Back garden birds

magicbastarder

technically this might not belong here - but we occasionally see bullfinches, but only in our front garden.

maybe it's a particular plant in our garden, or our neighbour's garden, but i think it's been several years since we saw one in the back garden.

SEORG

A busy morning in the back garden with plenty of birds around.

The black cap has become a bit of a bully. It perches on a branch of the apple tree and chases the blue tits & great tits if they attempt to land on it. There are plenty of feeders in different part of the gardens so they won’t go hungry.

We made some more hanging feeders last night using a mixture of melted suet blocks and wild bird seed. We used a cut milk carton to let it set. I’m not too sure about the berry mix in the suet blocks but we’ll see how it goes.

sligeach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121581223#Comment_121581223

The North wind doth blow,

And we shall have snow,

And what will poor robin collared dove do then, poor thing?

He'll sit in a barn,

And keep himself warm,

And hide his bald head under his wing, poor thing.

sligeach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121610075#Comment_121610075

Starlings are a scourge in my opinion. Noisy, squabbling flying rats I call them. They empty bird feeders, even the ones that are designed to keep squirrels and larger birds at bay.

Goodigal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121623294#Comment_121623294

Agree. But they are magnificent in a murmuration so I grant them that!!

Alun

It's strange, we used to get loads of redpolls in the winter, but haven't seen one in ages. The peak was in the heavy snow we had in March 2018 when we were overwhelmed with them, redwings and the odd fieldfare too.

We're not getting many birds on the feeders at all at the moment as we have the annual visit of a pair of black caps that very aggressively chase off any other birds. Even the usually boisterous goldfinches seem unable to fight them off.

SEORG

The black cap in our garden spends so much time chasing the other birds I’m actually surprised it eats any food itself, and it keeps ruining my attempts at a decent photograph.

One of the local cats has been prowling around too. But the birds have safety in numbers.

Mech1

One of the Starlings in my area is no more, RIP.

Delighted to be able to see this guy visit today.

Mech1

I have more grey squirrel than you can shake a walnut tree at and plenty of garden song birds of all types, happy enough to sacrifice a starling.

SEORG

Great photo, I would love to see a sparrowhawk in the garden.

SEORG

Had a couple of siskins in the garden over the last few days.

The black cap seems to have calmed down a bit too.

Still haven’t seen a coal tit in the garden.

SEORG

Got a text from my better half yesterday evening while I was out.

SEORG

The bald collared dove is still around