What birds visit your garden?

Rainbowsend

Bogbean....they are of the finch family a little smaller than a goldfinch and skinny little things, yellow in colour the male has a black head, I had never noticed them before until this year and now they are there all the time I have about five of them, agressive in nature will fight off a larger greenfinch to get to the feeder, seem to only go for the peanuts. Maybe their numbers are growing or maybe when they find food they will stay there. I got really excited when I first saw them great to see something different, now they are there all the time - not so exciting

hannahbanana

Hi I am feeding house sparrows at the moment. Also one robin and numerous crows, magpies, seagulls etc

hannahbanana

oh how could I forget our Snowy Owl.......... not in my garden but close by. Also last year we had a corncrake in field opposite my house

Connacht

Hannah,
I'd be a little concerned that your Snowy Owl might be the one that was found injured and died in Foxford at the start of the year.
See here http://www.irishbirding.com/birds/web?task=Display&sighting_id=7692

sparklepants

South Co. Cork:

• Pied wagtails
• Robins
• Jackdaws - wonderful to watch gangs of them try to figure out ways of dislodging the bird feeder
• Rooks- who appear to observe the antics of the jackdaws
• Magpies
• Sparrows- far fewer than in previous years
• Wrens
• Robins
• Blackbirds
• Song thrushes
• Starlings
• Blue tits
• Great tits
• Housemartins - they build a nest under the apex of the roof every year and are due to return next month
• Common gulls - they retreat from nearby harbour and circle overhead whenever it's about to rain

hannahbanana

I hope not Connaght but our Snowy has not been spotted lately:(

cubix

Any one place that is reasonable for buying feed here in Dublin. Seen pleanty of deals on ebay but due to shipping its not worth it in the long run. Local pet store is doing a 25Kg of mixed seed at the moment for €19. Used it before and would have alot of husk type seeds. They also do a 25Kg bag of peanuts for €40. Birds never seemed to bother much when I put them in a feeder but seem to like them when I run them through the blender.
Whats the best anyones got on buying niger/sunflower seeds in bulk

Rainbowsend

I find B & Q very competitive on their prices especially if you are buying the bigger bags. Even the likes of Aldi or Lidl when they have them would be very keenly priced I bought a 25kg bag of mixed seeds in Aldi for 16 euro and a bucket of peanuts 10kg for 10euro. Though they dont have them all the time I would buy a couple of each when they do have them.

cubix

IF those prices are right you wont beat Aldi, especially for peanuts. I think the lad made a mistake but I managed to pick up a 25kg bag of nyjer for €35 in one of the bigger pet stores in Santry.

Sundew

Have a pair of collared doves nesting on my balcony at the moment.
They started building Saturday morning in my flower basket just as I was heading West!
Came back last night and spotted one egg in the nest this morning.
This is their second year to nest on the balcony. They successfully reared 2 chicks during the dreadful Summer last year.
They have been smart this year and have managed to use one of my flowers boxes as roofing. Will post a photo shortly.
Heres a link to a thread on last years successful nest

http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about1654.html

roweeeeena

We have robins, blackbirds, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, collared doves, wood pigeons, a dunnock/wren (couldn't tell!), starlings, occasional great tailed tits, magpies, jackdaws, hooded crows, occasional black headed gull, and occasional goldfinch. Nothing out of the ordinary unfortunately!

What is this one? It's a juvenile I think so I'm getting confused.

stevensi

Hi there,

That is a lovely picture of a Greenfinch!

Regards

Ruu_Old

I live in central Illinois so we get plenty of cardinals. When it gets a little warmer I hope to make the yard a bit more appealing to the wee fellahs.

roweeeeena

Thanks Stevensi, I knew he was a finch of some sort, guess it should have been pretty obvious but I thought he'd be more green, probably because he's young (I think).
He's never been back since anyway, I give every bird that enters the garden a visual third degree with a binoculars!!!

lookjohn

Hi There, Swallows come to our garden every year to nest in our garden shed. This year I set up a webcam and am currently capturing the activities. So far 4 eggs have been laid and I expect the eggs to hatch this week. to view the live webcam day or night visit this link Swallows Nest

Judgement Day

Thanks for that. Very interesting - I thought the Swallow was dead there for a while then it moved slightly. I suppose incubating eggs doesn't call for a lot of flapping about. Should get more lively when the eggs hatch.

Anouilh

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