the garden yesterday as well but they are quite nervy and fly off at the slightest movement at thew window. Today I managed to see them from upsairs and had the little monocular that I carry when not explictly out birding handy. They were working over the patch under the feeder where the goldfinches drop fragments of sunflower seed. At night the badgers are still cleaning up everything in the ground feeding trays with at least two individuals visiting the garden. I had, legitimately under covid rules, to visit the Rush Green area of Romford at the weekend. What struck me immediately was the sound of ring necked parakeets in the taller trees. The usual blue and great tits were audible as well as house sparrows. I was brought up two or three miles to the north and back then all we saw in the gardens were sparrows and starlings.

With the mild wet weather giving way to cold we are seeing some changes in visitors. Among the finches we have seen some greenfinches visiting which is a welcome return as they have been absent as regular visitors for quite a few years. The bullfinches are well established again with three females seem in the gardem at the same time. Chaffinches and goldfinches are as common as ever. Among the tits there seem to have been fewer than usual log tailed but blues ad greats have been active. Marsh tits have been abset this year while coal tits are only ever eratic visitors. We are seeing th occasional starling but nuthatches and woodpeckers have been absent from the feeders. On the ground a pair of blackbirds have taken up residence and our robin seems to have found a mate. With more cold weather on the way we might see a little more variety soon.

The selection of birds in the garden does change over time. I haven't seen our starlings for a while but the other regulars are around in numbers. Blue tits are the most common of course followed by great tits although there have been no coal tits recenty. On the other hand the back garden did get a visit from a small flock of long tailed tits today which foraged in the old man's beard growing through my neighbour's leylandii as well as taking both sunflower hearts and fat. Among the finches our regular charm of goldfinches keeps visiting. They can be dificult to count but there have been nine in the garden at one time. The bullfinces are also reglar visitors with at leat founr individuals taking sunflower seeds both from the feeder and from pieces fallen to the ground. The greenfinch that I saw earlier in the season seems to have stopped visiting and chaffinces are infrequent. On the ground we have the usual selection of robin, wren, blackbird, wood pigeons and magpies b...

The advantage of using a tripod with the camera trap is that you have far more control over the position. With it set to full height I captured this nice clip of the badger at the ground feeder. After my previous post about choices made by the birds I noticed that his preference was for the raisins before clearing up the fat pellets.

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 t...

In most years I only see starlings in the garden in spring and early summer when they turn out mob handed and get through half a kilo of fat in a day. In the past week, however, I have had a part of three on the fat feeders in both the front and back gardens. Another usual visit today was by a pair of greenfinches who briefly came to the sunflower seed feeder. The feeders are all very busy now with seed being topped up daily. The dried mealworms in the ground feeder are proving popular with the blackbird and robin but the fat pellets only seem to be of interest to the magpies and wood pigeons. Despite the claims by the feed merchant the raisins are generally ignored by the birds but the badger cleans them up overnight. A group of long tailed tits made a suprise visit at dusk today. Judging by their behaviour I suspect that they were taling a last feed of the night before roosting in my neighbours leylandii. This seems rather more attractive to birds now that old man's beard has ...