It has been a busy week with bird activity in the garden and they are noticeably coming earlier in the morning and staying later in the afternoon.
I don’t have to rush anymore to make sure an afternoon supply of food is out in the garden by 2.30 or 3 pm. There have been some reasonably spring like days but also some chillier and windy ones, but it doesn’t seem to deter the birds much. The feral pigeons and the starlings have been bathing in the bird bath saucers and sunbathing if possible to dry off, with several of each at different times the other day in one saucer. As I mentioned in a previous blog I think the birds are starting to think about spring and nesting, with multiple birds coming together such as a pair of collared doves and two pairs of wood pigeons. My picture this week is of the collared doves and the four wood pigeons in a cherry tree in the garden.
I’m regularly now having to put either some suet pellets or some chopped up meat of some sort in a different area on the lawn ready for the crows and the magpies. They will come looking for it even if I haven’t scattered any there. The starlings and the blackbirds are also quite keen to have some scraps of meat or the meal worms, probably in the case of the starlings the latter, but the other day I chopped up some cold sausage into some very small pieces and a couple of starlings were really pleased with their meal. It always amuses me how they run around trying to take the food from one another but the ones with the food run off delighted with their takings. There certainly seem to be a lot of starlings in my local area, including my group of up to 15 birds coming regularly to the feeders, but I also see flocks of them sitting on roofs and television aerials round and about the neighbourhood. I think I now have two pairs of blackbirds in the garden as well as a few robins, including youngsters from last year.
The jackdaws have been in evidence over the last week or two but they generally don’t mix with the crows and tend to come when they are not about. The birds of all types must be on the lookout continually for food arriving as the starlings will be starting to gather on the roof as soon as they see me, as I’ve mentioned before, but I will only have just thrown some food out onto the lawn and the crows and magpies swoop down.
The squirrels are still busy with at least two coming most days and occasionally I see a third one and they have made quite a track across the lawn now, running from the peanut feeder to the flowerbed and the fence or running across to the vegetable plot. I’m still pretty sure that the crows are pecking about on the lawn and finding peanuts that the squirrels have attempted to bury.
The other day I saw a bumblebee in the garden when the sun was shining, so they are probably also starting to stir from their winter slumbers and certainly with more spring bulbs starting to appear and the increased hours of daylight, it does seem as if the worst of winter may be behind us.
Written by Margaret Emerson
