Tell-tale signs

Watching the behaviour of visiting garden birds can be quite entertaining – most of the time! It can also tell a story of what is going on if you look more closely. So let’s start with the male chaffinch below who seems to have adopted the top of my small pine tree, which is directly opposite the entrance to my camera nestbox approx six feet away, as a song post.

What is he singing about? Is he just happy or is he looking to impress the ladies? Mm… there are certainly a good number of male and female chaffinches visiting my garden at the moment. This chap has really caught my attention as he sings his little heart out even when I am out in the garden too.


Most birds visiting my garden will be already paired and I do believe that the collared dove, that has been visiting alone, is now bringing its mate. They usually feed on the ground but sometimes go to the tables too. Mm… I wonder if we will see juvenile collared doves visit at some point. Yes, once you start spotting some pairs you will see there are quite a few.


Once paired, the male birds do appear to always be on lookout when they feed together as you can see with the siskins above. I am guessing the male understands his role of protecting the female even before she lays eggs. I am also guessing that they have some sort of internal clock (probably related to weather temperature) to tell them when to mate.

It was certainly a bit warmer last weekend and as I brushed my daughter’s hair looking out the window we spotted the very quick 'moment' between this pair, or another pair of siskins, on this Acer tree. Let’s just say my daughter was quite vocal about it! So we could see juvenile siskins in the garden again this year.


Nest building is well underway with the blue tits using my camera Nestbox - I plan to post an update with video footage in a couple of days. However, I have been watching for blackbirds collecting material too in the hope that they might use the Nestbox I put up especially for them. I’ve seen no signs at all with blackbirds but I have seen starlings collecting short stems of dried grass around the base of my ornamental grasses. Of course today when I was out with my camera they were only to be seen refuelling with sultanas!


The blackbirds were also enjoying the sultanas today too. But wait a minute. If you look closely they aren’t just eating them… they are collecting them! They are collecting sunflower hearts too. I watched them fly off with mouthfuls of them.

After watching this last year I now know this is a classic tell-tale sign that there are chicks somewhere, perhaps close-by, waiting to be fed. Well… there’s a surprise! Okay, not all is lost for my Nestbox as Blackbirds do have more than one brood per year so perhaps a pair will find it for next time.

Blackbird chicks are great to see in the garden – but then again the blackbirds are one of my favourite garden visitors. I love to see the feathers of the chicks go through the colour changes from fluffy brown to smooth black. However, they won’t be the first chicks in my garden this year. The first chicks I have noticed in my garden for 2008 belong to the dunnocks.


For a few days now I have been watching three juvenile dunnocks play follow my leader round my plants. The one in the photos above was out on its own today. I hope the others are okay. Again, what a pretty little bird this is. I have to say that although I am absolutely amazed to see the variety of colours of the finches that visit my garden I am becoming a big fan of the less colourful birds.

Finally, I should perhaps point out that the birds in my garden are at different stages of nest building than those in other parts of the UK. We are approximately two weeks behind much of England. However, you may still find it interesting to watch out for the tell-tale signs in your garden. It is fascinating to see.

To see more photos of the blackbirds taken today without sultanas in their mouths go to this posting on my birdphotos blog.

All photos above were taken in my garden on April 29th 2008.

Top 10 Garden Birds 2008

For anyone who took part with the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch in January 2008 the results are now out. Below I have listed the top ten with comparison figures for 2007. You can see my top ten visiting garden birds here.

Top 10 Garden Birds 2008

1. HOUSE SPARROW with an average of 3.6 per garden
(2007 – 1. with 4.4 per garden)

2. STARLING with an average of 3.44 per garden
(2007 – 2. with 3.67 per garden)

3. BLACKBIRD with an average of 2.45 per garden
(2007 – 4. with 2.26 per garden)

4. BLUE TIT with an average of 2.29 per garden
(2007 – 3. with 2.82 per garden)

5. CHAFFINCH with an average of 2.15 per garden
(2007 – 5. with 1.9 per garden)

6. WOODPIGEON with an average of 1.53 per garden
(2007 – 7. with 1.53 per garden)

7. COLLARED DOVE with an average of 1.43 per garden
(2007 – 6. with 1.56 per garden)

8. ROBIN with an average of 1.26 per garden
(2007 – 9. with 1.26 per garden)

9. GREAT TIT with an average of 1.25 per garden
(2007 – 8. with 1.37 per garden)

10. GOLDFINCH with an average of 1.16 per garden
(2007 – Goldfinch not in top ten,
Greenfinch was 10th place with 1.2 per garden)

Finches bring such wonderful colour to the garden. Chaffinches are always in my garden but now I have an increasing number of siskins - I even had siskin juveniles in last year. I also have greenfinches and goldfinches visiting too – again bringing their young. Therefore, I am not surprised at all that the RSPB has highlighted the finches in their results page:

"Numbers of colourful finches visiting UK gardens over winter are at their highest levels for five years. For the first time in the survey's 29-year history, the striking siskin made it into the top 20, and the scarcer brambling moved from 57 to 36 in the rankings. This increase in bramblings and siskins (up by two thirds in the last five years), suggest that tree seed supplies have been poor this year and they've been forced into gardens to find food. Along with siskin and brambling increases, redpoll numbers skyrocketed, being seen in twice as many gardens this year as last. Again this is probably due to poor supply of food.”

Finally, to see a more detailed list of the birdcount in your area check out this list on the Results Pages.

Garden Birdwatch March 2008

Weekend mornings are ideal to do an early morning bird count. I love to sit and have breakfast at the window watching the early frantic dashes through the garden by the visiting birds. I especially like to do this as light comes up. Today I did a count for no other reason than I hadn't done one in a while. I took my count between 7.45 - 8.45am.

Top of the leader board today was, once again, the Chaffinch with 9. During my count I saw five males (left above) and three females (right above). Later on during the day I saw many more.


Second place was the Blackbird with 8. During my count I saw one partial albino male, four males (left above) and four females (right above). I love to see and hear the Blackbirds in the morning. They really do make the garden come alive.


Third place went to the siskin with 7. During my count today I saw two males (left above) but later in the day I saw five. I saw five females (centre above) and there were probably eight later on in the day. I saw four Goldfinches (right above) and I may have seen one more later.


Two male House Sparrows (left above) were seen and one female. Two Greenfinches and two Blue Tits were also seen. On other days I have noticed four Blue Tits in the garden and I know more have visited as I have seen different birds in our Camera Nestbox.


Finally with a count of one, from left to right above, is the Robin, Dunnock and Female Blackcap. Now this was interesting to see the female Blackcap still with us as I haven't noticed her recently. However, just before I began my count I filled up some of the feeders and put some apples on my obelisk. Guess where I spotted the Blackcap - yes, at the apples once again!

Bird counts are always interesting to do and look back on. I have never had a Blackcap in my garden for so long. I am always expecting that it will leave soon as no males have been seen and I have never seen them in my garden during Spring and Summer. They are new visitors appearing for the first time in January 2007 and then again for a brief visit in February 2007.

Collared doves, I have been told, usually visit in groups but I only ocassionally see one. However today, true to form after a bird count is over, along came one then another! A Song Thrush was also spotted on the branches of an over looking tree but as I didn't see it on my trees, feeders or on the ground it wasn't included in my count.

Birds do look out for the feeders being filled up and one such bird is the Jackdaw. Today, once the birds started buzzing around the garden from feeder to feeder it flew to the roof of my house. It then took a fly-by past a particular feeder that I will put a few odd peanuts on. No joy for him today as I had run out! So he wasn't included in the count either. I have noticed the Great Tits appear when the peanuts are put out too but as I don't want to attract the squirrels I don't put out many and not on a regular basis either. I enjoyed my count this morning and looked forward to garden walkabout to look at the plants later.

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2008: Results for shirls gardenwatch

This morning between 10-11am I took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2008. It was a very windy morning as I topped up my feeders just before 9am. I have found that newly filled feeders sometimes take up to an hour for the birds to descend on them in their usual numbers.

Update March 26th 2008: If you are looking for the results from the RSPB they just came out this morning. I have also just posted on them too with comparisons to last year.

The RSPB bird count is for the UK only. However, I thought I would be interesting to see what visits gardens in other parts of the world too. So I enlisted some help from some friends in the blogging community to take part with us this weekend. You will find details of their counts at the bottom of this post which I will update as they come in. I will also add a link here at the end of March for the results of the RSPB count.

Just before I began counting a jackdaw came down for a few peanuts I put on top of the sunflower hearts in the small seed tray next to my hanging feeders. This jackdaw always spots them there! However just like a grey heron that flew over my garden it didn’t appear in my results – birds flying over the garden don’t count. Two crows also flew over.

A photo montage of the different garden birds that visited during my bird count this morning I thought would be much more interesting to see - especially for any visitors reading this from outside the UK. These really are pretty little garden birds. You can still see a list of the statistics below. Looking at the photos, one photo represents one of that species visiting although many females did visit too.

Half-way through my bird count and I was happy that although some numbers were down on a usual day it still was a fairly good account of my visiting birds. The numbers of chaffinches and siskins in particular were increasing at the feeders although the birds are always nervous on a windy day. I was beginning to wonder how many chaffinches I could manage to count accurately as each visit brought more. Then, as I almost got a number, the wind would get up and the birds would scatter away into my hedge and surrounding trees. Of course the photo below shows what happened next!!


As suspected, although I still couldn’t believe her timing at 10.30am, a young female Sparrowhawk flew down and perched herself on the roof of my shed. She stayed there for a minute or so which was just enough time for me to move my tripod and get a few photos. Unfortunately I had problems with my focus settings trying to catch her quickly. Her feathers were getting blown about as she sat and the wind caught her too and I noticed her claws held tightly to my shed. She could clearly hear the birds hiding in my shed as she was turning round and looking towards it a few times as well as watching the ground too. She eventually flew off with nothing this time.

My count was as good as over then! It was 20 minutes before any birds returned to the feeders with the first being the chaffinches who were, not surprisingly, top of my list today. The chaffinch was top of the list for the whole of Scotland last year but my garden had the starlings with just one more. Funnily enough since the invasion of starlings into my garden with their young last summer they only visit occasionally now. There is just one bird that somtimes comes (most unusual for the starlings) and feeds with the blackbirds on the ground.

I blame the fatcakes for unsociable numbers of starlings! I guess you will agree with me on this, Robin! I now have one fatcake but it is in a feeder with a cage around it called a fatcake guardian- maybe you have something like this in the USA Robin? The blackcap, robin, blue and great tits are enjoying being able to get peace (at the moment) eating in it. However, I have to say that any claims of completely stopping the larger birds getting in this cage are false. It only took one slim starling working out it how to get in last year - with others watching! They are smart birds, starlings! However, they are on the endangered list here in the UK and this is where the statistics give a good picture of numbers. In my garden you could say after being top in my bird count last year they have gone from hero to zero! I wonder where all the juveniles went? So, now to my statistics for 2008 below.

13 CHAFFINCHES Fringilla coelebs (12 last year)
7 SISKINS Carduelis spinus (none last year)
5 HOUSE SPARROWS Passer domesticus (6 last year)
3 BLACKBIRDS Turdus merula (same last year)
3 BLUE TITS Parus caeruleus (same last year)
3 GOLDFINCHES Carduelis carduelis (2 last year)
2 GREENFINCHES Carduelis chloris (3 last year)
2 WOODPIGEONS Columba palumbus (5 last year)
1 ROBIN Erithacus rubecula (2 last year)
1 DUNNOCK Prunella modularis (same last year)
1 BLACKCAP Sylvia atricapilla (none last year)
1 SPARROWHAWK Accipter nisus (none last year)

Enlarged individual photos from the montages shown above with names below can be seen here. Of course these are not all the birds that have visited my garden - if you are interested in seeing more I have at present 49 videos you can browse through here. I also have videos of wildlife that visits my garden and footage from my Nestbox during 2007.

Today, I have to blame the woodpigeon for perching itself on my neighbours pruned cherry tree overlooking my garden for spoiling what was looking like a good count from my garden! It made an excellent ‘Café Open’ sign for any Sparrowhawks looking out from mature trees in the distance! If it hadn't visited today I wonder if the Sparrowhawk would have. I should also say here that we haven’t seen as many woodpigeons visiting the garden recently - last year at this time we could easily have seen five. I am guessing the Sparrowhawk is perhaps responsible as I have noticed a patch of grey feathers in the same place on my neighbours lawn on more than a few occasions.

Finally, I would like to say a huge thanks to everyone outside the UK, listed below, who joined me with a bird count.

NOVA SCOTIA Canada, Sarah see comments
GEORGIA USA, Jayne see comments and post
SWITZERLAND, Barbara see comments
VIRGINIA USA, Entangled see post ‘Counting Crows’
SW INDIANA USA, Lisa see post
NOVA SCOTIA Canada, Jodi see post
N ILLINOIS USA, Mr McGregor’s Daughter see comments
CENTRAL INDIANA, Robin see comments
SE TENNESSEE USA, Frances see post
NETHERLANDS, Yolanda see comments
FLORIDA KEYS USA, Jane see comments

Thanks also go to Carol in Indiana USA and Ewa in Poland for taking part see comments.

Early Bird Watch Oct 2007

This morning’s bird count wasn’t planned. I was up early, the house was quiet and so was the garden as I opened the curtain to another beautiful October morning. I love to watch my garden awaken in the morning. I looked up my blog and saw in was the 7th March when I did my last Early Bird Watch. During the summer my attention was drawn to all the juvenile birds that were visiting and now in hindsight I wish I had done a count then. This morning’s Early Bird Watch was done between 7.30-8.30am.

The Robin was the first bird I spotted this morning not singing from the trees but bouncing along the ground - it soon found the sunflower hearts I scattered under my small domed Acer tree yesterday. This morning I saw one Robin.

A Juvenile Blackbird closely followed the robin beside the pond. I have to say I didn’t expect to see one of these this morning – its back feathers had turned black but the front was still brown not unlike the photo below which was taken of another juvenile in May this year. Recently I have noticed the blackbirds return to running around the plants chasing each other. I had also noticed a few different partial albinos (blackbirds with white feathers – often on the head) and one did visit this morning. The photo below was taken earlier in the year – I would like to get some better photos to show the different patterns of white feathers on these birds. This morning I saw five Blackbirds.

Singing from a tree branch my attention was next drawn to a female Chaffinch. I had never noticed her singing before although it is sometimes difficult to see who is singing from trees when there are leaves on the trees. However my neighbour’s cherry tree was given a severe pruning last weekend so now as there are only stumps left we can easily see the birds. However, this Chaffinch today was singing near my feeders on the branch of my cotoneaster tree – whose berries are looking particularly well at the moment. Soon the birds will eat the berries but as I planted it for them to eat I don’t mind about that at all. This morning I saw five Chaffinches.

The Dunnock is particularly hard to see on the ground as it darts about under the plants. I love to watch it. It also can be seen visiting the bird table too as it did this morning. This morning I saw two Dunnocks.


The House Sparrows are always very entertaining to watch in the garden. They really are great fun. Recently they appear to have claimed the caged feeder as their own – scaring off any other birds that come along as well as fighting with each other! Although without a doubt my favourite sightings of the House Sparrows has to be them popping in and out of my hedge. They appear in a scattered formation overlooking the feeders which are just a metre away. As I use my zoom lens to catch them I have difficulty in getting them in focus – it is also very difficult to predict which gap they will pop through when the start doing this! I have seen at least 15 do this at the same time. This morning I saw seven House Sparrows during my count but more came later.


Blue Tits and Great Tits are also difficult to catch with my camera as they are so quick to the feeders. Often they just take a sunflower heart away and eat it from the safety of a tree branch above. However the are very easy to spot in flight with their short swooping flight pattern. This morning I saw one Blue Tit and one Great Tit.

Greenfinches on the other hand are much easier to catch on film – but also by the cats too! They also fight amongst each other but the video below taken in September 2006 shows that they can eat nicely too! This morning I saw four Greenfinches.



Flying over the garden I spotted a group of eleven seagulls, two crows and three Woodpigeons. I had wondered if I would see a Sparrowhawk but no sign this morning. However it is the Woodpigeon in flight that always surprises me. It is really fast and smooth - quite a contrast to the way it waddles slowly and clumsily around the garden. Today it made an appearance at the feeders stopping the smaller birds getting near for a while and then on the ground at the scattered sunflower hearts. Although one Woodpigeon was not keen at all to share its find this morning and continually chased off its prospective dining partner – quite unlike the pair in the video below taken in January!



Finally, I have to add here that although it appears I have a wide variety of birds in my garden these are by no means the only birds that are visiting at the moment. For those who are not familiar with my visiting birds I also have Coal Tits, Goldfinches, Siskins, Starlings, Song Thrushes and an occasional Sparrowhawk visiting. I probably still have a wren but as the ground is covered with plants I am unable to see it easily. Today was really quite tricky to see and count the birds on the ground with all my plants in full growth but what a lovely exercise this is - I would definitely recommend it!

None of the photos or videos shown above were taken in my garden today.

Garden Birdwatch May 2007

The Blue Tits nesting in our Camera Nestbox have rather dominated posts recently. I thought I would address this, on behalf of the other birds in my garden, by doing a bird count over this weekend as activity in my garden has increased recently.

The results below were taken on Saturday between 8.30-9.30am. Top of the count was the Starling.

9 Starlings counted

Starlings have dramatically increased in numbers in the last 10 days or so. They are coming to the feeders in packs and are messily tossing food about as they eat. The smaller birds wait about and sometimes join them. The Woodpigeon gets quite aggressive when they feed near it.

7 Blackbirds counted

Blackbirds have visited my garden in good numbers for some time now. They are seen and heard most early in the morning - although they do visit throughout the day and are one of the last birds to be seen before dusk.

The pictures shown above are of a Blackbird male, top, and a juvenile. There were five males, one female and a juvenile in my count. The mystery surrounding the unusually large amount of sunflower hearts being eaten at the moment was solved when I did my count.

I watched the male blackbirds go away with beakfuls of up to five sunflower hearts and I saw one feeding a juvenile with them. The young juveniles are quite plump and brown and almost the same size as the male. They wait about the ground near the feeders. Between them and the recent invasion of starlings I will need to restock my supplies a week earlier than usual.

4 Greenfinches and 4 Chaffinches counted

Finches are popular in my garden but not all were seen for my count. We have not seen any Siskins since my post on March 21st. We had about eight visiting then – as one was sick I slowed up a little on filling the feeders and off they all went! All the finches appear to be sociable visiting in large groups together or mixed. Goldfinches too were missing from my count but they are still visiting my garden – the most I have ever counted of them has been 19!

Greenfinches, top, will feed at the feeders and on the ground enjoying the sunflower hearts. Chaffinch females, middle, look quite similar to the greenfinch and will travel through shrubs to get to the ground – two were counted. Chaffinch males, are often seen around the ground or sitting on branches just looking about – two were counted.

3 Woodpigeons counted

I’ll be honest when I say that I find myself opening in window and clapping my hands to scare off the woodpigeons when they are at the feeders in numbers. I did do this during my count quite a few times. The smaller birds don’t always move away when I do this. I don’t mind the odd woodpigeon strolling around the ground and feeding there – as long as they don’t damage plants! Sorry, I shouldn’t be selective I know.

2 Song Thrushes, 2 House Sparrows, and 2 Blue Tits counted

Song Thrushes, top, are seen regularly now enjoying the sultanas and sunflower hearts from the ground. They will even feed from the bird table and I have seen one on the bar of a feeder trying to get the sunflower hearts from there too.

House Sparrows, middle, come and go. Often there is a solitary one or two then a larger group will come along of about ten. I am seeing more males at the feeders at the moment. The largest numbers I have seen of House Sparrows was last October where we had to count visually in groups of tens – there were over 80! It was quite a sight when they were disturbed and all flew off together.

Blue Tit, bottom, numbers have decreased since our pair began nesting. Our male is often seen chasing off the competition as he did during my count. The photo above is of him sitting on his favourite perch.

1 Great Tit, 1 Robin, 1 Dunnock and 1 Jackdaw counted

Great Tit, top, was seen only briefly as our Blue Tit male chased him too. He did take a sunflower heart away with him and attempted to eat it on another tree but our sleuth male chased him from there too! What a handsome bird this is though – isn’t it?

Robins, middle, are back visiting my garden once more – they seemed to have a spell away. They are often seen chasing off the Dunnocks – although not in this count. I don't have a photo of the Dunnock yet - it moves about the ground around plants.

Jackdaws, bottom, have begun to visit my bird table taking its favourite nibble – the peanuts! It has the same problem as the Woodpigeon at the table as its size makes it a bit difficult to get in. It does manage though. It also gets the open window and clapping of hands treatment!


1 Blue Tit female in Nestbox

Finally, this bird count could be complete without mentioning our nesting female Blue Tit in our Camera Nestbox. All has gone quiet in the Nestbox at the moment – perhaps next weekend we will have some eggs hatched!! For most of the count she remained inside the Nestbox incubating her eggs. She did pop out briefly at one point and returned again.

All photographs above were taken in my garden.

Top 10 Garden Birds 2007

For anyone who took take part counting birds in their garden over the weekend of 27-28 January 2007 and would like to know the results, the RSPB have just announced them. There is a brief snapshot of them in my table below.

To get the full result go to http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/results/

TOP TEN GARDEN BIRDS	2007
House sparrow - average 4.4 per garden	1
Starling - average 3.67 per garden	2
Blue tit - average 2.82 per garden	3
Blackbird - average 2.26 per garden	4
Chaffinch - average 1.9 per garden	5
Collared dove - average 1.56 per garden	6
Woodpigeon - average 1.53 per garden	7
Great tit - average 1.37 per garden	8
Robin - average 1.26 per garden	9
Greenfinch - average 1.2 per garden	10
How many results were submitted?	400,000

Early Bird Watch 7-8 am

I thought it was time to do a roll call of the early visitors to my garden. I haven’t put out any food this morning as the feeders have enough. The table still has some of the sunflower seed mix left. I want to scrape and clean it later, if it stays dry, so I need the birds to eat the seeds they often leave till last or something more appealing comes along! I always find it interesting when I change a seed or mix as it can bring and lose visitors. I haven’t noticed the Blackcap males in a while – I bought the Fat Cake Guardian especially to keep them too!

The first appearance, as always, is the Blackbird. Even if I top up the feeders just before the light comes up I hear them screeching as they bounce along the top of my hedge and back and forward to my neighbours’ trees. Scavenging the ground for the food the males are often spotted fighting which is quite common at the moment. There were five this morning, a fight with a couple and one brave soul having a bath at 7am – it gave me the shivers watching it. If I was to pick one food that would keep the Blackbirds visiting it would definitely be the sultanas scattered on the ground.

Surprisingly the Siskin was the next I spotted. They really are tiny in comparison to the other birds – especially the blackbirds this morning. There were three males enjoying the sunflower mix in the feeders. I spotted one on the ground yesterday near my pond – I should probably consider, cleaning, refilling and returning my small water tray to this feeder as the wind often blows it away.

Robin , reliable as ever. There is seldom a morning that a Robin does not pop in but sometimes there can be three and then they too, like the Blackbird, chase the competition away. I only spotted one today feeding on the ground under the pine tree with the female Chaffinches. I noticed a cone on the ground – I suspect the Coal Tit is responsible for that!

Chaffinch ladies fed together. The males were later to arrive this morning, the females dropped to the ground and up to the table as a group – I spotted five. They often catch my eye in the garden – they seem to be rather clumsy in their approach to the feeders often abandoning their attempt. They seem much better, and more comfortable, landing on my shrubs and small trees.

Blue Tits were next to bounce down from the trees. They quickly appear from nowhere bright and bubbly whatever the time of the day. They are a joy to watch – three popped in during my watch. My thoughts turned to the Nestboxes but expected it would be a bit early for any activity there. I was right about our Camera Nestbox but the Terrace had a Blue Tit pecking at the entrance hole from the inside – I just spotted the movement of his head and beak.

Wrongly accused! I have to apologise to the Coal Tit for suggesting it was likely to be responsible for the fallen cone. There is another suspect in the frame for this one – the Siskin male. I have just spotted it at another cone on the tree as I write this! The seeds in the cones are the attraction but perhaps as the birds peck for the seeds they loosen the hold the cone has to the branch. Case withdrawn.

Two silent Starlings . Starlings usually come in groups, often large and noisy, but first thing in the morning we often get a solitary one quietly feeding amongst the other birds. Today there were two, they didn’t fight nor did they stay long.

Solitary Goldfinch . At first three Goldfinches were spotted at the seed feeder but later after they left one returned. Well, perhaps it wasn’t one of the first group but I suspect it is likely to have been. There is often a solitary Goldfinch at the feeders when there is a lull in feeding where the birds all disappear only to return in ten minutes or so.

House Sparrows and Chaffinch males join in. There comes a point in the morning when the level activity at the feeders speeds up with larger numbers arriving - which is usually when the House Sparrows join in. There were two males earlier feeding with the Chaffinch females but this was now a group of about 7-9. There were also about seven Chaffinch males and a few more females. Often in the morning the Chaffinches come to feed in pairs – but not today.

Great Tit times it well! I was pleased to see the Great Tit make an appearance in my watch – it arrived towards the very end. I think it is such a striking looking bird - it is one of my favorites.

It would end no other way. Two Woodpigeons waddled in at the end – well they would wouldn’t they! They do have an almost comical presence amongst the other birds – especially when they stuff themselves into the bird table.

The watch is over but the activity continues – I must add one more note before I publish this. I have just spotted a Starling on the ground gathering up material for nesting – it had quite a mouthful before it flew off! I stood up to see where it went but couldn’t see from my window. Last year we did have young, brown spotted, Starlings at the feeders – perhaps I will be able catch them on film this year.

Species Update – total 15!

I am absolutely amazed at the number of bird species that are now regularly visiting my garden. Today saw the second new species of the year so far - the Siskin. It is following in the footsteps of the Blackcap which arrived on 1st January.

Why is it always when you are not looking for something it appears right under your nose? I wonder how often we have unseen visitors in our gardens - not just birds but toads, hedgehogs and others too. Most of the time we will miss seeing them as we are simply not looking!

Blackcap update –I now have to report that today, as I was watching my new arrivals the Siskins, I noticed there were two Blackcap males - one at the table and the other in the fat cake cage. This again is a first, until now I had only seen one. My daughter also spotted two Coal Tits on one of our small pine trees the other day – with their speed they are very difficult to spot and again we have only ever seen one of them.

Numbers increasing too – so it is not only the species that are increasing! I really must try to count the Chaffinches that visit now they have definitely exceeded 12 - at a guess I’d say we have doubled that! I have been thinking that I will do another bird count perhaps on the last weekend of February for comparison to our count for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2007, taken on January 27th.

My garden now has regularly visits from:
Blackbirds, Robins, Dunnocks, Wrens,
House Sparrows,
Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits,
Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Chaffinches,
Starlings, Woodpigeons

My garden has had recent visits from:
Blackcap males
Siskin male and female

If you would like to see videos of the birds that visit my garden - click on the link below MY VIDEOS at the top of the left column where you will see further links direct to all videos published in previous posts.

Lunchtime sighting

I returned to my elderly neighbour’s garden today to continue dividing plants that have become too large for her to handle. Today this one nearly beat me - a large pampas grass within her small border! After I had my lunch I was preparing to return and stopped to look out of my window at the birds feeding. A bird with quick flighty movements, jumping up and down the stems of my bamboo, caught my attention.

Unfortunately the video camera wasn’t set up so I never caught it on film. I will make a point of looking again tomorrow. This, for me, has been the fun part of observing the birds - spotting the unexpected amongst the predictable behaviour. For example the blue tits buzz about quickly from feeder to feeder – they are not usually seen feeding on the ground.

Speedily bouncing along the ground is exactly where I usually see today’s surprise lunchtime guest! Only it is first thing in the morning, just before daylight, that I would expect to see it. I have been trying for sometime to see it again and catch it on video. I know I won’t get a photo as it is too quick! If I get it on video I can grab a frame and get a still shot. Maybe I should explore the photo shot setting in my video camera – just thought of that, never found that successful in the past. From memory the picture was a bit blocky - but I could try it again.

So who was mixing it with the rest? Today saw the Wren out and about during sunlight hours – maybe this is usual but I have never seen it then. It is tiny, fast and very difficult to spot. It was because its behaviour was so very different from the other birds, it got noticed today! It was almost comical to see it navigate through the bamboo canes, the ground below then a quick flight up to the bird table and drop to the ground again. There were chaffinches on the ground and other birds at the table – for its size it did not appear intimidated at all. No creeping around hiding behind the plants today either– it looked like it was on one great big adventure!

I hope to catch some film or photo shots of the wren soon and will post them here when I do.

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2007: Results for shirls gardenwatch

For anyone who would like to take part in this weekend’s RSPB bird count please go to http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/index.asp . I chose to do my count today between 10-11am. You can see my results below. Results from the RSPB are expected at the end of March.

Update Mar 27:
The results for The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2007 are now out and can be seen at http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/results/ . Top of the list was the House Sparrow followed by the Starling with the Blue Tit taking third place.

Starling	13
Chaffinch	12
House sparrow	6
Woodpigeon	4
Blackbird	3
Greenfinch	3
Blue tit	3
Robin	2
Goldfinch	2
Great tit	1
Coal tit	1
Dunnock	1

Disappointingly, the results shown above did not really reflect the numbers of visiting birds usually in my garden. It was a lovely sunny morning and they did appear to enjoy sitting on sun-kissed branches of an over looking tree. Today I would have expected a few more blackbirds, blue tits and house sparrows. The two goldfinches are usually in a group of eleven or more so I don't know where the rest went today! The table does however accurately reflect one species that has been increasing in numbers - the Chaffinch. I didn't realise how many we had until I counted them today - they are in pairs so it will be interesting to see any signs of them preparing to nest.

Numbers of Starlings appear to be significantly dropping in the UK but today, and over the last two weeks, that has not been the case in my garden. Their numbers in my garden are seriously increasing - many more have been seen than the number recorded today.

Grated cheese -as it was 'Birdwatch' day I decided to gave the birds a treat. This treat is usually a weekend thing anyway but today I did sprinkle a little more than usual around the ground. I originally put out the grated cheese to see where the wren hides - but the blackbirds have really been enjoying it! I sprinkle the cheese in three places.

Who got the cheese today - the Starlings. I couldn't believe it, some starlings bypassed the fat cakes which is their usual favourite, diving straight to the cheese on the ground. Some Starlings even dived in and out taking the cheese with them barely touching the ground! The poor Blackbirds were struggling to get to the cheese - but try they did.

I will go online later and submit my results – I believe this year may have the biggest response yet.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2007

The RSPB are asking for people to look out on their gardens this weekend and count birds. For anyone who would like to download details of this weekend’s bird count, in the UK, please go to http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/index.asp . I have noticed that a few searches have led to my Blog – enjoy counting!



Goldfinches definitely appear to be quite sociable birds but equally, they enjoy some quiet time to themselves. Looks like the goldfinch, shown above, has started its own count! Shown here in my garden in January 2007.

Sunflower hearts are definitely the favourite food for birds in my garden. We have quite a list of regular visitors to our garden: Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Robins, House Sparrows, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Starlings and Wood Pigeons. Our more ocassional sightings are of a tiny wren and the threatening sparrowhawk. We were also briefly fortunate to see a pair of Blackcaps - sadly they left after 2 weeks.

This is the first year we will have taken part in The Big Garden Birdwatch and I will post our results to this Blog.

If you have enjoyed looking at this video you may like to see more – click on the link at the top of the right column where you will see further links direct to all videos published in previous posts.

Christmas treats for the birds

It is very mild here at the moment, very uncharacteristic for Scotland at Christmas! We have even missed some of the hard frosts here. As such the birds can be seen digging in the soil for food below my feeding stations – the blackbirds are the most noticeable in this. My daughters, aware of my increasing interest in the visiting birds, gave me Christmas parcels with a bird theme this year.

The picture above was taken today - in the middle of the afternoon. It shows a dull but relatively mild day. I took this picture to show the tree on the left – planted on Christmas day. It is a Cotoneaster Hybridus Pendulus– and was a Christmas parcel from my husband.

We thought it would give a bit more height and year round interest to this area - red berries in the winter and white blossom in spring. The birds very quickly have discovered it and use the post to look about and the branches as a stop over to the feeders or the ground. I’m sure they will be tempted by the berries when the snow and really cold snaps hit!

My youngest daughter gave me a new, small, feeding house and meal worms (frozen) which I filled it with – I have hung this tucked away on my arch beside my young pine tree where any falling food will rest and the birds can eat from there too. She also gave me a pack of fat balls and a small basket-woven roosting pocket (like the other two I already have). I hung the roosting pocket near the others and the fat balls from tree branches. My eldest daughter gave me a tiny niger (thistle) feeder, with a really tiny hole for the seeds to get out – I suspect this hole may increase as they feed from it! I hung this from a branch on my pine tree and I will watch with interest to see the goldfinches get any seed out.

A variety of birds have been visiting my garden over the last few days:

• Blackbirds, chasing each other still – but really enjoying the sultanas I have thrown out for them. I scatter them out into the borders some days and they generally see me doing this and are quick to find them.
• Robins, dunnocks and house sparrows have been visiting but I have noticed the robins more with fewer numbers of house sparrows – I suspect the house sparrows haven’t liked the change in my seed mix! I changed the mix to a no mess one that will reduce the weeds below the feeding stations. I haven’t fed the birds bread in a while so maybe that has had an effect too.
• Goldfinches are out numbering the blue tits at the moment. Sunflower hearts are going down well with both at the moment – they are obviously smart knowing there is a higher level of energy in them! The Blue tits were also very quick to find the new fat balls hanging from tree branches – with one really smart one finding the meal worms!
• Chaffinches are visiting a lot more now and I am noticing a few pairs. They were the first birds I noticed using my new tree as a resting spot – within 10 mins of it being planted. They seem to like the peanuts and the sunflower hearts and are often on the ground below the sunflower heart feeders although seem a bit shyer at the feeders themselves.
• Starlings are invading the feeders in groups. They do like the fat balls and with their long sharp beaks bring up the balls quite quickly and they fall to the ground. I have noticed they are also a tad partial to the sunflower hearts too and take over the feeding station that has them.
• The Sparrowhawk had not been spotted in a while although I do not expect it has forgotten where my garden is! Perhaps the absence of large numbers of house sparrows is a factor. I said ‘had not been spotted’ – it has just flown by and perched itself on a neighbours tree and is looking about. No birds were at my feeders so off it went to find its supper elsewhere!!

The pictures above show the first time we were able to identify our visiting bird of prey- the sparrowhawk. They were taken after it stunned itself on my window.

It took a moment to stand up – long enough for me to grab a camera and take a few pics as you will see below. It seemed to hurt its leg and could initially only fly as far as the top of my bird table – shame!!! Needless to say after perching there for a while the birds didn’t come to the feeders for almost two hours.