Very little activity in our garden, nothing on the peanut feeder, so i put out a tray of mealworms yesterday……still there. Normally a flurry of activity as robins fight over them, or starlings turn up on mass. And its a cold snap too.
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— its the same with my birds … very very quiet, its strange, this morning with a springle of snow that is slow to clear, normally when its cold/frosty we get inundated with hungry birds.
We still have the resident dunnocks, great & blue tits and the walking pigeons, but its all rather subdued.
Yesterday we had about 6 or 8 goldfinches back and forth in between fighting sessions on the nyger.
The garden ‘boss’ robin seems to have gone missing these last few days, I hope he’s OK, but he’s been around for about 3 years, so maybe its his time.
We get very few starlings in the winter (thankfully) my theory is we are close to RSPB Otmoor who have zillions of them and a spectacular murmuration every evening. They go off during the day in large flocks to feed in the open countryside.
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The birds are pretty active here today. Certainly ploughing through the peanuts and suet at a rate and the seed somewhat more slowly. Mainly Great and Blue tits, Dunnocks and Long tailed tits plus the occasional woodpecker, starling (never more than 2!) and a few sparrows with the pigeons cleaning up the grass below. No finches.
But it seems to be in bursts - busy for a while and then a rest with nothing happening.
Just put out some bird food. Attracted the usual tits, blackbird, wood pigeons, collared doves and a Robin.
Merlin also picked up a kestral, which it’s done a few times recently.
Barn owl which it hasn’t picked up before.
And a lesser whitethroat, which is probably incorrect as they winter in Africa.
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It must be cold as a flock of Redwings have descended from the Mendips and are getting stuck in to the hawthorn berries in the big hedge, It’s been several years since we’ve seen them down here in the Vale of Wrington.
Feeder busy with a similar clientele to PW42 except a pheasant cleans up the ground below. A great time of year for birding through the window from the comfort of the sofa!
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Pretty busy round here!
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A few more birds around today, interesting they are still ignoring peanuts and mealworms, but berries are going down really well.
It’s been pretty chaotic in my garden the past few days - the drop in temperature/ frost/ light dusting of snow, seems to have made alot of birds very hungry. Most notable increase has been in the number of blackbirds which have been relatively scarce here. Unfortunately starlings have got wind of the feeders and their numbers seem ever increasing - they are clever birds and very aggressively take over the feeders.
Peter
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I’m beginning to be concerned, virtually no garden birds.
Last night we had -7’c & would have expected a feeding frenzy.
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Its RSPB garden watch towards then end of the month, hope things improve🤞🏽
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Strange. We’re not far away from you and there is masses of activity here. Even had a Pied Wagtail turn up which we don’t often see in the garden.
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Just the usual gang of blue, great, and long tailed tits visiting daily here, plus a mix of house sparrows, dunnocks, and the one kick arse robin.
Mr Blackbird made an appearance this morning, first sighting of a Blackbird around here for months, he found my half eaten apple i left for him.
Still get just the one odd mischievous crow that tried his luck but all he can do is flap about looking silly on the feeder for a few seconds before giving up and scooting off.
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Yep ours is like a scene from Snow White at the moment, as well as the bigger guns I’ve seen over the road the last few days (Buzzard, Kestrel, Herons, Jay, Crows, Cormorants, various Gulls, Mallards, Goldeneye, Coots, Moorhens, Swans, Geese, Kingfishers, Great Egret, Little Egret, Wren, Warblers, various brown jobs, deer and fox), our garden has had all the usual Tits, Goldfinches, a couple of robins, black caps, pigeons, doves, Squirrels and, briefly, a Sparrowhawk. Parakeets haven’t visited recently to my knowledge but regularly fly overhead between important place A and important place B. Nature is quite abundant round here!
Ventured out to the frozen scrapes yesterday, not much activity as it was so cold with quite a strong wind - and the poor things were mostly all puffed up with the heads under their wings.. but a few were braving it
Mr and Mrs Mallard waddling across the ice - you can see these two puffed up as well
Then warming up in flight…
A great black-back surveying a spot to land
A first year herring gull also preparing to land.
A few days ago, a knob of pintails
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Should have stuck to my favourite Henry Bell Superior fat balls. Read reviews (
) went into dumpy Home Bargains store and bought a large box of Ultimate Fat Balls. All gone mouldy with 6 months expiry date left and now in the bin. Henry Bell ball on top to show difference.
Funny enough, the Henry Bell are older and have been in the damp garage, whilst the Home Bargains have been carefully looked after in my dry porch (because they came in a cardboard box).
Still learning lessons about cheap crap. At least I don’t need to go in their store again.
Annoyed.
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The Premium suet balls from ‘Garden Wild Life Direct’ are very recommended by the local birds here and have given them the thumbs up 
…not that birds around here have thumbs, they have beaks and are presently scoffing about four or five of them daily.
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Everything around here is obsessed with sunflower hearts and peanuts. The fat balls get a nibble from the blue tits but for the most part they’re squirrel fatteners.
Thanks for the tip. Took a quick look at their site and they do look good quality. They sell in boxes of 150 which brings the price right down and also on first order I’ll get 20% off. I’ll give them a go. Thanks again.
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