Lasts month’s post with the video of the sparrowhawk (Red in Beak and Talon) got us thinking about how many different kinds of birds have visited our garden. None are particularly rare, and many bloggers will have had more, but we were still surprised by the number. We counted 19.
It does not include birds simply passing over, such as migrating geese, or on one occasion a heron, nor have we counted birds in the nearby countryside but not seen in the garden, such as yellowhammers, only birds that have landed.
1) Seen just about every day: starling, blackbird, sparrow, wood pigeon, collared dove, magpie, crow. Some of the sparrows may be dunnock but I am only counting them once. Some days this summer there have been forty or fifty starlings on the lawn.
2) Seen often: robin, blue tit, great tit.
3) Occasionally: wren, thrush, sparrowhawk, greenfinch, goldfinch, chaffinch.
4) Once or twice only:
- One winter brought us a beautiful flock of redwings which stayed for two days while they stripped the berries from the holly bush.
- Another day, a racing pigeon with a ringed leg watched from the rooftops as I sawed wood. It must have liked me because it flew down and allowed me to pick it up. How warm and fluffy they are, and so light. Your fingers disappear into their feathers. I put it in a box with some bird seed and water, and phoned the local pigeon club who sent someone round to collect it. Later, they phoned to say it was from Hull. I should have known from its accent.
- Swallow. Really? Landed? Not just flying over? Well, yes. On the morning of the 9th September, 2001, we opened the bedroom curtains to the wondrous sight of a family of swallows assembling on our telephone wire not six feet from the window. They were looking in, the cheeky little blighters, probably eyeing up softer options for the winter than an 8,000 mile flight to South Africa. Luckily, I had a film in the camera. We checked their travel documents for them, which were all in order, and wished them a safe trip. They said they would pass our regards to Nelson, and looked forward to seeing us again in the spring.
That's a good selection of birds to have visiting you!
ReplyDeleteWe are very near to woods and fields. I even once saw an owl flying along at dusk at the side of my car, which was astonishing. I would be interested in what those in different parts of the world see.
DeleteInteresting Tasker no mention of a robin. I have not seen a single robin this year. Blackbirds and sparrows and a wren all nested in the garden but no sign of a robin - that epitome of a garden bird.
ReplyDeletePat, robin is under list 2). They tend to be around more in the winter when you are digging, but I have definitely heard one recently. Wrens are difficult to spot because they are so shy, but I keep catching a glimpse of something small hurrying into the bushes when I go to the end of the garden. We have sometimes seen them nearer the house.
DeleteI am quite amused. Birds are strange as one year a species is plentiful and then not to be seen the following year.
ReplyDeleteOurs seem fairly consistent here, although the redwings were a once-only surprise.
DeleteI'm glad you had film for swallows! Thanks for checking them through.
ReplyDeleteI picked those two pictures from the eight I took. I think they capture how lively and excited the swallows were.
DeleteLOL. I'm glad the swallows' traveling documents were in order, although I must ask what your plans were if they were not? I enjoy watching the birds here, but we don't dare feed them. It will call in the squirrels and we have enough trouble keeping them out of the attic!
ReplyDeleteThey would have had to take a later flight. There are lots at this time of the year. There are squirrels in the woods nearby, but I have only seen 2 in the garden in 30 years.
DeleteWhat a lot of birds you have in your garden. That is something we miss now that we have moved into town. The birdbath generally attracts quite a few finches, tits, Robin and blackbird but they are all wary of feeding here, possibly because of the crows, magpies and neighbours' cats.
ReplyDeleteWe are very close to woods and fields, and the gardens tend to be bird-friendly except for the vandals who have covered them over because they can't be bothered to mow lawns or grow things. Are you sure at your house that it is not P that is frightening them away? After all, I gather that his full name is Peregrine.
DeleteDon't believe anything that Pudding fellow says.
DeletePlenty of birds for you to keep recording. I see this morning that four Eurasian curlews have been let loose on Dartmoor in an effort to help with breeding. Here I feed the jackdaws, and there are crows always on the green. Also of course Canadian geese flyover and there is a heron who has a permanent home under the bridge. But the loveliest sound is when I go over to the doctors and the hedge is alive with bird song.
ReplyDeleteWe don't seem to have jackdaws here, although it is possible that some of our "crows" are jackdaws. How do you tell them apart?
DeleteBlack cap, lighter grey neck and darker grey body. Intelligent bird.
DeleteI'll look at them more carefully. None around today. Nothing much around. Too wet. I'm not around either.
DeleteI had a bird in our garden once - when the missus was away. She was from Rotherham and her name was Tracey.
ReplyDeleteWhat big teeth you've got, Tracey.
DeleteWe get pretty much the same birds as you, though I don't think I've ever seen a greenfinch. And I've only seen a chaffinch a couple of times.
ReplyDeleteI've definitely never seen swallows that close-up!
It usually depends on whether we have refilled the feeders. The greenfinch is rare but Mrs D is adamant she has seen one. The goldfinches are attracted by niger seeds.
DeleteWe get a lot of parakeets in our gardens in London. Apparently they escaped from the film studios at Pinewood in 1951 when they were making The African Queen. Theyve adapted to our climate ever since.
ReplyDeleteNo parakeets up here, thankfully. They are a bit too colourful for us in Yorkshire.
DeleteDear Tasker, that's a great lot of birds. Here in Bavaria I can add storks (many, some too lazy to go to Africa), in Berlin we have less than you: sparrows en masse, jaybirds, crows and some tits. and blackbirds and doves.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there are storks here, but I think they look quite like herons, except storks are much bigger.
DeleteWell, they are white with black wings and high red legs - and long red beaks - and their posture is quite different. In Germany people believed they bring the babies :-)
DeleteWe have cartoons of storks delivering babies, too. There was once a shop in Leeds called Stork Talk that sold things for mothers and their new babies.
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