December 19, 2006
Saturday 16th & Sunday 17th December
GARDEN BIRDS
A couple of weeks ago I drafted a piece asking where all the garden birds had gone, I didn't get around to posting it, but two weeks later I have my answer, they're back.
I assume that because of the unseasonally warm weather there has been sufficient food in the surrounding countryside for them, but after two successive mornings of albeit slight frosts over the weekend, they felt the need to return to feed in the garden.
The cock Pheasant now considers that he owns our garden and spent a large part of both mornings patrolling the patch, House Sparrow numbers have soared, there must be thirty or more of them around now, up to four Great Tits and three Blue Tits have returned to the seed feeders, and after being decimated by whatever the disease was in the autumn, the Greenfinches are back in small numbers, two Goldfinches were on the seed feeders, but only single Chaffinches come in to the garden.
Yellowhammers are flying around, a female Blackcap skulks in the back hedge, where six Fieldfares made their presence heard on Saturday, and a Song Thrush is either seen or heard most days. The Sparrowhawks are never far away, although we rarely see a kill in or around the garden, and not long before midnight on Sunday a Tawny Owl hooted from down in the village.
Collared Dove
Dunnock
Digital slr Scoped
Greenfinch
"The Boss"