Birds in the garden Part 2.

thanks Resin :-)

The recent snow has brought large numbers of birds into the garden. There are so many finches in particular that they are having to queue up in the tree as there is no more room on the feeders.

We had a rare visit from a small flock of Red Poll on Friday - on the Evening primrose seed heads.

I have stopped tidying the garden up in autumn and leave all the seed heads on everything until the end of February now and the birds love it. I've noticed lots of ladybirds hibernating in the leaf litter and dead leaves on the herbaceous plants too which is a good excuse to leave them alone until the weather warms up a bit more.

The only trouble with that is that you have to do everything in a rush in Spring to catch up, but I think it is worth it.

I haven't had snow yet Pat, they are forecasting it tomorrow but our area isn't in the main snow run for that, might get some!

Red Polls have been where I used to live, about 25 miles from here. I might get to see one here if I'm lucky!

I don't clean up either, it's been too cold anyway but the plants clean easier if they are left to 'age'. Often the old stems just snap off instead of needing to be cut.

I haven't put out the seed I bought some time ago, it may come handy if it snows.

I had a female Great Spotted Woodpecker a couple of days ago in the oaks, it was so dull though the pics didn't turn out well.

There was a Tawny Owl too on a lower branch not too far away, could just see the shadow in the dark.

You are lucky to have oak trees nearby, apart from all my fruit trees and a couple of silver birches I planted the only tall tree is a very large sycamore over the wall which is overhanging my garden and dropping sticky sap on everything. It is gradually disappearing under some extremely vigorous ivy which seems to be home to collared doves and wood pigeons and all sorts of other birds pop in and out of it. We sometimes get a tawny owl sitting up there too.

Where do you take all your photos from Janet? I only have one good window for bird shots, and I frighten them away if I go outside. I'll have to build a hide - only joking - I don't have the patience. I just enjoy watching what comes to the feeders.

I have a Sycamore too at the side of the drive, most of it overhangs the neighbour. The Horse Chestnut tree is in my garden, I have an oak at the front border next to the drain and there is a double row going down the back garden of a neighbour. That's where I get a lot of the pics, I stand at the back fence under a bush, the oaks are close. The owl I got from near the house, it was out there tonight soon after dark but too dark to see where it went.

I wouldn't have the patience to stand in a hide either, I just do the rounds, back fence, down my drive, across the road to the paddock gate, then up the road to the field where I often walk down the hedge row. The Robin seems to follow me around, it got used to me but there came a very cold spell where I didn't go out much. Even the Great Tit was getting used to me, they must know I'm around but I'm just part of the scenery now.

What are red polls, Pat ? Sorry I'm not familiar with all of the English bird names.
Owls are fascinating Wallaby! I don't think I will ever be lucky enough to see one in my garden, but I've been told that one lives in the church tower very close by..

Cats and birds CAN be compatible!!!!!!!!

http://news.orf.at:80/video/iptvpopup.html?strange_cat.wmv

Hi Bonitin,

Carduelis cabaret (Lesser Redpoll / Kleine Barmsijs / Sizerin cabaret) and Carduelis flammea (Mealy Redpoll / Grote Barmsijs / Sizerin flammé)

Resin

Here's a pic of Carduelis cabaret:

And Carduelis flammea:

We have them in the New World, too.

I assume I shot a Carduelis flammea, Resin.

Thanks Resin!!

and thank you Boojum!
Now it is clear to me, although I've never seen one, but that must be because I live in a city...

This message was edited Jan 10, 2008 12:44 AM

Hi Boojum - yep, yours is Carduelis flammea. They both occur in Europe, but only C. flammea in North America.

Hi Bonitin - look for them feeding on Betula and Alnus seeds at this time of year, often with Siskins (Carduelis spinus, Sijs). In Belgium, C. cabaret is resident, breeds in coastal pine plantations in summer, while C. flammea is a winter visitor from Scandinavia. They both move on to Betula and Alnus in winter, and can be in cities if those are planted in the city. They will also visit bird feeders, like Boojum's.

Resin

That's nice to know Resin! I have a large Betula in my garden, but its the only one in the immediate neighboorhood. And I have birdfood out almost year round.
I do have Troglodytes troglodytes, both types of Blue tits; Parus caerulens, Parus major, a couple of blackbirds, Turkish tortles, woodpigeons, a large community of sparrows and a couple Robins that visit every year in winter, though I haven't seen them around yet this year.

There has been a bird I wasn't able to ID, some time I thought it was a Carduelis chloris (don't know its English name).
That was around Christmas 2005. I found it in my garden and it looked as if it was suffering from the cold. I had the idea to offer it to come inside the house, so I opened the large door-window on the first floor and to my amazement it came inside! It has been my winged guest for about 5 days. Then it has let me know that it wanted to go outside again and I have let it out.

Here it shows how I found it outside;

and inside the house;

another;

Hi Bonitin,

That's someone's escaped pet Canary (Serinus canaria; Kanarie)! No wonder it wanted to come inside ;-)

Carduelis chloris (don't know its English name) – Greenfinch
Turkish tortles – Collared Dove
"both types of Blue tits":
Parus caeruleus (now Cyanistes caeruleus, it has been split off into a separate genus) – Blue Tit
Parus major – Great Tit

Resin

Thanks for answering Bonitin's question about the Red Poll for me. They are cute little birds and we only seem to get them when there has been snow or really bad weather and they always come to eat the Evening primrose seeds.

Thank you so much Resin! You are amazing knowing all its names, even the Flemish! Yes it was also crossing my mind at the time that it could be a canary, but then I had only seen them completely yellow, but this one had some nuances of olive-greenish in its coat.. I wonder if it has survived as I didn't see it again after it left..

Pat, the red polls are really cute birds and I know now how they look like thanks to Resin's and Boojum's pics...

A couple of my bird books give the names in several languages, so they're easy to look up ;-)

The other way is to use google; enter the scientific name and site:.nl gives Dutch sites mentioning the species, and it doesn't take long to find the local language name. This works for all sorts of other languages too - a month ago or so, someone from the Philippines on one of the forums was wanting to know what Basil was, so I just put "Ocimum basilicum" site:.ph ('ph' being the internet code for the Philippines) into google and soon found the Filipino name for it.

Resin

I feed the small birds, but this Pica pica come and frighten them. But there as food for them all. I love all birds.

For the small birds

Nice pics!

Are you often snow-free like this in mid January??

Resin

Hi Resin no it is like spring here about 5 degree C day (and night), around.
This time at year, is normally our coldest and snowrichest month. In january we can reach 25 to 28 degree below zero and get ½ metre of snow

But the last 2-3 year it have been very warm and snowfree the most of the winter, last year we had 2 to 3 decimetre snow during a couple of weeks only and about -10 degree C only below zero.

It is a very green year this year, as you can see on our lawn and on the fields.
We have a storm here right now you have had it now the last day, it came from your direction from west, it rain very much now and are very windy, but the stormeye get us in the afternoon today.

Normally it is snowstorm, but since the weather are warm we get rain only. I´m a little worry for a couple of big big trees behind our house, but they have stand for many years,
so I hope they stand for this storm too.
Greetings from Sweden

Sounds like you are having a typical British winter! Hope your pines get through the storm OK.

Resin

That's a beautiful pine Hobbyodlaren and it looks healthy too .
Wow what a lot of 'Pica pica's' you have there!

This message was edited Jan 20, 2008 10:15 AM

Resin...yes this year it have been like typical winter and I hope we not get snow or cold NOW in my area of Sweden, so perhaps the spring will come earlier.
Yes the tree manage the storm ;o)
bonitin... thanks yes the pine are lovely, we have a lot of them on a hill behind our house. yes many pica pic, I conut to 20 one day, when I have feed the birds. But I love them too, many here dont like them, because the small bird are afraid for them and they take all food.
But I think that they also have the right to eat lol.
The one on the picture is from last winter, then we had snow also as you can se, the are also very beautiful birds I think "Turdus pilaris"
~Sylvia

Yes, Turdus pilaris (Björktrast / Fieldfare)

Resin

I think the woodland birds are getting short of food just now as we've had the tree creeper in the garden today and the male and female greater spotted woodpeckers yesterday and today on the fat block.

The other birds are busy pairing up ready for spring. There are two robins flirting with each other which is quite amusing. They started off by bathing in the pond, eventhough it was pouring with rain and then spent half an hour hopping in and out of the bushes looking cute. - Roll on Spring

Great news! I forgot that spring is coming. Here is how it looked today (note our big pines) and we have a driveway full of ice. I got pretty excited to see the turdus pilaris since all we have here is American Robins (turdus migratorius). Fieldfare are very rare visitors in Eastern Canada, but not this far south-in Massachusetts.

Nice pic . . . apart from all that white stuff! ;-)

Yep, spring is stirring, Nuthatches [Sitta europaea] and Song Thrushes [Turdus philomelos] singing their heads off in the local park the last few days here. The Chaffinches [Fringilla coelebs] will start singing in about a week.

Resin

Okay Resin our Björktrast name Fieldfare in UK.
Today we got rain then it begin to snow.

And then after ½ an hour

And now an hour after the first snow and the birds got crazy :o)
Sylvia

The whole neighborhood bird came along
lol
And now I´ve got winter, but only for a while I suppose.

~Sylvia

Brrrr!!!

Grönfink (Greenfinch) and Pilfink (Tree Sparrow).

Resin

Dont forget the RSPB garden bird watch this weekend. - I'm just going out to top up the feeders and get my pencil and paper ready.....

The Bird watch went quite well, although I abandoned the Saturday attempt as the sparrow hawk kept zooming through the garden and frightening everything away. I did get 16 species on Sunday though including a female Black cap which was eating the Mahonia petals. It is a shame they say to only do it for one hour though as the flock of long tailed tits and the wren turned up later in the morning so didn't get included.

The horrible weather today has brought large numbers of finches, siskins, the greater spotted woodpecker, red poll and a lone Brambling down into the garden.

It was much too dull Pat, there was very few birds around on Saturday. As I don't have a feeder up I didn't think it was worth my while, but each time you mention all the different birds you get I think I should have one!

I have seen Long-tailed Tits lately, got some pics which I posted on the BW forum of a pair. They move too quickly to get good shots though.

Here's one of the male,

The long tailed tits are so pretty aren't they. That is quite a good photo, they don't stay in one place for long. Putting feeders out makes it so much easier to bird watch. I put mixed seed on a board nailed to an old apple tree stump, and have a peanut feeder, fat block holder and a 6 hole feeder (with a tray underneath to keep the cats off) for the sunflower hearts, hanging from the pear tree outside my window, so most things are catered for, even the Tree creeper which likes poking about in the pear tree bark. I also sprinkle suet in the cracks in the old tree stump and the wren likes that. I've just bought a bag of Songster food to cater more for the blackbirds and robins etc. as I thought they might be going a bit short at this time of the year.

I sometimes wonder about this creating artificially large numbers of birds in the area, but I think well fed birds will be healthier and so there is less chance of wild birds infecting my free range hens with anything. The hens are in the orchard separate from where I feed the wild birds, but the dunnocks especially like to nip down and share with the hens.