We don't usually get much snow here, but we had about 3 inches this morning. The birds were very quiet until the sun started a bit of a thaw. It is very cold tonight and more snow is forecast.
The fieldfares and redwings were back in the area, looking well in the sunshine. The garden was very busy this afternoon, even with the builders about. And, guess what, the goldfinch I've seen in the garden here. It flitted between a dead tree on the right hand side of the garden to the nyger seed on the left hand side of the garden. It was very nervous, seemed to take a seed, then look all around and take another seed. The only bird that I had in the old garden that I haven't had here yet is the bullfinch.
Oh the sparrowhawk is still visiting my aunt's.
After the Springlike weather of last week, winter has returned. Snow is covering the ground, and it is very cold. Hope California still has Spring, Andyb. The birds have been feeding today between the showers. Along with the snow showers the wind seemed to pick up. A couple of jackdaws didn't look too happy in the tall pine tree.
I was talking to my aunt who lives in the borders of Scotland last night. She had a sparrowhawk looking in through her window for most of Saturday. Oh I'm so jealous.
I should have said that I live just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Spring is certainly in the air. Before the builders arrived there were a pair of song thrushes in the front garden as well as a pair of wrens. I've seen the song thrushes a few gardens away, but have only seen 1 wren at a time. In the back garden there are a pair of blackbirds, a pair of robins, and a pair of collared doves. The only ones that seem to be nesting in the garden are the collared doves. I've seen them flying into the tall pine tree with nesting material. Strange to say they have been picking up the bits of roots that have been broken up by the digger - the only birds I've seen on the ground in the front garden since the builders came. A pair of sparrows were hunting, and finding nesting material amongst the garden rubbish at the end of the garden.
I have a couple of nesting boxes to put up, but unfortunately I can't climb yet. They may have to wait to next year.
In my last garden I would sometimes put out apples, but they were never touched. It is a different story here. They are mainly eaten by the blackbirds, but I've also seen the song thrush and the robin at them. They eat the fleshy bit first, then the seed bit in the middle, and finally the skin. Today there was just skin left. The male birdbird picked up the skin and flew behind the tall pine tree on the ground. Every so often he looked around it with a bit of the skin in his mouth. Did he know I could see him? The female blackbird flew around the garden a few times calling loudly, but the male remained hidden. He did not come out from behind the tree until the female had gone next door.
This is a new experience for me, I don't even keep a written diary. However since moving into a new house at the end of August I've started taking notes of my garden birdwatching/feeding.
Following a run-in with a ladder at the beginning of December I've had to confine my birdwatching to what I can see from the windows, whilst my broken leg heals. Over the Christmas period I had the odd fieldfare in the garden with some redwings visible from the living room window. Not bad for a suburban garden. No sign of them since though.
3 weeks ago builders started working on a new garage and extension for me. Unfortunately the front bird table had to be taken down, and most of the birds from the front garden have been scared off. No sign of the song thrushes since then.
Out the back I have 2 seed feeder, 1 peanut feeder, 1 fat ball feeder, a bird table that I usually only use for scraps and a ground feeding table, which sits on top of a tree stump. The ground feeding table was not popular on the ground. Only once saw some greenfinches and even then the seed was hardly touched. However it has been slightly more popular on the tree stump with greenfinches, robin and blackbirds using it.
In my old house I would have occasionally seen goldfinches, but they have been sadly lacking in the garden here. Friends live about 1/2 a mile further into the houses here and they have them in the garden. About 3 weeks ago I set up a nyger seed feeder, but alas to no avail as yet. I did see a small flock passing between houses across the road on Thursday, but they gave my house a miss. The sun caught the colours of the flock beautifully.
Of the 3 tit species in the garden the coal tit is the most common. Today there were 2 blue tits in together, which doesn't happen that often.