Lazy Birding Winter 2025

 I have to admit that in the last couple of months I have not been out too often to do some birding. Okay the weather hasn't been great, but that doesn't usually deter me from going out for a walk and looking for some birds. 

I have instead been guilty of carrying out some 'lazy birding' by watching the birds that I can see out my back window, in the warmth and comfort of my home. How boring you might say, but not so I would argue, as well as the 'common and garden' birds I did spot some half decent birds, so I would like to share these with you:

Let's set the scene, here is our garden on a frosty Winter morning:

Our Garden in Winter

and here is our garden in the evening light:

Garden on a Winter's Evening

Let me share some of the birds I have seen over the last few weeks:

Long-tailed Tit in Tree

Blue Tit at Birdbath

Robin on Fence

House Sparrow in Bush

Male Blackbird in Bush

Nothing too exciting so far, but you can see that we have different habitats in and around the garden. There are also things in the garden that attract birds, like bird baths, bird feeders and a bird box:

Blue Tit checking Birdbox

Blue Tit in Birdbox

Great Tit in Birdbath

The feeders prove to be very popular, especially when I remember to top them up with seed and peanuts:

Mean-looking Greenfinch

Greenfinches at Feeder

Great Tit at Feeder

Colourful Goldfinches

Goldfinches at Feeder

Sometimes the birds happily share the feeder:

And sometimes they are a bit more tetchy:

It's usually the Greenfinch that are the most aggressive at the feeder, but there can be just as much tension below the feeder, where the ground feeding birds compete for any seed that is dropped:

In the last video I like how the cheeky Chaffinch and Blue Tits sneak in to grab a seed whilst the Greenfinch are busy fighting.

Sometimes we put some fruit out on the table above the feeders. It doesn't last long as the crows (mainly the Magpies) soon realise it's there and polish it off:

Difficult to grab three Blueberries in one beak-full.

Anything dropped is eagerly picked up by the ground-feeding birds, and we have a fair selection of those in the garden:

Dunnock (well camouflaged)

Dunnock on Fence (not so camouflaged)

Woodpigeon (not on the ground yet)

Collared Dove

Male Chaffinch (on the fence)

Probably the largest and showiest of our ground feeders is the small family of Pheasants that visit the garden:

Hen Pheasant

Cock Pheasant (trying to hide?)

Cock Pheasant below Feeder

We normally have a male, two females and a juvenile male visiting the garden. They usually get on okay together except when the large male decides to chase the juvenile away.

On the other side of our garden fence lies an area of scrubland, which has lain undisturbed for a good few years, and the wildlife loves it. It holds many bushes and trees that the wildlife just loves to perch in, here are some examples:

Blackbirds in Hawthorn Bush

Collared Dove in Tree

Long-tailed Tit in Hawthorn Bush

Long-tailed Tits

Rook Tree

Magpie Tree

Blackbird in Bush

Great-spotted Woodpecker on Tree

Great-spotted Woodpecker

I got a good video of this woodpecker preening as it clung onto the tree:

Also in the scrubland behind our house I saw this Song Thrush in a Hawthorn Bush:

As well as bushes, trees and rough grass in the scrubland area there are also a couple of electricity poles, which seem to be a popular perch for birds like Crows, Pigeons and Buzzards:

Buzzard on Electricity Pole 

Buzzard on Pole (facing the right way)

On one sunny day I actually ventured out into my garden and got a closer view of the Buzzard over  the fence. Not sure if it's the same Buzzard or not?

Buzzard on Pole (rear view)

Buzzard on Pole (watching me!)

Here is a video of the Buzzard on the pole:

Beyond the scrubland are some fields used for grazing sheep and occasionally highland coos. I can see some parts of this grazing land from my rear window and it can be visited by many different birds depending on the time of year and whether the tide is in or not. 

Most of the time the fields are full of Woodpigeons or Crows, but sometimes we get other visitors such as Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls, Pink-footed Geese, Oystercatchers and Curlew. Here is a video of some Curlew flying in during high tide to land in the grazing field:

Now all is not lost when they land behind the trees, all I have to do is go upstairs to the spare bedroom and I can see the fields from there. The field with the ponded area (only wet in Winter) is where most of these birds land, it is a bit further away and I sometimes need to use my telescope, but I do get some photos and videos:

Ponded Area in Field

Crows and Curlew in Field

Crows, Gulls and Fieldfare in Field

The videos probably make the birds easier to identify. Here is one of some Crows, Curlews and a couple of Sheep:

Some Curlew on the march:

And some Fieldfare and Redwing foraging:

I think heading upstairs to see some different birds still counts as lazy birding.

Back downstairs the Great-spotted Woodpecker I spotted (greatly) earlier had moved from the scrubland onto the peanut feeder, so I will end with some images of this:

Great-spotted Woodpecker on Feeder

GSW Close-up

GSW on Peanut Feeder

Of course there is a video of the GSW as well:

Well that's the end of my Lazy Birding for now, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, next time I promise I will go a little further afield and not be so lazy.

Cheers

Teddyedward