It's time for my week of 'Five on Friday' and this time I've chosen garden birds as a topic. Towards the end of this month we will be participating, as we have done for several years now, in the RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch.
We feed the birds all year and as we have hedges on two sides of the garden we have lots of sparrows - consequently we also have visits from their grim reaper aka the Sparrowhawk. We have regular visits from blackbirds, great tits, robins, blue tits, coal tits, goldfinch, chaffinch and the occasional green finch and wren. Also in the colder weather we have visits every morning from a pair of thrushes who wait for their breakfast around 9a.m. and come looking for it close to the conservatory if we are late serving them.
At this time of year we sometimes top up the feeders in the afternoon as the sunflower hearts and suet nibbles are especially popular and can quickly disappear when the starlings descend as they often do. Wood pigeons and magpies are also regular visitors and of course we often find squirrels on the feeders too.
Here are photos of five of the most regular visitors to our garden.
Song Thrush
Song Thrush
Sparrow
Blue tit
Robin
Below is a collage of five more photos of other visitors including more Sparrows, a Wren, a Bullfinch, a Goldfinch and a Starling.
Amy from Love Made My Home
Helen from Woollybluebells
Helen from Woollybluebells
Lovely photos Rosie. I would love to have more birds visit my garden but so would Gizmo! There are plenty of shrubs around for them to shelter in though and I hear them singing even if I don't always see them. x
ReplyDeleteThanks, Simone - luckily our cats don't try to catch birds now they are older but we do have to watch out for some of the neighbourhood cats who pass through our garden:)
DeleteWhat fantastic photos of your birds Rosie!!! The Thrush and Sparrow in the shrub are especially great aren't they. I hope that they all come out for the birdwatch so that you can record them all! I hope that the sparrowhawk just stops in for the count and doesn't stop by for a snack! Hope that you have a great weekend, thank you for taking part! xx
ReplyDeleteI hope the thrush does pop in to be counted and some of the more unusual birds too but usually it is just the sparrows and pigeons:)
DeleteStunning photographs! And I love the way the thrushes come for breakfast each day and get a bit bold if it's not forthcoming quickly enough! I'm trying to encourage more birds to my garden, I have been told by my brother, who is an avid bird enthusiast, that sunflower hearts are the most popular choice and to forget anything else. They're certainly not interested in the seeds and fat balls I've provided thus far! X
ReplyDeleteSunflower hearts are popular with all the different birds and we give them little suet nibbles too - they seem to prefer those to the mixed seed or fat balls. The thrush hadn't been seen for a day or two but one of them was back this morning - we have a blackbird that likes to chase off all the other birds including the thrush:)
DeleteLovely photos. Having two cats makes me reluctant to attract birds to the garden. I do have a rather brave blackbird who sticks very much on the periphery where he can keep a wary eye out for approaching 'furballs'!
ReplyDeleteWe have a blackbird wh is quite agressive with all the other birds and thinks that the feeders are his territory. Luckily our two cats don't bother with the birds they never did when they were younger although they always brought in mice. Now they are nearly 19 they just sit and watch the birds and not a mouse to be seen:)
DeleteHow did I miss your last post? I love the fairies and snowdrops and heron. I also love all the birds in this post. They provide much needed entertainment in the garden at this time of year xxx
ReplyDeleteOh, glad you liked the last post. We love this time of year for the birds and as you say they bring entertainment in an otherwise dull garden. Bet they all disappear on birdwatch weekend:)
DeleteI adore birds,since emigrating to Canada I've had lots more birds to learn to ID. ..and I've forgotten lots of British birds..so I loved this!
ReplyDeleteJane x
Thank you - I bet you have lots of different birds to spot now. These birds are the most common around gardens over here - glad you enjoyed the photos:)
DeleteIt'll be our second year of doing the birdwatch, great fun. Still no sparrows here, really strange.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why you have no sparrows? Usually they like plenty of cover from hedges and etc and your gardens seems to have lots of places for them:)
DeleteLove the photos, we always enjoy taking part in the birdwatch each year.
ReplyDeleteIt is fun to take part and a useful thing to do too:)
DeleteRosie I'm in awe of your bird knowledge, if I recognize a cardinal I feel like I'm doing well. Great photos.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janet - I'm not bad at identifying garden birds but woodland and water birds I'm not so sure of. The cardinals are lovely birds so bright and cheerful:)
DeleteI often wish I was better at identifying the birds that visit our garden but I can recognise your five visitors as ones that we also have. We seem to have resident robin who joins me when I'm gardening all year round.
ReplyDeleteHow lovely to have a robin when you are gardening - they do like to see what you are up to and to find any worms or insects you have uncovered whilst digging don't they?:)
Deletelovely photos.I must say we are a bit disappointed by the numbers of birds in our new garden.I am just hoping it is the time of year.There are two cats next door ???We have two trees with TPOs and lots of shrubs so plenty of cover.
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame you don't get so many birds in your new garden - it may be the cats next door if they are young and active as it sounds as if you have plenty of cover for the birds. I'm sure if you keep feeding they will come:)
DeleteWhat great photos. I love watching the birds in our garden. Strangely enough we don't get any thrushes though. X
ReplyDeleteWe went a long time without thrushes so it is lovely to have them here at last. The birds are always entertaining to watch:)
DeleteWhat a lovely post! I love garden birds, we don't get so many where we are. Robins are my absolutely favourite :)
ReplyDeleteI love to see the robins at this time of year when we took a walk around a nearby lake and gardens yesterday we saw lots of them flitting around:)
DeleteSparrows, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Crows, all sorts of Tits and a daily visit to the nuts from a Spotted Woodpecker - we spend hours watching the birds come and go but hardly ever manage to capture them in photographs. When we do the 'Bird Watch' they all seem to disappear for the day.
ReplyDeleteWe are the same Elaine, I'm sure they know it is bird watch weeekend and stay out of the way! How lovely to have a woodpecker to your feeders - I'd love that but we are too far into the city I think to see those:)
DeleteYour photos are lovely. Our neighbors used to have two big trees in their yard that ran along our driveway. They hung bird feeders on them and the birds came in to eat all day long. It was fun to see so many different types. I would try to snap some pics but they would fly away too quickly! You did a great job capturing them in your photos.
ReplyDeleteThank you Debbie. They are hard to photograph aren't they/ Some birds hover and feed for ages other flit in and out at great speed so it is hard to get a decent photo of them:)
DeleteI love your photos Rosie, beautiful. I'm hoping to take part in the Birdwatch too. P x
ReplyDeleteThanks, Patricia. I hope you enjoy taking part in the Birdwatch, it is a fun thing to do:)
DeleteLovely photos, the Thrush photo is just gorgeous! S x
ReplyDeleteI must admit I'm very fond of the thrush and if it gets comfy in the bushes it will stay for ages so it is fairly easy to get a decent photo:)
DeleteHello Rosie, I'm visiting from Amy's blog. What lovely photos. I have a soft spot for robins. I saw a white albino robin in North Wales once!
ReplyDeleteHello Alison and welcome. How wonderful to see a white robin - they are one of my favourite birds and so lovely to see that dash of colour at this time of year:)
DeleteHow lovely! we always do the Big Garden Bird Count ... it is lovely seeing your photos of birdies (at this point may I just mention that my felines lads have never caught a single birdie in their 7 year life. I'm proud of them).
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Love Helen, Bingley, Darcy & Freddie xxxx
Good for Bingley and Darcy our cats have never caught birds either - mice are a differrent matter - now at 19 they are content to sit and watch the wildlife in the garden. Happy New Year to you too:)
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