It is known that many birds only use gardens and feeders at certain time of the year, does anyone know if dunnocks and wrens are like this?
When we first started creating our wildlife garden we had a fiesty little wren nearly always about and one or maybe two dunnocks lurking around the edges. However we haven't seen either species for many months now, even though our bushes and shrubs are denser and there is more food around.
We live right in the middle of London, we have some small parks and a school nearby, but only our little row is houses with gardens, mostly nearby its blocks.
We have a lot more sparrows and blue tits than when we first arrived, they certainly seem to be benefitting from what we've done. We did have a pair sparrowhawks hunting around everyday for a few months around the time both species seemed to stop appearing, but the hawks have also gone now and I only ever saw them kill pigeons (I liked this - the pigeons are a pain) and blue tits.
Hi Paula... you have given me food for thought. You have lots of sparrows (I am assuming house sparrows there) now that the starlings have gone. My starlings NEVER go and I don't see any house sparrows. I wonder if there is possibly some sort of link there as house sparrows and starlings have certain similar traits i.e. they tend to arrive en masse and are rather, shall we say, rowdy! Do you think it might be an either / or situation rather than an "all rub along together" one e.g. the presence of one deters the coming of the other?
Squirrel
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
Squirrel, I get plenty of house sparrows AND starlings! There doesn't seem to be any problems of one detering the other.
The green & gold finches dominate the sunflower hearts with the odd starling trying to barge in once in a while, the spadgers (sparrows!) tend to stick to the mixed seed feeder and the spill on the ground, and the tits go between the mixed seed and the peanuts. Incidentally the goldies have just brought down their latest brood! That's at least their 3rd brood for this year if not their 4th!! Also have plenty of chaffinches.
Have at least one pair of dunnocks around all year round in the undergrowth and a couple of robins too which do seem to be less 'visible' during the summer months! One is back now singing his little heart out from before dawn each morning! Blackbirds also visit as do siskins in the winter months.
Also have collared doves & wood pigeons visiting and the occasional magpie and jackdaw. There is a distinct lack of thrushes though alas! There could be more species coming but as I am at work during the day I don't see everything that comes!!
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
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Starlings and house sparrows feed together here - often arriving in a mixed flock! Sparrows probably get most to eat as the starlings spend so much time sqabbling among themselves. Goldies often "rule the roost", but one very aggressive siskin can be "top dog" at times! (excuse mixed metaphors!)
Our starling flocks here are notorious - last year there was a warning to drivers not to be distracted by them whirling and wheeling! Saw a small flock doing this over the mudflats on Sunday about 6:30pm.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Hi MarJus and O. Goldfinch... I did rather fear that your responses would be the general concensus but it was worth asking. I really am baffled as to why there are no house sparrows in this area (not just my garden but the area around where I live as a whole), but so far I cannot identify any particular reason.
Squirrel:
Have you checked your local experience against the regional results in the Big Garden Birdwatch? A friend of mine in Oxfordshire reckons all the LBJ numbers have declined since the spread of Red Kites in the Chilterns (M40 corridor) - could this affect you?
Squirrel, our sparrows were around alongside the starlings so no, I don't think your starlings are causing a problem. The sparrows tended to stick to the ground cleaning up the mess the pesky starlings made as a result of raiding the table and chucking the food all over the place.
Make the most of today because, unlike Sky+, there isn't a rewind button.
I doubt that red kites would have any impact on LBJs either in a garden or the wider countryside. The paths of the two simply do not cross enough. Have to say, though, a visiting red kite would be a great addition to a bird table...
House sparrows are very sedentary birds, and research has found that if they disappear from an area for whatever reason, it can take years to repopulate the area. Apparently, a house sparrow rarely travels further than two miles from its territory, and most chicks do not disperse much further either.
Hi again all... I certainly do have red kites - although not at the feeder table yet (sorry Trochilus). Never fear - you will hear my scream of delight the length and breadth of the country should that ever happen, quickly followed by the instruction to the red kites to "leave the birds alone and kill that cat" (next door's and a real pain in the posterior). None of the other birds seem that bothered by the red kites though - they simply do the same as when a thunderstorm is looming / in progress - stay quiet and in whatever cover is nearest. What I do have, nesting in the trees fairly close to me, are carrion crows. But the other birds don't seem in the slightest bit concerned about them - even to the point of sharing the feeder table with one on a regular basis.
Well, we don't seem to have found an answer, so maybe the sparrows in your area are so well fed naturally that they don't need you! Sorry! Or maybe there are so many bird feeders around, that they only visit selected ones near ther roosts/nests/habitual places.
Actually, I now remember that when we first came here we saw them in hedges over the road but never in our garden - and it took them about two years to discover the feeders!
We have a large stone wall behind our caravan covered in virgina creeper and the wrens seem to like this although i could not find the nest they made their presence known by their calls and at the bird feeder. the oddest nest was that of a wood pigeon we spent lots of time watching the males courtship and when it was on our roof first thing in the morning who needs an alarm clock!