Saturday, January 25, 2014

Watching the Birds

This weekend I will be taking part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.  I've been doing this for a number of years now and really enjoy taking part.  We always feed the birds in our garden and have three feeding areas which are all well used.  We have hedges and shrubs on two of the three sides of our garden so there is plenty of cover for the birds in particular the sparrows and we have loads of those.  Sometimes we can count up to 30 at a time.  The other birds we see a significant number of are goldfinches.  Yesterday we counted 12 on the feeders or in the bushes nearby.  We also get regular visits from blackbirds, thrush, robin, chaffinch and greenfinch as well as great, blue, coal and long tailed tits. 

Thrush - taken from an upstairs window

I've taken a few photos over the last few days through the windows so they aren't really the best photos I've ever taken but a good record of some of our garden visitors.

Above Sparrow and Greenfinch

Goldfinches

Robin

Blackbird and Sparrow

Long tailed tit and Goldfinch

Sparrows in their favourite laurel bush sometimes it is covered in them and they get down inside especially when the sparrow hawk flies over. I love the way they disappear amongst the leaves.  Sometimes the bush is so full of them that it shivers and sometimes they all fly off together in one swoop across the garden to the holly hedge and then back again.

We also get magpies, starlings and wood pigeons and sometimes a pair of bullfinch all of which have been seen throughout this week.  What's the betting that when we sit down today or tomorrow with a mug of coffee and a biscuit or two to do our hour of recording we only see a few of the birds we've seen all week?  That's what usually happens!

30 comments:

  1. You must have a very bird friendly garden Rosie. Our are enjoying the last of the Christmas pudding.

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    1. The christmas pudding will be full of energy giving nutrients for your birds. I think the birds like our garden because we have the hedges and bushes - most people have taken out hedges and put in fences and also paved over their gardens:)

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  2. We've hardly had any birdy visits this winter. I'm blaming the mild, wet weather. It's certainly made our garden feel gloomy! x

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    1. Yes, I remember having far more birds last year in those two cold spells we had and far more unsual birds too. We had hail, thunder and lightening here yesterday:)

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  3. It must be lovely to have so many feathered friends visit your garden Rosie. I don't put food out for the birds because I am worried about Gizmo stalking them. I do have many bushes in the garden though and plenty of berries and worms in the lawn. Our most regular visitors are blackbirds. x

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    1. It is lovely to have so many birds and we have encouraged them. For some reason our cats never bothered the birds - they would bring in field mice or voles but not birds. Now they are older they don't try to catch anything. The black birds will love the berries in your garden:)

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  4. The birds clearly love your garden, and their feeding stations. The goldfinches are lovely. Beautiful, sunny day here - though pretty cold. Abby x

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    1. It was a lovely morning here then the heavens opened and we had sleet, hail thunder and lightening - not many birds after that!:)

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  5. It looks as though you have lots of happy birds in your garden! I hope they all show up to be counted! xx

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    1. So do I but it always happens that the hour I chose they seem to know and play the waiting game - as soon as I stop they flock in:)

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  6. I used to do the RSPB birdwatch but we seem to have far fewer birds this year so have decided against it. You are lucky to have so many in your garden

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    1. Hello Debbie - thanks for your comment - there does seem to be fewer birds this year but we still have quite a few visiting the garden I think because of the cover the hedges and shrubs provide:)

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  7. I bet the sleet downpour put them off! Hope they have not deserted you.

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    1. We did the survey an hour before that started - the lightening was quite scary and our electricity went off for a few minutes, did yours?:)

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  8. Lovely photos of all your birds, especially the gorgeous thrush. The RSPB Birdwatch is such a fascinating thing to do. I'm concerned about the blackbirds, though, we do seem down on numbers here this year.

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    1. Thanks, Wendy - the thrush always lingers long enough for me to get a photo or two. We have a few black birds but have seen more in previous years. Starlings are down too - when we first came we used to see loads of greenfinch then they disappeared for ages - they returned in smaller numbers last year and this year:)

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  9. I hope you did your bird-count today (Saturday) It sounds like a very wet day tomorrow.

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    1. Yes, John we did the bird count at lunchtime yesterday which was lucky as in the afternoon we had a sleety, hail storm with thunder and lightening and lost the electricity for a few minutes. Today's weather is awful and I'm so glad I don't have to venture out anywhere:)

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  10. I often wish Paul was with us on walks to identify the birds we see. The loveliest birds in my garden are some sweet little (Jenny) wrens. I love it when their babies grace my garden. And I once had the most magnificent Owl swoop down . xx

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    1. Wrens are wonderful - we had them nesting last year - hope they come back this year. The biggest bird we've had swoop into our garden is a heron - it was exploring the pond! How wonderful to have an owl in your garden - that is something we never see here:)

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  11. Lovely to see all your goldfinches, rarely seen here. What do they like to eat?

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    1. The goldfinches love sunflower hearts and niger seed and we put out both for them. I love the way they perch for ages and nibble at the food and won't be distracted by any other birds. They always seem to come in small groups too except yesterday when we did the count wouldn't you guess that just two decided to feed with us, oh well!:)

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  12. It's good to see the different variety of birds in your garden. I'm pleased to see the blackbirds returning to ours and the flock of sparrows in our neighbour's garden.

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    1. I love to see all the different birds visiting - not many at all today though as the weather is really awful here and has been since yesterday afternoon:)

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  13. Your garden seems very similar to ours. We have a lot of sparrows as we also have plenty of hedges - I've never counted - the hedges are just full of them! I spotted about twenty goldfinches on the cherry tree a couple of days ago and we have bullfinches too, as well as all sorts of tits, blackbirds and thrushes, corvids and the occasional sparrowhawk / pheasant / partridge! I love watching the garden birds, but have never managed to join in with the count as we always seem to have other plans - this year, we've been away all weekend visiting Dave's family...maybe next year!

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    1. I love the way the hedges twitch and twitter when they are full of sparrows! We saw 15 goldfinches in and around the garden earlier in the week - during the count just two visited! We don't get pheasant or partridge of course but we have been visited by a sparrowhawk on more than one occasion. Hope you had a great weekend away:)

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  14. Gorgeous photos Rosie and hope they all turn up for your bird spotting. Ours seem to arrive in phases or depending what we've put out for them to eat! Enjoy. x

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    1. Thanks, Patricia - the weather wasn't too great over the weekend but we did get quite a few birds come to feed whilst we were doing the survey:)

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  15. Hope your bird count went well- Beautiful image of the thrush too. x

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    1. Thanks, Amanda - the thrush does hand around long enough for decent photos. We managed the count just before the bad weather set in:)

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