I’ve had quite a bit of activity around my garden over the last few days. Last week I noticed four young Blackbirds on the lawn and they have been around on and off since.
Yesterday I found a leg, handful of light brown feathers and a lot of blood on the patio.
A cat’s footprint was in the centre of the blood and bloody footprints went towards the fence.
The feathers look as if they are from one of the young Blackbirds, every year I find at least one (or part), of a young bird usually taken by a cat.
In the afternoon I noticed one of the two young Magpies, which have also been around for a week or so, on the fence with a young Blackbird in its beak.
When I went up to the window to get a photos it flew off and dropped the blackbird on the grass.
Whilst examined the corpse I found that it had no head and it had both its legs, meaning that two of the young had now been killed.
The two young magpies have been emptying the feeders everyday, but obviously this wasn’t enough.
Today I was watching a pair of Collard Doves on the feeders when I heard an unfamiliar garden sound.
I checked the Plum tree (bird magnet), and saw three young Willow Warblers- garden tick, on the front branches. They were just passing through and after a few minutes were in the willow trees around the pond in the school field.
As they went through the trees they flushed two Long Tailed Tits, the first in the garden since winter.
A young Dunnock has been following an adult around for three days now and is being regularly fed.
2 comments:
I find garden watching very rewarding. It is a useful way of learning the fine detail of common birds that you can then use as a comparison when you come across another species for the first time.
I suspect that you get a different visitor profile over in Northburn from here at Porchester. I have only seen Song Thrush twice in 19 years.
Best visitor - Sparrowhawk that occasionally lands on the fence to view the menu. Biggest surprise - two visits from Goldcrest.
Realistic wishlist - that the Lesser Redpolls would stop just flying over and land occasionally. I also hope that my only two sightings of Siskin (this last winter) becomes a regular feature now I am switching to Sunflower seeds and cutting down the general seed mix.
My garden visitor list stands at 27 with a further 24 seen passing over. I have a sneaking feeling that you can beat this!
Andrew
My garden list is on 29 with 14 fly overs.
The best birds in the garden have been Redwing, Fieldfare, Siskin and Woodcock.
Best birds over have been Mute Swan, Pink Footed Geese and Buzzard.
Song thrush have nested twice in the garden.
Have you had a Redpoll over recently?
cheers
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