Hard Times for Garden Birds

The onset of a particularly cold snap this week has brought in a few new garden bird visitors as food is becoming harder to find elsewhere. This Pied Wagtail was busy clearing up the crumbs dropped by other birds feeding on the Suet Balls. Pied Wagtails are one of my favourite birds - bold and full of character.

It's more difficult to get good pictures in the dull light of winter - this shot was taken with the Canon 100-400mm lens wide open at F5.6 and the camera set to ISO800, which results in a grainier image.

Foraging Jays

Jays are incredibly busy this time of the year burying acorns and foraging for food. They often fly around in small groups and this bird was part of a pair which was seen close to our house digging up acorns from the lawn opposite.

Jays are clever, resourceful birds and will often visit a bird table, particularly for peanuts which they then stash for the harder times of winter. They have a darker side though as, in Spring, part of their diet includes young fledgling birds.

Great Spotted Woodpecker Feeding

Window Feeder Experiment

We were interested to see which birds would feed from a Sunflower Feeder mounted right next to our kitchen window.

For the experiment the window feeder was positioned just 10cm from the glass, so we were sure that many birds would be put off by the proximity of the house and us humans walking around inside peering at them!

To our amazement, a whole variety of birds visit the feeder, some even feed when we stand still right next to the window! So far we've had a Nuthatch (pictured), lots of Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, a Marsh Tit and a Robin visit.

It is interesting that sparrows are not on the list of visitors, so the sunflower hearts tend to last that bit longer now!

Migrating Goldfinches

The autumn season seems to be the best time of the year to see Goldfinches, as some birds head down to Spain to escape the cold winter weather of northern Europe.

This time of the year, quite large groups of migrating Goldfinches (sometimes twenty or more) congregate on Greenham Common feeding off seed-heads and we are lucky enough to get quite a few on our Nyjer and Sunflower feeders.

The Goldfinch has to be one of the UK's most striking garden birds and this picture - taken this morning shows the stunning red face and yellow wing stripe plumage of these birds.

Ringed Greenfinch

After almost a 5 month absence it was good to see  the Greenfinches return today. This ringed Greenfinch visited with one of this year's fledglings and seemed very partial to our sunflower hearts feeder.

Oddly, even the Goldfinches prefer Sunflower Hearts to their other favourite staple food - Nyjer seed. The moral of the story is to buy yourself a big bag of Sunflower Hearts and stay clear of the Nyjer. You'll keep your lawn free of Nyjer seedlings at the same time!

Sparrowhawk Kills Blue Tit

Seeing a Sparrowhawk kill makes you realise just how fast these birds are! One unfortunate Blue Tit had its last meal from our Sunflower Feeder today when it failed to spot a Male Sparrowhawk sat on the fence. The Sparrowhawk launched instantly and caught the Blue Tit in mid air with an impressive display of acrobatics - fanning and feathering its tail to get in just the right position to make a grab of the victim with its talons. It was a rapid end-of-life for one of this year's Blue Tits.