UKH

Super happy today.  Sat in my office and having filled the bird feeders have had the following visiting regularly.

Green finches - at one point a 'flock' of about 5 or 6

Long tailed tits - up to 4 at one point

Blackbirds

Robins

Tree and house sparrows

Blue tits

Coal tits

Great tits

Collared doves

This is in a semi-rural position without any close 'proper' wild spaces.  I guess you can only attract and feed what are there but it seems a pretty varied and healthy diversity here although they are seen with reasonable regularity around here.  If only I could get black caps, chaffinches, bullfinches or some other species.  

We're very rural and get most of the above plus.

Chaffinch, bullfinch, nuthatch, wren, wagtails and woodpecker.

in the fields soon we'll have curlews ( or whaups ), oystercatchers and peewits.

see buzzards and heron almost daily, tawny & barn owls nightly!

we took the feeders down as our latest rescue cat was getting too good at hunting.

We also get these, our "problem" is there is a large rookery (200+ birds) across the road from us so they tend to get all the feed from any feeders we put out - they are clever birds and have destroyed quite a few over the years - all good fun though and happy to have them - although our window cleaner may not agree

I can now add a solitary goldfinch to the list, which is nice as they are my favourite UK garden bird.

I live in Bristol, so a very urban environment. However my feeders this week have seen:

Spuggies (Lots)

Blackies (2 pairs)

Robin

Gold finch

Wren

Long tailed tits

Great tits

Blue tits

Collared dove

And the best bit, our lass said that she'd seen a bird of prey sat in the tree at the bottom of our garden. I suggested it would be a Kestrel, however when it reappearred I was absolutely gobsmacked to see that it was a Peregrin Falcon! It took numerous hits on google images before I finally called it.

I was a window cleaner in a previous life. I did a bad thing 

15 years ago in a suburb of Falkirk a sparrowhawk was a regular visitor to our garden.

Gregory's Girl?

My office is in a garden on the edge of a village near Banbury, we get a good range of birds.

Outside my window there's a small conifer in a pot and several times last year I was treated to a Goldcrest approximately 4 feet away from me.

Recently, in the field at the end of the garden there has been a Red Kite stooging around; I'm hoping that the Oxfordshire Sea Eagle will move further up the M40 corridor, it would be so cool to have that soaring above!

how are you sure it wasn't a sparrowhawk?

Nice collection! In our garden we get most of those at least occasionally, though greenfinches - abundant a few years back - not any more. We can add nuthatch, a pair of bullfinches, 6 or more goldfinches at a time, spotted woody and the occasional sparrow hawk, which I saw take a blackbird in flight. My highest buzzard count is 7 at one time and we get the occasional marsh harrier overhead, wandering up from Leighton Moss reserve.

The variations over time are baffling - like the greenfinches - and now goldfinches, rare a few years back, are now our top regulars. Once you had to put out niger seeds for them, but they now eat sunflower seeds.

Ps the sparrow hawk brushed my shoulder in passing on one occasion - I was concealed by a line of washing.

Damn you! I was sure it was a Peregrine... until your intervention. Like I say, I Googled Peregrine images and it seemed similar, if not the same. However, I didn't check for anything else including a Sparrowhawk - this seems much more likely.

I'll have to await a re-run and see if I can get a better snap of it.

That sinking feeling. 

Peregrines nest in the Avon Gorge and indeed on the old hangers of the airfield in Filton.

sorry, only mentioned as was staying near lincoln recently (peregrine have nested nearby on cathedral apparently) and my host thought he'd seen them so i set up my trailcam: youtube.com/watch?v=g1C82pk3AvM&

There are peregrines in most major towns in and around Greater Manchester.  When they land, they prefer high up places, so unlikely to get one in a garden.  However, one flew over my garden few years back, excellent view, so always worth double checking.

That's nothing, yesterday we had 2 albatrosses, a condor, and 3 Emperor penguins. But my eyes are none too good.... maybe they were sparrows....

Great video all the same !

We get Bonatti Eagles soaring above our place.

That's in France though.

Named after Walter?

Our resident goldfinch population is now down one following a Sparrowhawk visit last week.

Spectacular swoop and grab, it then spent 10 minutes at the back of the garden eating the poor thing.

We’ve had a number of Blackcaps this year but none have hung around for long.

Bonatti or Bonelli's  ?

We see a variety  of eagles & vultures flying over but have yet to get one in the garden (also in France)

My dad swares by niger seeds for the gold finches. He often has 10+ eating out of the feeders in his garden. 

https://www.google.ie/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNSCzHMG-gEZ0qfRJuk1YJpdF_M8fQ%3A157...

Sparrowhawks are MUCH smaller than peregrines, like half the size or even less. How big was the bird in question? Roughly, obviously.

Not a lot of difference in size between a peregrine and a female sparrowhawk. Male sparrowhawk is of course quite a bit smaller than the female sparrowhawk.

In our garden goldfinches outnumber all the other usual garden birds almost all day long.

Ten years ago we hardly saw any(a few in Jan/Feb) but they slowly increased and they stayed all year. Now it is unusual to look out any not see more goldfinches than anything else. We've had around a dozen at a time, though they are so active that it is sometimes difficult to keep count.

Interesting comment above about niger seed. This is the seed that is supposed to be loved of goldfinches but in our garden it is largely ignored. They will eat it sometimes but I've also seen goldfinches sitting on top of the niger feeder waiting to get a chance to move on to the feeder with the sunflower hearts and feed there.

I don't like the idea of birds in cages but I can see why in the past people kept goldfinches. They are a delight.

Dave

I've noticed they are increasingly called nyger seeds.

I'd hazard a guess at about 10" to 12"

I've had another look at my very poor photo and I can see a rough idea of the size.

Edit after looking at RSPB site... judging by the size, it's more than likely a Sparrowhawk.

Yep, Ive got those seeds out and they do seem to like them.  Not as much as the sunflower hearts though.

Sparrows - loads of the cheeky feckers.

But does anyone else have experience of them eating primrose flowers?

We have a few clumps of native primroses and they always look lovely and then suddenly get eaten. We wondered why for a few years and then I saw about half a dozen picking and eating the petals and one hopping up the garden path with a whole flower in its beak.

Who knew....

I think many birds do quite like the fresh spring flowers as they emerge.  We have the same thing with our crocuses/croci.

Back to the sunflower heart thing.  They seem to be the favourite thing in our garden  by a long shot.  

Masses of goldfinches, great tits and blue tits.  Squadron of long tailed tits visiting very afternoon, regular pair of nuthatches and greater spotted woodpecker.  Dunnocks and wrens foraging under hedging, and sparrows feeding within.  Regular robins, blackbird and thrushes - occasional seasonal field fares and redwings foraging under feeders.  Very occasional visits by sparrow hawk, usually spring/early summer, and buzzards and red kites over the fields next to us.

I think that the general reduction in Greenfinches ( which also occurred here), and the prevalence of Goldfinches (ditto), can in part be blamed on the viral infection of finches from Europe a few years ago. I assume that Goldfinches had a more functional and robust immunity.

I've also seen a slight tilt away from more Great Tits, to fewer and an increase in Blue Tits.

Generally there seem to be more Buzzards around everywhere in the last 10 years. Is this due to cleaner farming, or is it due to less gamekeeper and farmer intervention?

As regards Red Kites, they're everywhere in this area (Stamford/Rutland), following their original introduction, and I can see down the line the need, possibly, to cull them. (So will there be recipe books based on that singular raptor???) :-}    [Dodges hail of criticism].

Rob

It is curently fashionable to vaunt the merits of feeding garden birds _but_ I wonder ... it must create an imbalance as only certain birds will benefit - primarily seed-eaters; for every species you have seen at the feeders there will be another three that never come there. 

On the other hand if you enrich your garden with suitable trees and plants which favour appropriate micro habitats then it will benefit a greater diversity of species.

Or perhaps we must content ourselves with off-feeder benefits higher in the food chain - the raptors which sweep up plump little bluetits - struggling to take-off with a belly full of suet ...

Not necessarily true. I’ve planted over 200 feet to hedging in my garden over the last few years; and have had 50 more bird-friendly hedge plants delivered today.

I have most of my foods in squirrel-proof feeders, and more on flat surfaces and the ground for the bigger birds.

Bonelli! You're right. Old age and dreams of being a mountaineer are slowly kicking-in.

Not sure if it's the same one each time, but one soars above us near St Chinian quite often. 

It looks like you're the only poster to mention wagtails. Their absence is a puzzle to me: in the forty years I've lived here (pre war semi with fair sized garden) I've only ever had one wagtail visit and that was a grey one (but looked like a yellow); and yet, if I walk up to the Co-Op for my paper , situated ten minutes away , I know I'll see a pied wagtail on the car park, same with school playgrounds. 

Perhaps if I flag my garden over entirely they'll honour me with a visit.

I got my 91 year old Mum a bird feeder that sticks onto her window just a few feet from where she sits. Best present for a long time.

In reply to Removed Usercapoap:

great diversity ! where do you live ?

Forget to mention the ravens! For the last two years we have had ravens nesting in a large oak in the field behind our house. Have got quite used to seeing them strutting over the lawn. I'll maybe try to look out the picture I have and upload it.

Ha! so I think they might be the culprits eating my cowslips, thought it must be mice.

Snap - got my mother (same age) a feeder outside the patio doors. Huge numbers of sparrows, blue tits, great tits, fat pigeon, collared doves, starlings, and a GS woodpecker.

Good present (and her budgies like interacting with the squadrons)

Ok, not in the garden but I went MTBing today and must have seen at least 9 red kites - def not the same one(s) either- along with a wheen of pheasants but that’s not exactly remarkable 

The red kites were outwith recognised red kite areas so there range looks to be spreading which is great 

In reply to Removed Usercapoap:

All part of the food chain

We have 4ha of land at 400m altitude in SW France ... all +/- 'garden' - I was watching a tree creeper 3m from the kitchen window yesterday. We border the river Job and surrounding forested hills go up to 1000m

Some years ago I complied a list of birds with french/english name cross-reference along with other info, but don't imagine I see all from the house ! here it is:

http://informal.izaut-rustica.com/birds_hab.htm

But its not up to date - latest star on the stage is the booted eagle, smallest of the eagles, buzzard size, noted for its swoops; Took me ages to identify back in the year - occasional summer visitor

nice  

Good list.  The treecreeper could be short toed (seen lots in France, the call is a good identifier).

I once had a sea eagle land briefly in my garden in Skye.

I now have a very small enclosed garden in the middle of a Fife village which has a lot of the birds listed above visit including regular forays by a sparrowhawk. 

A big surprise was to see a pheasant calmly stroll though one day.

Today's tick was the first sighting of a Redpoll at our niger seeds.... took me ages to decide between redpoll or linnet.

My most 'interesting' was a parot - seen several times one autumn eating apples off the tree.

Regulars are house sparrow, Robin, black bird, wood pigeon, wren, magpie, crow. 

At this time of year lots of sparows, blue, great and long tailed tits, some siskin. Also blackbirds and mistle thrushes, magpies  and pheasants...  Down the road to the fjord and we have cormorants, and as well as mallard , eider, scaup, pintail ducks  , scoters, smew and vatious mergansers.  The swans and geese left a couple weeks ago?

Come the summer and we get a massive influx- ,many more finches, notably twite , wheatears and a lot of waders nearby... nice to see the curlew standing around in fields on the way home.

Few raptors, but I hear and see a lot of owls.  I appreciate I'm very fortunate.

I feed the birds in the winter only. This morning I enjoyed watching a Nuthatch coming and going. The most regular visitors are Blue, Coal and Great Tits. Small flocks of Long Tailed Tits pass through most days sometimes with a stray Goldcrest mixed in. Goldfinches come on the coldest days and if I'm lucky a Greenfinch. The star of the show is a bold male Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Wow, goldcrest.  The only time I have ever seen one is last week and unfortunately, it was dead.

Ashamed to say - never even tried to distinguish - you must have a sharp ear! I note no-one has claimed either marsh or willow tits at the feeders  

I get marsh tit on my feeders quite regularly. Would attach a photo if I could figure out how to.

But are you sure its not a willow tit ?! The reason I named them previously is on account of their similarity 

No it could be either a marsh tit or a willow tit. However, marsh tit is quite a bit more likely as they are a lot more common and are a woodland bird. I live next to a woods.

Not difference much difference in habitat between the two species. Willow tits have a decidedly bull necked general appearance, while Marsh tits are more slender. However, the songs and calls are rather distinctive: Willow tits have a squawky,  imprecise tone especially in their calls, while Marsh tit calls and songs are much "clearer".

Examples here (but beware of regional differences, Willow tit calls in Sweden and the Alps sound remarkably different)

Marsh tit:

https://www.xeno-canto.org/520086  (song)

https://www.xeno-canto.org/522335 (calls)

Willow tit:

https://www.xeno-canto.org/520087 (edit: song)

https://www.xeno-canto.org/519604 (calls)

CB

Goldfinches arrived mob handed on the feeder yesterday eating nyger seeds. When not feeding they're high up in a nearby tree shouting.

There's an abundance of wildlife in those Fife villages - and then there's birds  

I thought I saw a Willow tit the other day - but now wondering whether it was rather a Marsh swallowing a large worm  

In fact I gave up many years ago - have you distinguished them in the wild ? Would need sharp ears, but difficult without a 'classic' specimen of each side by side , and they do move about lots With most other species its normal to cross-link calls with appearance for certainty.

Thanks for posting the calls

Yellow-billed Babblers

Flameback Woodpecker

Greater Coucal

Parakeets 

Egrets

Ibis

(Last week, in and above a garden in the outskirts of Chennai)😊

No garden for me, but a walk each morning through a large wooded cemetery taking my daughter to the kindergarten. Today was good: the first Hawfinch I've seen this year, a Treecreeper for a couple of seconds (not further identifiable), and a solitary calling Crane circling fairly low under the clouds. 

Yes I can distinguish the calls in the wild, but songs is not so easy in central Europe. Marsh Tits rarely give the full song anyway, normally only for a few weeks rather early in the season.

Visually it is tricky, but the adult Willow Tit has a proportionally larger head and wider neck (which is enough for me, don't think I get that many IDs wrong, the overall impression is quite distinct), often some pale patch on the wings, relatively shorter outer tail feathers, and a larger black bib than the Marsh Tit.

For field identification I can only recommend the Nature Guides Northern Euro Birds app. Not quite as good as the Sibley app for the US and Canada, but much better than the Collins one. You can compare drawings, photos, maps, and vocalisations right on your mobile, no idea how I went birding before (especially in the US where I don't know that many species by heart)!

CB

Do you have a link for this? I couldn't find it anywhere, I'd be most grateful! 

Not surprising, the name is not quite correct!

Here is the app store link for the iOS version:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/birds-of-northern-europe/id377591383

CB

Many thanks!