Todays Garden Birds

More fabulous photos ILR, and nice to see a black cap.

The long tailed tits seem very partial to suet balls and pellets here, and your photos seem to suggest the same.

They certainly do Mike it’s aunt Sally’s recipe,Lol

As far as I know an increasing number of Blackcaps are overwintering here, especially in the south of the country, but are themselves migrants from Europe avoiding the longer flight further south. They then return to Europe in the Spring and are replaced by migrants from southern Europe. I'm not sure if any have become resident here yet but the large number of people feeding garden birds may be bringing that about.
Trevor

I think you could be right Trevor, I think since the very first lockdown people have got more interested in nature from there daily walks, seeing birds in the country side and there local parks and the interest has developed into putting up bird feeders to encourage them into there gardens. So at least nature has benefited from the pandemic and I am sure peoples well being has too in these difficult times.

I guess that I fit into this category as the 'seed café' went up in early June last year, although I had hung up a few coconut suet feeders earlier in the year. I'm picking up bits and bobs of information as I go and really enjoy watching the sometimes frantic activity just outside my living room. Seeing the birds up close has really sparked my interest, leading me to buy books, download apps etc. and even buy the camera so that i am able to capture some of the moments.
Thanks to Robbo and Trevor for the info on blackcaps, very interesting. I'd never seen a blackcap before until I saw them in my garden.

I think most of us went down that road Jez, I started after i bought my camera, and like you bought books to learn as much as i could, by the way you never stop learning, there is something to learn everyday about wildlife. That's why so many people bird watch, its adictive but it doesn't harm you, in fact its good for your health and mind.
and above all enjoyable. And long may it continue.

Many a true word Robins..! With so much more wild bird food being bought since the lockdowns began it's encouraging that people are taking more of an interest in our wildlife now, as long as the feeders are cleaned regularly and any mouldy or rotting food is disposed of otherwise it could be quite harmful to our wild bird populations.

That’s great Robins, I do the same. The last thing we want to do is spread any avian diseases , there’s been enough pandemics for a good while now.