Garden News

Today I'm just going to give you an update on what's been going on in my garden. The name "Birding in the Garden" is slightly invalid now really as I seem to talk more about stuff outside the garden! I am just giving you information about the changes made to the bird garden. Well, here goes.

There has been a pair of Blue Titmice nesting in one of the trees outside the nursery of Sharps Copse School (just outside my back gate) and today the parents brought their fledged young out to feed at my feeding-station. First I should really inform you of the changes I have made to the garden in the sense of bird-feeders as this photo....

that I have used at least twice is from 2010 and things really have changed since then. The feeding-station now looks like this...
 (photo taken today)

The perspex seed tube feeder in the corner (on the 2010 photo) broke in 2012 but has been replaced by a steel and wire-mesh peanut feeder. The pear-shaped peanut feeder is now hanging on a bracket off the shed wall. The fat ball on the right in the 2010 picture has been replaced by a coconut shell filled with millet seed and suet and the fat ball on the left has been replaced by a homemade milk bottle feeder. I took photos of each feeder separately as some are not visible in the photo:

steel and wire-mesh peanut feeder hung on bird-table

nyjer seed feeder hanging off bird-table

homemade milk bottle feeder hanging off bird-table

plastic bottle with adapter hanging off bird table but tied round  the pole holding up the roof because  there was no more room to put hooks.

coconut shell filled with millet seed and suet, already partly eaten by Blue Titmice and Starlings. They go through about one of these a week.

fat ball feeder hanging off the shed wall, already partly nommed  by Blue Titmice. I put this out so the Blue Titmice don't get deprived of suet food by the Starlings, one because the Starlings have scoffed it all, and two because the aggressive Starlings scare the titmice who are more shy.

the pear-shaped peanut feeder is now hanging outside the shed.

Well there's what the feeders are like now. The Blue Titmice particularly like the fat balls when the fledglings are with them but when the adults are alone they like the coconut shell. Here are some photos of the tits feeding with their young.

I have a photo of one of the parents on the coconut too, taken three coconuts ago!

There have also been Starlings nesting near the house and the parents brought their young to the garden too. The idea of having a fat ball feeder as well as a coconut one is working. The Starlings are taking over the coconut a bit but the Blue Titmice still have the fat balls (which they now seem to be preferring). There were once three adult Starlings, spectacularly dressed in full breeding plumage, perched at different points around the top part of the garden. Two of them were the parents of the "local nest" and the other one was just hoping to claim territory. There was a big aerial fight between the Starlings with lots of screaming and squawking and scratching, the two parents coming out tops. I hoped feathers would fly so I would get one but none did. One of the adults can do car-alarm imitations! lol! Anyway, here's one of the juvenile Starlings feeding at the coconut, this time the current one.

There is also a Robin coming to the table and the floor (the seed sprinkled on the patio) and sometimes to coconut (never the fat balls) that I am close to hand-taming. Yesterday I was putting a handful of mealworms onto the table platform when the Robin came down and touched my hand with it's claw while stuffing it's face with mealworms that were still in my hand (!!).  Here's a pic from earlier in the year of the Robin when it was slightly less tamed.

So there's the significant garden bird news. Oh, one last bit. There was a Magpie dispute in the trees outside the school too. Lots of cackling and high-pitched noises.

BYE!