How many birds in your garden today?

[SueA]

Our male blackbird loves pyracantha berries, he's nearly stripped them all along with the leftover grapes on the vine!
We haven't had many birds in the garden recently but over the last couple of days I've been amazed at what's turned up, we've had a flock of long tail tits on a couple of occasions, bluetits,a wren, a robin, the blackbird, a coal tit, a flock of goldfinches (only ever seen the odd one or two before) & a couple of goldcrests. Tried to get a pic. of the goldcrests but only got this blurry one , they move fast & it was on 'zoom' through the window, if you look hard enough you can see it in the middle!

[smallblueplanet]

Not only can I see it, I can also just about recognise it sue! I suppose I always think of pyracantha as being more suburban in their habitat, might be tempted to try some in the border against the fence though. Is any type better than any other?

[cupcake]

I can't understand how the world can say the number of sparrows has declined! They must all be in my garden! At least 200 of them! I have a long hedge where they all live,and they all feed at the peanuts, fat balls and various bird feeding stations!

[SueA]

Not only can I see it, I can also just about recognise it sue! I suppose I always think of pyracantha as being more suburban in their habitat, might be tempted to try some in the border against the fence though. Is any type better than any other?

No idea what variety of pyracantha ours is, I seem to remember O.H. bought it years ago from the 'reduced to clear' section in B&Q for about £1 & it's been trying to take over the garden ever since, it has vicious spikes & lovely deep orangey red berries & grows along the side fence at the bottom of the garden.

[Two_Sheds]

I've seen pyracantha with berries in towns but I've never seen birds eating the berries

Apparently they eat them when they get really hungry (must be quite bitter) and they will have the red type before the orange type, before the yellow type.
It's a great plant: provides shelter for birds as well as food.

[Two_Sheds]

I can't understand how the world can say the number of sparrows has declined! They must all be in my garden! At least 200 of them! I have a long hedge where they all live

that's your answer.
A lot of people are ripping out their hedges and paving over their gardens for car-parking.

Sparrows live communally - they won't use single nest boxes, they need a hedge or a communal nest box like this: How to build a bird box for house sparrows

[wellie]

Manda, every Blackbird that I have ever had in any of my gardens has always left the Pyracantha berries until last knockings. And it's absolutely correct. Red first. Orange second. Yellow last.....

Trousers and I returned from a Drinks Party this afternoon (Hic!) and we had a Jenny Wren in our Living Room. It didn't want to be there, obviously, but The Cat thought it should be. After only a very short while though, we managed to mastermind its' escape from the bedroom window upstairs, which annoyed The Cat intensely.

I'm really amazed at the different birds coming back to our garden over the last week that we've not seen in ages.

Here in The Forest of Dean, particularly last year, there was a prevalent virus killing off Finches, so it was a real treat for us to see Greenfinches again, particularly. Chaffinches are also more noticeable in the last month, and Bullfinches (male) - and just the one so far!

At the drinks party today, Lynn was telling me that she bought some dried Mealworms for her Robin (her husband's name is Ray, so don't make your own story up?) and she said she was advised to soak the Mealworms before putting them out for THE Robin? You might think that I'm completely stupid, but actually, that would never have occurred to me to do that. It's far easier for the birds to digest them, and doesn't hurt their little throats.

My big news of the week from Holly Cottage, is that The Thrush, the one and only, having successfully bred again this year somewhere close, is very actively feeding in the garden. Wow! very special again....

[Two_Sheds]

We're getting a lot more birds now it's getting colder. A pair of woodpigeons (not welcome, so I'm not putting wheat on the ground*) and one collared dove (nice) - gangs of starlings, who steal the blackbird's food.
Blackbirds are ground feeders, they can't use hanging feeders, so I always tell the starlings to use "their" feeder.
I have to put the blackies food out in small frequent amounts, instead of all at once, or the starlings gobble it all up in minutes.

* cheap bird seed has wheat in it, which attracts pigeons. I still use it, because it's cheap, but I make it into fat balls which the pigeons can't use

(melt some suet in a plastic Xmas pudding bowl in the nuker, stir in some seeds, chopped nuts, raisins, bacon fat etc. Freeze, then pop out of the mould and put in a feeder like this one. It makes much less mess than loose seed, so doesn't attract rats and pigeons)

[smallblueplanet]

...she said she was advised to soak the Mealworms before putting them out for THE Robin? You might think that I'm completely stupid, but actually, that would never have occurred to me to do that. It's far easier for the birds to digest them, and doesn't hurt their little throats.

My big news of the week from Holly Cottage, is that The Thrush, the one and only, having successfully bred again this year somewhere close, is very actively feeding in the garden. Wow! very special again....

Not sure all birds like them, we had no success with the live ones (well except starlings but they eat everything!). Mealworms aren't cheap (not sure about the dried ones). But what we put down as a treat for the robins and blackbirds is sultanas/raisins (Morrisons value) - they love them! We also get an occassional thrush (well actually its a thrush all the time, but it only visits occassionally!) eating a sultana or two, but the blackies normally chase it off!

When we had a bit more cash, the most successful food, eaten by nearly every bird visiting the garden (that I can remember!) was sunflowers hearts - they love them.

Oops equally as important (if not more so) - the birds NEED water to bathe in and to drink - just seen Mr blackie attempting to get at some frozen water, so excuse me I'm just going outside with the kettle....

[SueA]

Our blackbird must just be greedy because it strips the berries off the pyracantha every year, there are just a couple of small patches of them left now. He's also been known to hang upside down on the garden arch to reach the grapes & bash at the seed feeders in the tree so I think he'd eat anything & he's very territorial, he chases the starlings away from 'his' berries & grapes! I've also been out this morning melting a hole in the pond as it was frozen solid.

[FoxHillGardener]

Apparently they eat them when they get really hungry (must be quite bitter) and they will have the red type before the orange type, before the yellow type.
It's a great plant: provides shelter for birds as well as food.

interesting, ours have eaten the orange first and left the red for later!

[Bramblehen]

Hello, I have many types of birds that visit our garden. Regular current visitors are about 6 male and 4 female blackbirds, 2 mistle and 3 song thrushes, 6 sparrows, 12 starlings, 16 wood pigeons, 20 collard doves, variety of finches and a couple of robins.
I notice above Manda mentioned about dried mealworms, I feed them to my chickens and also the wild birds, a handful in a matter of mins the cheapest place I have found them is Kennedy Wild Bird Food, Seed, Feeders, Nuts Free next day delivery - 2kg (that’s a lot of worms) for £21.

[cupcake]

We live in a rural area, so apart from myriads of sparrows, we have dunnocks, song and mistle thrushes (but usually in winter), blue tits, great tits, wrens, loads of blackbirds, chaffinches, goldfinches,starlings (but not many), crows in the big trees across the road, (I hate them), wood pigeons, ring collared doves, the occasional bird of prey (the one that hovers), a barn owl and tawny owls. Pheasants, and we used to get a very aggressive Greater spotted woodpecker, but he's not been lately, and quite a family of robins. Oh and lots of swifts and house martins in the summer. I LOVE it here!

[rustylady]

Unfortunately I'm not at home enough to monitor the birds properly (work plays havoc with your social life and interests) but yesterday I saw lots of sparrows (they like the leftover date cake that I put out and also the seed feeder), starlings (fatballs), blackbirds (pyracantha berries and apples), two collared doves (not sure what they ate - just seemed to be touring the garden) a robin (date cake and stuff in the borders). The feeders are needing topping up regularly, but I've not actually seen any bluetits on the peanuts, and my one goldfinch sighting was a few weeks ago.

[Comfreyfan]

I know I'm cheating, because it wasn't it my garden, but a kingfisher kept us company most of today, so beautiful in the sun - doesn't look like a British bird at all. For a while it was sitting in a tree about 6' from me - I've never seen one so close before. The long tail tits were in the garden yesterday though - like little round lollipops!