Hello !
We have recently joined the RSPB as we have a very keen interest in the birds that come into our garden.
I took up photography early this year and I have become rather addicted to photographing the birds. I have noticed that in the last 3 weeks I am not topping up my feeders as much. We used to top them up every day- 5 feeders every evening and sometimes in the morning. But about 4 weeks ago birds stopped coming to our garden. I have not see a blue tit for 4 or 5 days, we used to get around 20 - 30 tits, 20 or so finches, 10+ nuthatch, sparrows, dunnocks, doves, robins - loads. But now just a few dunnocks, 3 goldfinches, one nuthatch this morning. A couple of dove and one or 2 crows. The pheasants are still coming. Not even seen the robin for 4 or 5 days. Two red kites now where we used to see 6-7 overhead.
Not needed to top up the feeders for 2 weeks. The blue tits are not using the bird boxes.
On another sad note, we used to have a field full of rabbits, but over the last 3-4 years we rarely see a rabbit and the terrain has changed since the rabbits are no longer there which might have an impact on ground nesting birds - not sure.
Is this normal? I don't remember any other year being this quiet. Or is it because I have taken up photography and I am far more aware.? (but I know we filled the feeders up very very regularly)
Thank you !
In theory and hopefully everything is out on nests and birds tend not to nest close to artificial food sources . There should also be more natural food available now in the form of caterpillars and greenfly etc. Food requirements for nestlings and feeding parents are different to winter - if you can source some live meal worms there will be a number of grateful recipients but not too many as they can go sour. Daily fresh, clean water is also a must - be patient and hopefully you will be seeing fledglings very soon
Cin J
Re nuthatches, you may or may not be aware they hoard food. They're also territorial, so I'm guessing you're seeing the same couple of birds going to and fro from feeders, rather than a large gathering all at once?
As Germain says though, gardens (incl ours) empty of most birds by May. Unfortunately, breeding success is very, very low.....to the point anything bigger than a robin never breeds successfully in it. Anything smaller soon seems to get eliminated after fledging....or (hopefully) disperses to nearby woodland and hedgerows.
That you Germain for taking the time to respond.
Our garden is located next to some woods, so yesterday I went out into the woods with my Merlin App. It heard 13 types of bird, plus I heard a cuckoo and I saw 2 kites and a buzzard. So they are around, they are simply not keen on my mere offerings of boring sunflower hearts. I did get some meal worms, but not live ones.
Thank you again - I feel reassured. I will keep looking out for them
If you are going to put the dehydrated ones out soak them for 10 minutes before hand and that means both adults and nestlings are getting moisture - not the same as a big fat juicy caterpillar but it all helps
Will do ! sorry about predictive text. I meant to say ‘Thank You’. Not ‘That You’.
I again agree with Germain re soaking dried mealworms. Your area sounds the same as here, so birds correctly choose better habitat to breed at this time of year. Many species don’t come to feeders anyway. Those that do will start filtering back once nests fledge or fail in the coming weeks or so.
Stunning photo of a blue tit!
Thank You - it took many hours to get that shot