All and Sundry

The last sunrise of 2014

In the past few weeks, we have replaced damaged bird feeders and have just started to experiment with different food stuffs.   Over the past few months the type of birds that we've had at the feeders have been pretty consistent, sparrows, robins, great tits and blue tits.

The blue tits in particular have finally discovered the window feeder that we've affixed to the kitchen window. I bought the feeder on a whim but it took weeks before the birds seemed to take any interest in it.

When the snow and cold weather arrived on Boxing Day, temperatures in the area barely climbed above zero during the day and the nights where subzero for the next week.  Subsequently, the feeders have been busier than usual.

Long Tailed Tits band together during the winter to share heat during the night.  They also tend to stay close to each other during the day so it's not uncommon to see over a dozen of them on the fatballs and the peanut feeder.

With so many birds around, there has been plenty of squabbling.  Robins, starlings and blackbirds are constantly skirmishing with each other but one of the strangest confrontations we have seen  was a squaring off between the normally mild mannered woodpigeon and  a jackdaw.  The jackdaw is very partial to the bread that we throw out and most birds keep out of its way.  The woodpigeon was having none of this and chased the jackdaw away from the bread.  Bizarrely, the woodpigeon doesn't eat bread.

Woodpigeon vs Jackdaw

We've also spotted more greenfinches and coal tits around than normal.  Coal tits are small timid birds that fly onto the perch of the feeders, grab some food and fly off in a matter of seconds.  We have counted five greenfinches on one feeder at the same time with one of the birds actually feeding the others which makes us think that they are part of a family unit.

The elusive coal tit and a greenfinch

The Greater Spotted Woodpecker has also been a more frequent visitor to the nut feeder.  It won't tolerate any other birds on the feeder and will quickly chase off any that dare land on it.

At the moment, we've been refilling the bird feeders three times a week.  With so many birds around it was only a matter of time before the predators paid a visit.  We`ve seen plenty of  opportunistic  fly-bys  from sparrowhawks and kestrels hoping to catch a inattentive bird while feeding.  They've had some success judging from the circles of feathers we keep feeding in the garden.

One bird that I am hoping will return is the pale pink female bullfinch that we saw on the hedge checking out the feeders.  It was the first time that I had seen a female bullfinch before and would love to be able to get some good pictures of her.