Garden Birds chat 2011

sables2

bogtreader wrote: »

I was making a cup of tea this afternoon for my better half and i our feeders
are in the back garden not far from the window.All of sudden a small flock of birds about 7 to 8 appeared.they had a quick recce of the garden and moved on. Fatballs Peanuts or seed not to their liking.From checking bird books and the RSPB website they looked like long tailed tits lovely to look at.Long tails and white breast

Nice one bogtreader!
Bet you wish YOU had your camera then...:D:rolleyes:

Mothman

This is my experinece. Family party, don't hang around. "Mine" seem to visit daily first thing. Had 6 on a feeder this morning. Ever so brief but a lot of fun while they're here.

Now that most of the snow has melted (18 days of snow cover) the hens have found the base of the bord table again. The hens hated walking on the snow and the Moorhens had a good run without the hens tidying. I had put extra out on ground for them.

1squidge

Bad pic of Grey Heron in back Garden and Goldfinches and Redpolls during the recent cold spell.

littlebug

Nothing new in my garden. The sparrows and starlings have taken over. Every so often I think I see a tree sparrow in their midst but closer inspection says otherwise :rolleyes: I'm beginning to think I was mistaken in my supposed siskin sighting last week as there's been no sign since. There again I haven't been looking out there much this week.

littlebug

RSPB NEWS: big-fat-no-for-birds.

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat – but that fat isn’t suitable for everyone.

The RSPB is warning that cooked turkey fat is extremely dangerous to birds and could even kill them.

yikes.... so "leftover kitchen fat" doesn't mean any old kitchen fat then.

IceMaiden

Yesterday the temperature remained above zero again, mostly blue/great tits with a robin & chaffinches around the feeders plus crows & jackdaws blackbirds & dunocks & intermittent visits by long tailed tits.. I think we seen a gold crest if that’s possible it was not that clearly visible Also two wagtails around the margins .Then about 4.30pm we had snipe come in & land behind the house the grounds covered in snow & underneath the grounds frozen about 2inches down, into the earth. full size cattle/horses have made very little impression from hooves.
The other week during the snow/freeze-up we had a male hen harrier working the field margins on two days but no sign of him yet this time. We don’t see them much in the winter & many we come across are near the coast this time of year, so it was a surprise visitor ,but not in the garden.

Mothman

3 Bullfinches in an Ash eating the seeds.
Also a female Blackcap eating an apple. Don't see one every winter.

Hammer Archer

Mothman wrote: »

Also a female Blackcap eating an apple. Don't see one every winter.

We had one during the last cold spell and she was an absolute nightmare. Our feeders are spread out over quite a large area and she would spend her time flying from one feeder to another to scare away any bird that landed on them. She was probably wasting more energy than she was getting from the food doing this.

meemeep

For the first time ever, a group of 5 long tailed tits feeding in the garden today. Fabulous to see in the garden that normally gets crows, magpies and starlings:)
Of course the camera battery was flat:(

Half-cocked

A male reed bunting feeding on my deck this morning!

Mothman

Some birds within zoom range of house.
Moorhen


Chaffinch


Female Blackcap

sables2

Mothman wrote: »

Some birds within zoom range of house.
Moorhen

Chaffinch

Female Blackcap

Great shots Mothman,
What len's do you use? I'm only getting into birding with a camera.:D Digiscoping doesn't cut the mustard for me personally. I'm going for a 'zoom' lens. i only have the standard EOS 450D 55mm..not great for close up shooting from a far I'm sure.

Mothman

sables2 wrote: »

Great shots Mothman,
What len's do you use? I'm only getting into birding with a camera.:D Digiscoping doesn't cut the mustard for me personally. I'm going for a 'zoom' lens. i only have the standard EOS 450D 55mm..not great for close up shooting from a far I'm sure.

Just the family compact sables.
Photos taken from the kitchen.

Panasonic TZ5
A great little camera
A real point and shoot

sables2

Mothman wrote: »

Just the family compact sables.
Photos taken from the kitchen.

Panasonic TZ5
A great little camera
A real point and shoot

WOW! I'm totally amazed. Me thinking this is an Canon IS 500D or something..seriously, they are fantastic. PS: I've about 6 feeders scattered around my garden, but, I'm only getting the 'usual suspects' - Blue Tits, Green finches, and sometimes House Sparrows. How do i attract more birds? Is it just luck or certain feeds: ie, linnet, black sunflower seeds, etc...Long Tailed Tits are showing up in a lot of gardens I'm hearing.:rolleyes:

trebor28

so this morning when i went out to check on my hens and feed them etc. they were all waiting for me at the gate, nothing new there, but when i stepped in they didnt budge. normally they'd move away from me.
but they stayed huddled together and looking back towards their house and feeding area.

i knew something was up and stopped looking over to see could i see anything.
nothing looked out of the ordinary and there was even to usual small birds over there waiting to be fed.

so i stepped closer keeping an eye out for anything, when suddenly a buzzard swooped out of one of the trees just above their house and flew a onto a branch of a tree just a few trees down.

i didnt know whether to be happy or sad.
i dont know whether or not he was after them but they were terrified of him.

he moved station twice more but didnt fly off as far as i know. i think he is still in the vicinity but not sure.

anyone no whether my hens are in trouble or is he just after the small birds??

doctor evil

I've never seen House or Garden Sparrows in the garden, is there anything special that will attract them?

I have windfall apples, sunflower seed, peanuts, raisin, niyjar, oats as well as two water stations.

Am I right in thinking that garden sparrow and dunnocks/hedge sparrows are separate?

Feargal as Luimneach

Counts from my garden this morning:
50+ Redpoll, 25+goldfinch, 5 collarded dove, 1 magpie, 2 robin, 5 starling, 17 house sparrow, 5 greenfinch, 15+ chaffinch, 3 coal tit, 4 blue tit, 2 great tit, 3 blackbird, 1 song thrush, 2 dunnock
+ 1 BRAMBLING:D:D:D 1 meadow pipit
No sign of siskins yet though:(

sables2

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Counts from my garden this morning:
50+ Redpoll, 25+goldfinch, 5 collarded dove, 1 magpie, 2 robin, 5 starling, 17 house sparrow, 5 greenfinch, 15+ chaffinch, 3 coal tit, 4 blue tit, 2 great tit, 3 blackbird, 1 song thrush, 2 dunnock
+ 1 BRAMBLING:D:D:D
No sign of siskins yet though:(

Hi Feargal,
Good 'collection' . One (silly) question: How do you KNOW exactly how many you have? Do you literately sit there with a pen an note pad looking through the binos/scope?? I'm totally serious here...very interesting to know. Also, is this count from a certain time: ie; 8am till 4pm or some thing...

trebor28

buzzard was back outside my hens again.

anybody know what i can do to discourage him?

or is he really after them or could he be after the smaller birds?

could i try leave something out for him. my dog had a dead blackbird this morning.
could i try and leave that out for him?

Feargal as Luimneach

sables2 wrote: »

Hi Feargal,
Good 'collection' . One (silly) question: How do you KNOW exactly how many you have? Do you literately sit there with a pen an note pad looking through the binos/scope?? I'm totally serious here...very interesting to know. Also, is this count from a certain time: ie; 8am till 4pm or some thing...

Counted in around ten minute period. I have eleven feeders in the garden so the birds were mostly around them (made counting easier). I counted each individual species separately (ie counted all the redpoll in the garden, then all the greenfinch, etc).

BrianD3

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Counted in around ten minute period. I have eleven feeders in the garden so the birds were mostly around them (made counting easier). I counted each individual species separately (ie counted all the redpoll in the garden, then all the greenfinch, etc).

What do you have in the 11 feeders? With 50 redpoll and 25 goldfinches I'm guessing that you have several nyjer feeders?

I have 6 feeders which include 3 nyjer ones and my 10 kg sack of nyjer is rapidly depleting!

Rainbowsend

trebor28 wrote: »

buzzard was back outside my hens again.

anybody know what i can do to discourage him?

or is he really after them or could he be after the smaller birds?

could i try leave something out for him. my dog had a dead blackbird this morning.
could i try and leave that out for him?

As far as I am aware Buzzards are not usually killers, but if they are really hungry then I am sure they will be tempted, maybe they are feeding on the chicken food? Why not try putting some food in a different area for it and watch to see does it take it. I know you are worried for your hens, but I would be delighted to see a buzzard in the garden

oops....just noticed you have a dead blackbird, yes I would leave it somewhere that you can watch it.

cbreeze

our garden is close to the beach - there was a redshank walking around in it last week!

whyulittle

A couple from around the feeder yesterday and today. All attracted by peanut feeder only. Have put out a few fat balls as well which don't seem to be in demand.

Am open to correction on the ID's.

Chaffinch


Chaffinch


House Sparrow


House Sparrow


Chaffinch


Long Tail Tits (right above me in a tree)






Coal Tit


Blackbird

sables2

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Counted in around ten minute period. I have eleven feeders in the garden so the birds were mostly around them (made counting easier). I counted each individual species separately (ie counted all the redpoll in the garden, then all the greenfinch, etc).

Ok, very good. 10 minutes all of them!! . PS: Must get more feeders out in my garden..:rolleyes:

Feargal as Luimneach

BrianD3 wrote: »

What do you have in the 11 feeders? With 50 redpoll and 25 goldfinches I'm guessing that you have several nyjer feeders?

I have 6 feeders which include 3 nyjer ones and my 10 kg sack of nyjer is rapidly depleting!

3 Nyjer feeders: Goldfinch and redpoll magnetic.:D

2 peanut feeders: mainly tits feed on these.

6 mixed seed feeders (cut maize, naked oats, red dari, red millet, yellow millet, sunflower hearts, white dari, canary seed, pinhead oatmeal, kibbled peanuts, flaked wheat, safflower seed, japanese millet, panicum millet, hempseed, nyjer seed). Everything feeds on this. Throw it around the garden for birds such as collarded doves, robin, starlings.

Make mixed seed fat cakes. The crows and starling mainly eat these.

Hammer Archer

Few pictures I just got onto my laptop.

3 redpolls enjoying the Nyjer seeds


Young and old goldfinch.


Peekaboo.

trebor28

Rainbowsend wrote: »

As far as I am aware Buzzards are not usually killers, but if they are really hungry then I am sure they will be tempted, maybe they are feeding on the chicken food? Why not try putting some food in a different area for it and watch to see does it take it. I know you are worried for your hens, but I would be delighted to see a buzzard in the garden

oops....just noticed you have a dead blackbird, yes I would leave it somewhere that you can watch it.

would they eat grain and layers pellets?
i have a lot of activity around my place so id say it was more likely that, that attracted him to the location.

he hung around for most of the day.

left out the carrion for him but as far as i could see he didnt touch it.

at one stage i could hear a hen making an weird squawking with the buzzard sitting in a tree directly above them.

we'll see what tomorrow brings.

BrianD3

Got a new camera, a Fuji HS10. 30x optical zoom but I think it needs very good light. This photo isn't great but shows the effect of the zoom, image has not been cropped, only resized (original is 10 megapixels)

sables2

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

3 Nyjer feeders: Goldfinch and redpoll magnetic.:D

2 peanut feeders: mainly tits feed on these.

6 mixed seed feeders (cut maize, naked oats, red dari, red millet, yellow millet, sunflower hearts, white dari, canary seed, pinhead oatmeal, kibbled peanuts, flaked wheat, safflower seed, japanese millet, panicum millet, hempseed, nyjer seed). Everything feeds on this. Throw it around the garden for birds such as collarded doves, robin, starlings.

Make mixed seed fat cakes. The crows and starling mainly eat these.

Hi Feargal,
That's why your getting so many birds.:D Thanks SO much for that 'menu', i'll write it down! Is nyjer THE ONE to attract 'em? I'm hearing so much about this seed..What's your top tip of all?