With snow covering everything and temperatures still low come Saturday morning, the scene was set for a great Birdwatch. I opted out of a morning session because I know that there is a good flurry of feeding activity in my garden mid afternoon - a wise decision.
When we went to view our house and I saw that we backed onto a big field which is managed sympathetically for wildlife, overlooked the local river and gravel pits (a major migration flyway) and had an old scrubby reservoir bank just one hundred yards away, any problems with the interior just weren't an issue anymore - I wanted that house (and luckily we got it).
The reason I mention this is because there is so much habitat for birds that it feels as if they don't really need my garden and the offerings in it - my birds are spoiled for choice which meant Big Garden Birdwatch might not be as good as I thought. On Friday night, I went all out, pulling out all my big guns of half a dozen different foodstuffs and putting them in every feeder and position possible. This really did the trick.
Long-tailed tit - on my fruity nibbles and on my Big Garden Birdwatch list (photo by Nigel Blake)
Early highlights were a sparrowhawk pausing briefly and a goldcrest making a fleeting visit. A song thrush was a top "in the garden" bird - again, I can hear three different males from my garden in spring, but because of that abundance of habitat, they rarely have to drop in. The usuals of one pair of blue tits, one of great tits, one of dunnock and one of robin showed up and three magpies paid a visit. The best was saved until late on when four long-tailed tits came in to my fruity suet pellets and the fat cake I'd hung up on Friday. and five starlings couldn't resist either Then a great spotted woodpecker came to have a look and while I was eating lunch, a slightly odd looking small bird at the fat cake kept catching my eye until I excused myself to get the binoculars on it - a female blackcap! It had a good nibble on the cake before disappearing (but returned the next day). This is another bird that can be heard easily in spring from the garden, but this was a first at the feeders. Interesting to think this is a German blackcap rather than part of our breeding population that migrates south in autumn.
I was really pleased with my watch and although not countable on the Birdwatch, a half an hour session watching from the garden at dusk produced a short-eared owl flying over the field, viewed from my bottom hedge (completeing my set of five owls seen from the garden), a little owl flying past, two woodcocks flying out at dusk (one flew right over my head) and a covey of seven grey partridges just over the hedge right next to a covey of nine red-legged partridges completed a great day literally on my doorstep. Finally, hundreds of wigeon flew up the river valley - a sure sign that the thaw was setting in (which it did - by Sunday all the snow had gone).
So that's how it was for me. Let me know how you got on and don't forget to send in your results please!
Hi Rodney.
Another bit of excitement this morning with a reed bunting on my hanging seed feeder. The usual chaffinch looked a bit put out but they took it in turns! My girlfriend's parent have a big log hanging from their tree with holes drilled in. They squash fat balls in to the holes and the woodpecker is a regular. That said, they made me one and although the smaller birds come, the woodpecker hasn't yet landed. I think it's another one of thosen cases of my birds having too much choice!