Little and large
Over the past four blogs, I have been giving an account of the birds in my garden and have talked about the feral pigeons, the sparrows and wood pigeons in particular.
In the past couple of weeks, there have been a few new arrivals in the garden and it’s nothing to do with youngsters who have flown the nest.
For two or three weeks now a single large crow has been coming into the garden to see what bird food is about. The way they walk across the lawn and hop about is quite comical in itself, particularly when my visitor does a circuit of the base of the bird table looking for anything that might have been dropped. You can imagine the impact such a large beak has on the suet fat balls and he or she certainly pecks at them very enthusiastically. I think their favourite food is scraps of cooked meat from the kitchen, which I put out in a very small quantity in the middle of the day so that it doesn’t attract vermin. I don’t need to worry about it being around for long as either the crow or the blackbirds or the starlings will soon swoop down and find it. I must admit there is usually a mad scramble from the bird table and bird feeders when the crow appears. My photo shows the crow on the lawn.
I’ve also been pleased to see in the last week or 10 days a pair of goldfinches coming into the garden. They have been collecting nesting materials but I haven’t seen them on any of the bird feeders. They are a bird that occasionally comes into my garden, usually in the winter, so there are also always welcome visitors.
I have at least one squirrel coming into the garden and I think it’s possibly two, although they’re not arriving together. They help themselves to peanuts from the feeder and although they sit and eat some of them in situ, they have also started to bury them in my raised vegetable beds.
The sparrows continue to be busy and as they are coming to the bird feeder much more frequently as are the starlings now, I think there must be some little ones on the way. The jackdaws are still coming as well and I’ll certainly know
For two or three weeks now a single large crow has been coming into the garden to see what bird food is about. The way they walk across the lawn and hop about is quite comical in itself, particularly when my visitor does a circuit of the base of the bird table looking for anything that might have been dropped. You can imagine the impact such a large beak has on the suet fat balls and he or she certainly pecks at them very enthusiastically. I think their favourite food is scraps of cooked meat from the kitchen, which I put out in a very small quantity in the middle of the day so that it doesn’t attract vermin. I don’t need to worry about it being around for long as either the crow or the blackbirds or the starlings will soon swoop down and find it. I must admit there is usually a mad scramble from the bird table and bird feeders when the crow appears. My photo shows the crow on the lawn.
I’ve also been pleased to see in the last week or 10 days a pair of goldfinches coming into the garden. They have been collecting nesting materials but I haven’t seen them on any of the bird feeders. They are a bird that occasionally comes into my garden, usually in the winter, so there are also always welcome visitors.
I have at least one squirrel coming into the garden and I think it’s possibly two, although they’re not arriving together. They help themselves to peanuts from the feeder and although they sit and eat some of them in situ, they have also started to bury them in my raised vegetable beds.
The sparrows continue to be busy and as they are coming to the bird feeder much more frequently as are the starlings now, I think there must be some little ones on the way. The jackdaws are still coming as well and I’ll certainly know
when the youngsters have arrived by all the cackling that will ensue.
It’s certainly a lovely time of the year with all the flowers and fresh growth in the garden and watching that and also the birds and other wildlife, a fox walked through my garden at 7.30 this morning, has certainly kept my spirits up during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Written by Margaret Emerson
