Birds keeping me amused

There has been slightly less work taking place in my garden during the past week and so the birds are back into their normal routine of eating food at the bird table.
But I need to be conscious that the afternoon top up supply of food is on the bird table while before 5 o’clock and of course from next week with the clocks changing this coming weekend, I will need to be even earlier.

The robins have been around in the garden a lot this week probably because I’ve been digging and planting and I will often find one sitting very close to me. They seem to also stay quite late in the evening and it was almost dusk when one was on the feeder earlier in the week. Talking of the feeder and when it was properly light this morning, two collared doves were sharing the tray at the base of my seed feeder. I’ve not seen two together for some time now so I had been concerned that one was left on its own They tend to come at quieter times although one will sometimes land at the bird table when it is busy with feral pigeons in the late afternoon.

My picture this week is of a jackdaw who took a rest for several minutes sitting atop a bamboo cane pyramid in the garden. I’m not sure how it managed to balance there for such a long time, but it seemed to think it was a good perch when several of his mates were at the bird table.

Just as I’m writing this I’m looking out of the window and a starling has just had its morning ablutions in what is normally the pigeons bird bath, but they were too busy eating at the bird table. An amusing incident with a starling happened the other afternoon when there were quite a few birds at the bird table and suet feeders and one pigeon was pecking away at the suet square. A starling arrived and also wanted to feed there and so landed on the back of the feral pigeon and the pigeon soon moved away. The starlings clearly do not mind larger birds.

I’ve not seen the woodpecker in the last few days but I do need to be in the right place at the right time to spot it, as it normally only arrives for a very brief visit and if I don’t happen to be looking out into the back garden I miss it.

Written by Margaret Emerson