Garden Birds chat 2011

I keep count of my garden birds all year round, so it will be no extra effort to do the BWI survey. This year my other half is not working, so she is under orders to keep track of bird numbers during the week!!!

Niall Hatch of Birdwatch Ireland gave a top tip for feeding Robins today
on Mooney goes wild
He said Robins like grated Cheese if you have no mealworms some cheese will do

Doing the survey for the 1st time this year, sadly so many of our garden birds died off last winter. We are left with only 2 to 3 sparrows, a robin (possibly 2) a chaffinch and a female blackbird so far. Good few crows too.
Increasing the amount of food and feeders to encourage them but the birds are really finding it tough this winter esp. after being hit so hard last year. Our garden used to be full of them even in winter time now the home made fat balls last days rather than all gone in one day.

Has anyone got greenfinches this year?
I used to have quit feeding at my table, but none this year

On Autumn watch last week they stated that a virus was killing greenfinches in large numbers in the UK.

Forgot we have a great tit as well, cute little fella.
The Robin was suprisingly polite at the bird table today, the chaffinch was being a bit of a bully but the Robin eventually shooed him away.

No greenfinches so far.

On Autumn watch they said to clean the feeders very regularly, I usually have a kettle of boiling water and slosh down the table and bird bath every morning, it cools very quickly in the cold and melts the ice in the bird bath.

Kept meaning to give them some grated cheese, puppy food is aparently ok too so I tried a little bit of soaked good quality puppy food today, the crows got the most of it but saw the robin going off with some.

I noticed my first Greenfinch just today, but would not have had any more than 4 at one time last year either. Plenty of Goldfinch though - 11 at one time already this year. Notice small numbers of Blue Tit though. Great and Coal ok numbers.

trebor28 wrote: »

a couple of questions for ye.

while out for a walk today, i was walking across a field and over near the ditch i saw a solitary bird on the ground. at first glance i thought it was a robin, but as i got closeri noticed it wasnt.
it was pretty much the same size as a robin, the same pale brown back, with the pale white/cream breast, but without the red obviously.
he was pretty fearless too paying little or no heed in me only when i got too close and even then he only move another 20 feet away and continued on about his business.
any ideas? had a look at the bird identifier on rspb, but didnt find anything really.

how long does a juvenile bird keep their juvenile coat? should they have changed to an adult coat already? or does it depend on the breed?

Sounds a bit like you saw a dunnock. A great little bird with the most amazing looking eyes if you ever get lucky enough to see one at very close quarters. Anyone who has had one in their hands or observed them from a foot or so away will know what I mean about the eyes when that near as close up pics do no justice to what the eyes are like.





Here are some pics that I grabbed from various sites for you to compare with what you saw today.

thanks for the reply kess but it wasnt a dunnock, only saw one a few mins ago scuttling along the butt of a wall.

have been looking at the bird id'er on rspb, it looked something like the garden warbler, but obviously he isnt here in winter (or at least so that site says.), so i am not sure.

are they female house sparrows?

doctor evil wrote: »

I hear that hot water freezes faster than cold water?

I had a Greenfinch visit today, the first time since the summer.

So, when doing the survery do you record how many birds in say ten minutes or in just one glance out the window? I have never done this kind of thing before.

(Mod note- Content below added from id "what bird did I see" thread. )
On another note a Greenfinch came to my feeder today, not surprisingly there has been a lot of traffic!

I put some glycerine solution in the bird bath to help stop it from freezing but now it is solid. Any tips?

I plan on mixing some fat from the pan with some oats/raisins/wholemeal bread crumbs and putting it into an empty yogurt pot. I will then attach this to the top of my bird feeder. Are chopped cherries ok to put in?

I would like to put something out for the Wren but I don't want the mice to get it, no way will I be leaving fat out. The homemade fat ball is going to be attached to my cj bird foods feeder, a defender one with the slippery pole that has defeated squirrels in the two years of use. I thought perhaps bits of cheese (which the cat may take - only goes out to relieve himself) or mealworms. Would mice take mealworms? I know the area and the rough time 'my' Wren will be. I'd rather not touch the mealworms so just sprinkling them out of the tub be ok?

The snow is early this year.

Hot whiskey for getting this far;)

Under certain conditions hot water can freeze quicker than cold water. A lot of the time it is happens thanks in part to evaporation.

The hot water loses mass as some of it evaporates, and then freezes quicker due to having less mass, than if you put out the exact same volume of cold water at the start.



As for glycerine solutions, I personally would not do so as it is not good for the birds and it is too easy to put too concentrated a dose into the water. You can buy bird bath additives to help prevent the freezing over of bird baths. A lot of them are made from plant extracts, but I have found most of them are pretty useless once the temp drops to -5 or below.


The one in the link works well for mild frosts and temps slightly below zero.


http://www.birdfood.co.uk/product_details.php?area_id=2&group_id=20&nav_id=43&prd_id=1418



What I have done the last few days is simply refill the bird bath a number of times a day. It does not counter the fact the water will freeze in time, but by checking it on a regular basis I can remove ice and have open water for the birds for spells during the day.

Trying different spots around the garden can work sometimes as well if you have parts of the garden that are less exposed. That way you get longer unfrozen spells in the bird bath.

Another trick I try sometimes is I pop a small plastic ball into the bird bath. Any bit of a breeze keeps it moving, and it creates ripples on the water surface. The logic being that moving water is much harder to freeze.

Just a heads up Lidl have bird seed in this week.
No more new birds, left out food for the larger birds to distract them from the smaller birds food and counted 14 Rooks and 2 Jackdaws.

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Are you in a coastal location? Any photos?

Yes, we have the sea on either side, about 100 metres away. No pic, the light was too bad. I'll try and get a shot next time I'm home during daylight hours.