The Garden of Ed

We don't have a big garden at the rear of our house (in fact some might call it a back yard) but what we do have I try to make as wildlife friendly as I can.
By the time you take into account the space taken up by the large shed, the paved area and the conservatory you would probably call it a small garden. We do however have a small Birch tree, a Buddleia bush, a small wildflower plot and a generally unkempt scrubby patch............ and these all provide habitats for wildlife. I have also provided some creature comforts such as a birdbath, a couple of bird feeders and a couple of Blue Tit nest boxes.

Our back yard in Winter

Over the last month or so I have been keenly observing the birds in our garden which are taking advantage of the facilities provided and I would like to share some of my observations.
Most of the birds will be familiar to you, others may be a bit less common.
Let us start with the Blackbird, a common garden bird:

Male Blackbird on the grass

Male Blackbird on the fence

 

These are obviously male Blackbirds, because they are black, the female (and juveniles of both sexes) are of course brown Blackbirds:

 

Female Blackbird on the grass

Hopping about on the grass is where you are most likely to see Blackbirds in your garden (especially if you put bread scraps out), but if you have a birdbath they will visit it and they will also pick up crumbs from under the bird feeders:

 

Male Blackbird having a drink

Male Blackbird below the bird feeder

 

Another 'black' bird you may or may not get in your garden is the Carrion Crow. We have a few that nest in nearby woods and visit from time to time:

 

Carrion Crow on neighbours clothes drier

Carrion Crow on fence

 

These crows like to pop down for a bit of bread now and then, and we have one particular crow visitor (Duncan we call him) who always dips his bread in the birdbath to soften it before he flies off to eat it:

 

Duncan the Crow

 

Another member of the crow family which occasionally visits our garden is the Magpie.......... not everybody's favourite bird........... however it is very intelligent and resourceful creature and I think a visually striking bird:

 

Magpie lurking in the branches of the tree

Magpie doing a gallus walk along the fence

 

Okay so it may take young birds from the nest......... but it isn't the only predator that does this.......... however when the sunlight hits a Magpie at the right angle the green/blue/purple colours of this bird are stunning.

 

Let us now consider those birds that visit the feeder, what I like to refer to as 'perching' birds; those more comfortable perched on a branch of a tree or a bush than on the ground.

First of all we will look at examples of bird feeder etiquette, starting with a good example of birds queuing politely for their turn at the feeder:

 

 

 

Well it was reasonably polite until the Blue Tit cleared everything out at the end.

More than often this polite queuing does descends in to utter bedlam where it is every bird for themselves; as demonstrated in the following video clip:

 

 

 

The bird you are most likely to see on our feeder is the Goldfinch; we can get up to a dozen of these noisy, colourful birds jockeying for position at any one time:

 

Goldfinches on the feeder

You looking at me?

Goldfinch on plastic apple feeder

Dining with friends

In the last photograph the bird sharing the feeder with the Goldfinch is of course a male Greenfinch; the bully boy of the bird feeder! Greenfinch are chunky finches with suitably chunky beaks and will force most birds off the feeder, staunchly defending their position once they are feeding.

 

Female Greenfinch on feeder

Female Greenfinch dining alone

 

The 'pecking' order on the feeder goes a bit like this:

The Greenfinch will bully the Goldfinch

The Goldfinch and Greenfinch will bully the Robin and the Chaffinch

The Chaffinch will resign itself to feeding on scraps below the feeder, where the Robin will bully it.

Some photos of those at the lower end of the 'pecking' order:

 

Where's that Greenfinch?

 

Robin in the flower tub

Where's that Chaffinch?

Male Chaffinch in the bush

Where's that Robin?

 

I have missed some birds off the feeder 'pecking' order for the moment; firstly I want to introduce you to a bird who will regularly see off Greenfinch, Goldfinch and any other bird that gets in its way.............. that is our resident maniac the Blue Tit:

 

Blue Tit in bush

Blue Tit on feeder

Blue Tit close up

 

This tiny bundle of feathers and fury terrorises anything that encroaches within its territory, and by its territory I mean anywhere within a few metres of its winter roost............ which happens to be the birdbox on our Birch tree:

 

Home Sweet Home

 

In other words any part of our garden is Blue Tit territory; in fact in the bedlam feeder video above you may have seen the resident Blue Tit fighting with another Blue Tit plus its own reflection in a garden mirror (which I have since removed at it was in danger of doing itself a serious injury).

I first noticed that the Blue Tit was going into our birdbox back in October 2017, so I fired up the internal camera to see what it was doing:

 

 

 

It was clearly checking out the box as a potential winter roost and the droppings on the floor were evidence that it had spent some nights in there. So I cleaned the box out and put some sand/grit in the bottom then sat back to see what would happen when it got dark:

 

 

 

 

It was obviously quite happy to roost in the box and has done so every night since then (with the exception of Guy Fawkes night......... who knows where it went then?) 

Our Blue Tit sometimes even attacks the ground feeding birds, most of which are much larger that it and most are not a threat at the feeder. Here are some of the ground feeders we get in the garden:

 

Wood Pigeon on fence

Keeping an eye out for the Blue Tit

 

We don't really get Feral Pigeons in our garden but we do get its chunkier country cousin the Wood Pigeon. We also get the more delicate Collared Dove:

 

Collared Dove on fence

I wonder if I can fit on the feeder?

 

These birds spread from the European continent a few decades back and have since populated most parts of the UK. 

One of my favourite ground feeders (which will also perch on the feeder given half a chance) is the Starling. I think this charismatic bird is hugely under-rated and if it was rarer we would be raving about it's iridescent plumage and cheeky character. They often visit our garden in ones and twos, but in winter that is usually just the scouting party and a second wave come in thick and fast:

 

Starling Scouting Party

Reinforcements start to arrive

Feeding frenzy begins

 

A group of Starlings can make short work of a loaf of bread.

They are handsome birds really:

 

Starling posing on fence

 

This one is even sporting a Beatles hair cut:

 

Ringo Starling

 

Sorry about that!

 

Let's get back to the feeder and see who is waiting to be served:

 

Finch Queue

 

We have covered the common feeder birds, but what about the less common?

Well, in the Winter we tend to get regular visits from another of the finch family, the Siskin. Here is a male Siskin sharing a meal with a Goldfinch :

 

 

 

Compare this with the slightly less colourful, but just as impressive female Siskin:

 

Female Siskin on feeder



Who's less colourful?

 

The Siskin tend to sit level with the Goldfinch in the 'pecking' order even though it is slightly smaller.

They are a bird of the coniferous forests so tend to be found in the North of the country, however during Winter they will spread further South in search of food. We can also get an influx of migrants from Northern Europe.

Another even less common bird we have had in the garden this winter is one that usually heads further South at this time of year.......... but it has been bucking the trend in recent years.............. check out this video and see if you can tell me what it is:

 

 

 

It is of course a Blackcap! ............ yes I know it has a brown cap............. but female Blackcaps have a brown cap:

 

Female Blackcap on feeder

Yes, I'm really a Blackcap!

 

The Blackcap is a warbler and doesn't seem to adhere to the 'pecking' order like the finches do. It chosen to wait until the feeder is empty (often when the other birds have been scared away by someone going out the back door) and it nips in for some seed before the others return.

This blog posting has hopefully given you a snapshot of some of the birds that visit our garden and hopefully demonstrates that you don't have to go too far to enjoy wildlife.

Why don't you spend a little time observing the birds in your garden and see what they get up to?

 

cheers

 

Teddyedward