We also live facing open farmed countryside . We thought that when moving here 5 years ago the area would provide us with views of many wild birds, but this has proved to be the opposite. In the city of Nottingham the gardens have wild birds, foxes and even squirrels.
Here we don't see any sparrows, well the occasional one may show up. Foxes are "extinct" as are rabbits, squirrels etc. After putting out feeders with Niger, sunflower hearts, seed mixes, and mealworms. we now have visits of Goldfinches, blackbirds, chaffinches and a couple of Dunnocks, but not in any great numbers..The exception is starlings but they are only interested in the mealworms, sultanas and fat in any form. They definately have expensive tastes and behave like locusts , hoovering up any amount of the most expensive feed. I should also note that we do usually have pheasants and partridge , presume they have escaped from the shoots nearby.
I live in a village in Scotland surrounded by farmland too. The nearest town is four miles away. The numbers of birds visiting my garden has built up year on year over the last sixteen years when we moved into a new build house. It does take time in a new environment.
Is your home a new one or an older house?
Interestingly a three year long study by Sheffield University completed about 3 years ago suggested that domestic gardens even, in extensive built up areas, were a more valuable space for wildlife than the ecological desert that much UK farmland has become. I have a vague recollection that English Nature, as it was then called, said much the same a few years earlier.
Every day a little more irate about bird of prey persecution, and I have a cat - Got a problem with that?
I have lived in my current house for over 13 years.I have always had birds in the garden,the usual culprits tits sparrows wood pigeon and a nesting house martin family that come back every year.I also have a holly tree which always has plenty of berries in it a bird table and a pond.I have started to notice over the last few years the numbers declining not just in my garden but in general around where i live.To the point this year I have not seen 1 bird not even a robin in my garden and all the food left untouched.
how sad Mark, just out of interest where do you live?
kind regards the little robin (gayle)
Up in Shrewsbury Shropshire,We were out in the garden today for nearly 3 hours and didnt see one,but saying that we saw 5 bumble bee's which was suprising to see.
oh bless, has anything changed around you new neighbours a cat or maybe a bird of prey, I'm in Northamptonshire and have had a serious lack of birds lately, 1) the snow left and so did my wild birds, 2) we have new neighbours who have a yappy dog and a cat, 3) we have a Sparrowhawk hanging about (I managed to video this stunning bird eating his catch in my garden, a big plump pigeon) I must learn how to upload as it's only the second video I have recorded in my life :) anyway getting back on track all these have contributed to a lack of my normal visitors but slowly but surely they are coming back in!
Just wondering if anything has changed as my lil darlings don't like change they can't even handle me putting a new feeder up, takes them a while to come back in!
Has anyone else experienced this kind of behaviour when putting new things in the garden?
I have three labs and a cocker spaniel and so far plenty birds, unless doing a count. I put new feeders slightly away from the usual hanging places and wait..... I think my birds re fattening themselves for the breeding season now as really busy at the feeders and blackbirds hunting for food under the bushes. I do have some quiet times if the weather is good even in the winter but they always come back. I am in a town on the edge of farm land
Hi Gwendles, I have a staffy and she's not bothered with the birds, in summer she will lay in the sunshine with the birds hopping about her quite a sight to see, it just seems that every time something changes the birds will disappear for a bit but like I say they do come back :)
hi what you have said as confirmed my beliefs my husband put a bar across the window of my bedroom we hung lots of feeders on it and it took quite a while but now the birds come and eat i even stand in the bedroom the other side of the window and it doesnt put them off at all but as soon as we move the feeders round they keep away for a couple of days my husband also took photos of a sparrowhawk eating its prey on our patio we are not sure what it was we think a sparrow looking at the feathers left behind but like you we are unable to put onto the computor i am waiting for one of my children to come down and show me how i have got a photo of a young fox three squirrels chasing each other round plus lots of other photos all taken in my little garden so just got to be patient have tried to sort out how to put photos on but im worried i will loose everythingi think the main thing with this nature watching is mostly down to patience what say all of you out there we sat in our garden today and was most surprised to see a brown butterfly keep looking thats what i say.
Wonderful idea Pauline, think I might just have to do something similar, we have a phone wire just outside the bedroom and I often see various members of the tit family resting there and they are not bothered by me standing there either! Isn't wildlife magical & yes patience is definitely a virtue especially where our wild friends are concerned, nice to know other's have experienced the same thing though thank you for your reply :) that is early for a butterfly but like Mark there with his bumble bee's I saw my first wasp of the year on tuesday.