Move over it’s my turn!
In my last blog I talked about the suet log which I had placed in my cobnut tree to give the smaller birds up to and including starlings, the chance to have some suet away from the larger more greedy birds. The going rate for the suet log is about four days and the starlings have certainly been making use of it.
They land in the branches of the cobnut and come onto the suet and then swap over, sometimes with a bit of squabbling as if to say, move over it’s my turn. Blue tits, coal tits and great tits have also been making use of the suet log and on a occasions I’ve seen a robin as well. I’m not too sure if one or two of the feral pigeons haven’t been looking and trying to work out how they might get onboard, but I don’t think they’ll be able to. The starlings and smaller birds also make use of any suet that has fallen down on the path nearby.
I have seen one or two wood pigeons round and about and the other day saw one sitting in one of my holly bushes helping itself to some of the berries. That pigeon features in my photograph this time. The smaller birds are also eating the berries and the blackbirds seem to be enjoying them too, but I’m sure there is a case of move over it’s my turn then as well.
During the past week the number of feral pigeons seems to have been slightly reduced which is surprising as it’s been chilly some mornings and turning colder generally. I’m not sure what the reason is behind this although they have been crows swooping about and whether they disturb them on the roof or not, when they are queueing up as it were, might be the cause. I know my neighbours across the road also feed the birds and the pigeons do sometimes use that roof and bird table, so it might be a case of them sharing the food between two locations. I also made the comment that one of the regular mainly white feral pigeons who had been coming since the spring appears to have disappeared and I’ve not seen it now for over 10 days, so I assume something has happened to it.
The original predominantly white pigeon that I’ve talked about before is definitely still coming on a regular basis, usually at lunchtime or in the early part of the afternoon and I refer to that one as the ‘boss pigeon’ as he seems to shove the others out of the way, especially on the peanut feeder. It is more a case of that’s mine and not move over it’s my turn. Another predominantly white pigeon has also appeared in the last few days and seems to be quite shy and often stays on the roof, but in the last day or two it has been coming down and trying to mix in with the others.
The jackdaws also are more prevalent now and they tend to shove one another out of the way saying move over it’s my turn and this is usually accompanied by a lot of cackling and probably not much eating. The sparrows seem happy to mix in their group, which I think is safety in numbers and several have been outside my window in the holly bush this morning and taking water and bits of leaf from my gutters.
Written by Margaret Emerson
