Andyoptic
Posts: 3815
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Posted At: 22/11/2008 14:30:16
TisMe,
Watch out for striped cats.... crafty little bu**ers
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Boogie Girl
Posts: 1159
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Posted At: 23/11/2008 09:27:04
I've got an 8ft beech hedge around my garden which, although it's a pain to cut twice a year, is positively alive with birds.
I have sparrows, dunnocks, robins, wrens, tits, blackbirds, the ubiquitous pigeon but no finches as far as I can see.
My garden borders woodland where buzzards live, so there is always something to watch!
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Boogie Girl
Posts: 1159
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Posted At: 23/11/2008 10:51:53
Update - have now got a chaffinch! A nuthatch and thrush too.
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Polaris
Posts: 742
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Posted At: 23/11/2008 17:12:51
Just to prove I can be serious:
We should not get too wound up about actual numbers of different species. For example, there has been a truly huge increase in gold finches in recent years but this barely gets a mention. The environment may be changing but often this is not the cause of large fluctuations in population.
Populations are described by chaos equations involving tiny factors that dramatically alter population dynamics. This is akin to the butterfly effect where a butterfly in Beijing can cause a hurricane in the Atlantic. Best studies have involved the rabbit population in the UK. This has never, and will never, be stable. It is an enduring but total myth that there is a "balance" to nature. Populations rise and fall dramatically. Indeed it is believed that these rapid fluctuations give rise to niche opprtunities for Darwinian random selection towards new diversity.
In summary, shame for the missing sparrows but in a few years we will be commenting on the masses of sparrows in the hedgerows and panicking about the loss of the gold finch.
The environment has not been better in Britain (air, water, trees, etc,) for over 200 years. There are more trees in Britain now than there have been for over 400years.
Totally agree, the bird population this country has been in a state of flux for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid we got starlings, sparrows, seagulls and the occasional exotica of a magpie. Mind you the air was so bad you could taste the soot in the fog and the local rivers were so polluted they could not support any life at all. I was an adult before I saw my first kingfisher, heron etc.
These days there are so many species of birds in my garden and the other day I saw a red kite hovering above it. I think we’re really lucky to have all these varieties. We’ve come a long way from needlessly poisoning everything in sight, even if its only the start of the journey…….
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olivine
Posts: 55
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Posted At: 01/01/2009 14:08:34
i've never noticed a decline in sparrows in my garden in the midlands, there are always plenty coming to feed, as are a wide range of species. love watching the birds. we have also seen what looks like a red kite visiting nearby.
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Andyoptic
Posts: 3815
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Posted At: 01/01/2009 17:35:52
Keep up the feeding. It has been 4 days of sub zero temperature and they need all the help we can give them. Plenty of oily stuff this time of year.
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Pumpernickel
Posts: 5544
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Posted At: 13/01/2009 14:30:14
I've made a hanging feeder from half a coconut shell .....bought some lard, melted it, filled the shell with peanuts & breadcrumbs & seeds & poured the fat in. Also forgot to block the hole, a little melted lard goes a long, long way.....
However, birds are loving it, although there's an awful lot of beak-wiping going on!
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Constellation
Posts: 669
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Posted At: 16/02/2009 23:10:03
In my garden the starlings are the football hooligans of the bird world. All the others move around uneasily and only make a quick grab for the peanuts when the starlings are away terrorising something else.
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carolinet
Posts: 707
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Posted At: 17/02/2009 10:44:38
There's a very belligerent blackbird here who tries to chase the other blackbirds and the smaller birds away from the food. (Probably Spring is in the air at last).The smaller birds mostly outwit him though and a very comfortable old pheasant just ignores him. It's entertaining to watch them.
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special K
Posts: 576
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Posted At: 19/03/2009 11:40:25
In my garden the starlings are the football hooligans of the bird world. All the others move around uneasily and only make a quick grab for the peanuts when the starlings are away terrorising something else.
Constellation. I think the way to help bird life is to keep all `bully birds` out of the garden as much as pos! Bully birds can look after themselves. If you allow sea gulls, magpies and starlings into the garden they will cost you a small fortune and scare off small birds.
We have a squadron of sparrows, numerous blackbirds, blue tits, great tits, cole tits, and just now long tailed tits.
When the sky darkens with numerous starlings fall upon my feeders I rush into the garden to do my banshee shout! The small birds seem to know what I am doing and return within seconds.
I like to think I have started a `commune` for small birds. And, I repeat the bully birds can always look after themselves elewhere!
Look around the countryside, there never seems to be a shortage of crows, magpies and sea gulls - whatever the experts may say!! |
hoton
Posts: 563
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Posted At: 19/03/2009 17:42:51
We have not had sparrows for some time here in the West,but I have seen many outside the UK I thought they had gone on holiday.Have many species of birds here but lucky that never ever had a starling in the garden.  The odd Magpie is around and sometimes come in but although there are many "seagulls" in the area and a lot nest nearby,they do not come into our garden.I think it is because of the high fences and trees/bushes that prevent them. |
Pandora
Posts: 2784
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Posted At: 19/03/2009 18:11:13
I have some linnets in my garden this year. So pretty.
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Northbrook
Posts: 1299
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Posted At: 19/03/2009 19:27:30
Likewise, Pandora, though I had to leaf through the bird book to discover what they were. We regularly have 8 or 10 hanging around the feeders.
BTW, do we all know there's a birdwatching thread under Leisure?
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lil.miss.ecks
Posts: 10
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Posted At: 20/03/2009 12:36:35
I keep a journal of things happening in my suburban garden: I used to have 40 - 50 sparrows on the nuut feeders (more in summer), but rarely see more than 20 now,
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Pandora
Posts: 2784
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Posted At: 21/03/2009 10:19:06
Like you,Northbrook, I had to look through the RSPB booklet to find out what type of bird was this little speckled brown bird.
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carolinet
Posts: 707
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Posted At: 21/03/2009 13:26:45
Linnets were on the Government's "Red List" a couple of years ago, because of the decline in numbers. If you're spotting them maybe they are not so scarce after all, which would be great.
Sparrows used to be able to feast on corn that was lying about the farm buildings, but now everything has to be bird proof to comply with regulations. Luckily, there's still sparrows living here so they must be finding enough alternative feeding.
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ldanyelle
Posts: 5971
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Posted At: 21/03/2009 20:17:23
I have everything from sparrow to heron in my garden,they wait for me to replenish the feeders twice a day.
I also appear to have a pair of linnets nest building in the Ivy covering a shed.
Perfect entertainment all day and every day.
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malpod
Posts: 1431
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Posted At: 14/06/2009 14:36:24
I can't remember when I last saw a sparrow or a starling, and I used to have loads, rather too many in fact.
I think this may be because my neighbour puts out loads of food every day, and his bird table and surrounding ground have been discovered by flocks of massive wood pigeons, who have scared away the smaller birds.
The wood pigeons love to strip the berries off my holly tree for dessert. 
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CeeCee
Posts: 14664
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Posted At: 14/06/2009 14:57:25
I frequently have half a dozen wood pigeons in my garden and on the bird feeding station, at the same time as goldfinches and blue tits, none of which are bothered by the pigeons. The starlings line up on the arms of the feeder waiting for the pigeons to move. They know the pigeons will not harm them. There are many bird related comments in "Birdwatching & Wildlife" in the Leisure thread. This has been running for a couple of years now and we welcome new contributors.,
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