Garden Birds

Hello all,
I've just had a fantastic bird land in my garden: a male Sparrowhawk. Although these are relatively common, you only ever "see them leaving." Sadly, by the time my brain had registered my surprise, the Sparrowhawk departed, and back came the House Sparrows. Of course, having predators is a fantastic sign of bird populations in the area: a predator won't be where there isn't food! Hopefully, this beautiful bird will become a frequent visitor to the garden.

Bird round up of the week
As far as garden birds go, good numbers of House Sparrow, who are using both the fat ball feeder and seed feeder, with 4 males and 4 females in the garden constantly! Goldfinches also turned up, with 3 or 4 in the garden for most days of the week, but with only brief visits. A Chiffchaff/ Willow Warbler graced my garden yesterday, followed by the call of another Chiffchaff. Robins were regulars throughout the week, with 2 usually present, and 3 woodpigeons all week were welcome. A frequent trio of Blackbirds were also there all week, with 4 dunnocks beneath the feeders as well. Only 6 blue tit records all week and 4 great tit records, plus one coal tit. As far as birds of prey go, an excellent week, with the male Sparrowhawk, a Red Kite, 2 Buzzard and one peregrine!!!

A car journey to Wembley on Sunday (sadly Oxford lost) proved fruitful, with my first Swallow of the year, plus 7 Buzzard, 5 Red Kite, 1 Kestrel, 5 Roe Deer, 1 Jay and a cormorant with three mallard and two mute swan!

All in all, a decent week!

George


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's a bird's favourite colour?

Image
A shortened version of the project write-up can be read here! Abstract This was a field-based experiment to attempt to answer a question: Do birds have a favourite colour? Four coloured feeders (dark blue, green, yellow and red) and a clear control were used. The number of visits and the mass change in the feeders were recorded so preferences could be gauged. The results show a clear trend for blue being the preferred colour; red and yellow were unpopular. We suggest that this is because high energy colours (blue and UV) are used by birds in short distance communication and that the blue feeder may have been the most detectable for the birds. We also suggest that red and yellow were unpopular because they are employed for aposematic colouration (toxins) in insects. Applications of this research could include influencing the design of turbines or aeroplanes, to deter birds.  Over 3000 feeder visits later... Mean average percentage of visits to each feeder. Error bars
Read more

Pecking Order – the hierarchy at the feeders

Image
Bird feeders act as central congregation points for local birds, but when they start panic buying, which species is top of the pecking order? A study carried out by the University of Exeter and the BTO suggests that heavier birds are more dominant at bird feeders, allowing species such as House Sparrows to gain superior access to higher “value” food that is either high in energy or efficient to consume (e.g sunflower hearts require less energy to eat than a sunflower seed with the husk still on). Goldfinches tucking into sunflower hearts - a high "value" food This idea of dominance was calculated by recording which of two feeders a bird visited (either a “low value” sunflower seed with husk feeder or a “high value” sunflower heart feeder), the length of time a bird spent on the feeder, how many pecks a bird made whilst at the feeder and the outcome of any interactions between birds of different species (i.e. would a House Sparrow displace a Blue Tit from a f
Read more

Bird round-up 8/4/16

Image
 Hello all, The best was a male Blackcap (first male of the year) at about 1:10, as shown to the left. The suetball feeder had constant activity on it, mostly 4 male and 4 female House Sparrow. Two Goldfinches will hopefully remember the Sunflower heart feeder, as they landed on it as soon as I had hung it up!  Two Blue Tit were intermittently on the seed feeder, and a drop- in Greenfinch was the first of April. A Chiffchaff on the lawn, albeit briefly, was excellent, as well as 3 Collared Dove , not often seen around here. Blackbirds , Dunnock, Robin and Woodpigeon appeared many times, as well as one Great Tit. Flyovers included all the commoner gull species, corvids (except jay and raven), and a continuous stream of small passerines.  A shortened walk around my local patch had to show for it 1 Coal Tit and 1 Long Tailed tit of note, and a singing male Chaffinch ! Also, badger digging marks and a badger latrine were good finds. More soon, George
Read more