Hi there,
This is my first post of 2026 and although it might not sound too exciting I am going to feature what was happening in and around my garden over the last few months. Bear with me on this one, there are some interesting photos and videos I am sure you will enjoy.
Let us start with a bit of drama.
To set the scene; I was in my garden when I a heard the distinctive sound of a Raven calling (more of a croak than a call) not something we have every day, but that wasn't the strange bit...........I also heard the high pitch screech of a Peregrine Falcon. What was going on?
The noises were coming from the fields just behind our garden, but I could see through the trees and bushes to the area where the action was. I ran in the house grabbed my binos and headed upstairs to the bedroom window, here I had a better view of what was happening.
The Peregrine Falcon had made a kill and it was trying to defend it against a couple of large Ravens who were trying to claim the carcass for themselves. Eventually the Ravens gave up and the Peregrine got back to it's kill and started plucking the feathers of the carcass. I thought I should get some photos of this and ran to get my camera:
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| Peregrine Falcon on kill |
It was a bit far away for my little camera, so apologies for the quality.
No sooner had I taken this photo when the Peregrine Falcon got up and flew away, leaving the carcass behind!
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| Peregrine flies off |
The reason for this hasty retreat was that a large Buzzard flew overhead and dropped down onto the freshly plucked carcass:
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| Buzzard claims the Peregrine's kill |
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| Buzzard gets tucked in to the carcass |
Again sorry for the quality of the photos, video might be a bit better:
If you listen carefully at the start of the video you will hear the Peregrine screeching its discontent in the background.
After the buzzard had eaten its fill it left the remains of the carcass to the local crows, Although on of the Ravens did return and helped itself to a some 'wings' before flying off with them.
After all that drama let's slow back down to the regular winter activity in our garden:
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| Feeder/Birdbath set up in our garden |
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| Our garden in Winter, with view of fields in distance |
Here are some of the regular birds we get in our garden, starting with the Blackbird:
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| Blackbird in the trees |
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| Blackbird having a bath |
This was early in the Winter before we got any major frost and the birdbath was clear of ice:
Now everybody's favourite winter bird, the Robin:
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| Robin at the birdbath |
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| Robin in the bushes |
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| Robin on the ladder |
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| Robin on the small birdbath |
All very cute, but vicious little birds, especially if you are another Robin in their territory.
Just as cute, but not quite as vicious, is the Blue Tit:
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| Blue Tit on peanut feeder |
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| Blue Tit on seed feeder |
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| Blue Tit at bird box |
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| Blue Tit in bird box |
Not only are Blue Tits regularly at our feeders in the Winter, they also check out the bird box as a potential nesting site for next Spring. We have had Blue Tits nesting in this box over the last few years.
I have since installed a camera in the box so we can see what action we might get this Spring.
Another Tit that regularly visits the feeders (and occasionally the nest box) is the Great Tit; here is only patiently waiting on a nearby Hawthorn Tree:
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| Great Tit on Hawthorn Tree |
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| Great Tit waiting to get on the feeder |
We also get the occasional visit from a Coal Tit, but it doesn't hang about long, so no decent photos of one. On the other hand we do get yet another type of tit visiting, they usually come in small flocks and hang about a bit longer. I am of course talking about the little cutie that is the Long-tailed Tit:
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| Long-tailed Tit in our garden |
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| Long-tailed Tit approaching the feeder |
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| Long-tailed Tit sharing the peanuts with a Tree Sparrow |
The Long-tailed Tit seems quite happy to share with others:
Very cute, unlike our most common visitor the Wood Pigeon:
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| Wood Pigeon in Tree |
And it's urban cousin the Feral Pigeon (which is basically a Rock Dove):
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| Feral Pigeons hoovering up spilt seed |
As well as the common garden birds we do get a few visitors coming over to our place from the nearby scrubby woodland. This includes the colourful Great Spotted Woodpecker:
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| GSW enjoying the peanuts |
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| GSW joined by a Tree Sparrow |
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| GSW and two Tree Sparrows |
On the very odd occasion we can get another woodland visitor, the enigmatic Tree Creeper, one of my favourite birds but very hard to photograph:
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| Well-camouflaged Tree Creeper |
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| .....and then it's off! |
Another infrequent visitor we get is always welcome (unless of course you are a small bird) and that is the Sparrowhawk. We have had a couple of visits over the Winter, but I have failed to capture them on camera until recently when this large (probably female) Sparrowhawk landed on our fence behind a small fir tree:
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| Sparrowhawk behind the tree |
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| Sparrowhawk on our fence |
It was so annoying that it landed right behind the fir tree, so I moved into the kitchen to see if I could get a better angle from the kitchen window. I did get a slightly better view but it flew away just as I got on it with the camera:
Very frustrating!
It's not just birds we get in our garden, there are also some mammals that like to visit. We do get Hedgehogs, but not normally in the winter, he field mice that visit are very fleeting and hard to photograph, which leaves us with the Tree Rat (aka Grey Squirrel):
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| Grey Squirrel in the tree |
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| Knows when it is being watched |
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| Grey Squirrel on top of bird box |
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| Heading to the feeders |
I know they are pests and we do our best to deter them. We are quite fortunate that we only get one visiting our garden and it doesn't come every day.
It's not just the birds and mammals we get in the garden that interest me, we are fortunate to live next to some countryside which gets its fair share of visiting wildlife. This could be the scrubby woodland behind our garden or the farmer's fields beyond that, each can get winter visitors we can enjoy.
The farmer's fields for instance have areas that get flooded in the winter and these ponded areas attract gulls, ducks, geese and wading birds that are either flying over on migration or resting up during high tide in the Forth Estuary. We certainly see flocks of Curlew and Black-headed Gulls near the ponds on a regular basis:
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| Curlew and Gulls at the pond in the field |
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| Curlew, Gulls and Crows |
Sorry about the quality of the photos, the video is slightly better:
The most common gull we get is the Black-headed Gull but we have had Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Common Gull in the fields. This winter we even had a couple of the 'big boys' visiting the field, that is to say Greater Black-backed Gulls:
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| Greater Black-backed Gulls in the Field |
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| A couple of 'big boys' visiting |
Impressive birds!
With regards to the nearby scrubby woodland we have (since November) had a small flock of up to a dozen Tree Sparrows that have taken up residency, and they visit our garden every day:
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| Tree Sparrows in the bushes |
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| Tree Sparrows in the Scrubby Woodland |
The main reason they visit our garden is because we have bird feeders which we top up regularly:
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| Tree Sparrows on the feeders |
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| Tree Sparrow (not House Sparrow) |
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| Waiting their turn on the feeder |
Don't be fooled by the last photo, these birds do not wait patiently for their turn on the feeder. The small tree near to the feeder is merely a resting post where they catch their breath ready for the next feeder battle:
You don't get long on the feeder before somebody jumps on your back!
I think they are a bit daintier looking than the more common House Sparrow and the easiest way to tell the difference is that the Tree Sparrow has a full brown head, whereas the House Sparrow has a cap to its brown head. There are some other differences of course, for example the male and female Tree Sparrows look identical whilst the male and female House Sparrows look different from each other.
As they have been almost resident in our garden this winter I thought it would be a good idea to put up some extra bird boxes to see if I could tempt them to breed and nest here this Spring. I built and installed three bird boxes in the trees at the side of our house, they are close to each others as sparrows normally nest communally. Within hours of putting up the boxes they started to explore them:
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| Tree Sparrow at new Bird Box |
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| Checking it for size |
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| What do you think love? |
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| Not sure if we could get our sofa in there! |
It was very encouraging to see them checking the boxes out, here's hoping that some of them choose to stay and nest.
So that's basically that for our winter garden odyssey, hope you enjoyed it, who knows what Spring might bring.
Take care
Teddyedward
