ED Nature Watch

[IlonaM]

I have a gaggle of long-tailed tits who visit my garden in Underhill at least once a day, if not twice. They're a scream. Lovely to watch.

[heartblock]

They are so entertaining, I love their contact calls to each other, my little flock are probably your Underhill gang on a little day trip 😂😍

[Clifton]

There must be plenty of fish in ED's gardens and parks ....

[Sue]

heartblock Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Greendale isn?t far and my very small garden has

> trees, so I think I was a pit stop for some tasty

> insects!

Well done for having trees in a small garden :)

[Nigello]

I saw a small group of LTTs feeding on seed/suet in holders in the spring. Hopefully they?ll return. Mostly it?s house and tree sparrows since summer but I saw a blue titbit on a feeder last week.

[heartblock]

The robin in the garden was not happy about the long tailed tits! I planted a silver birch Sue, plus two ?shrubs? that are now trees. The silver birch was a twig when planted, 5 years later it is a thing of beauty.

The heron in Dulwich Park, looks like it has completion from a cormorant... there was a very young heron this summer, maybe it is trying to find it?s territory?

[Asset]

We?ve just heard an owl - tawny - outside our window for a good 5 minutes. Near Alleyns.

been here 20 years and that?s a first. Amazing.

[malumbu]

Bird life is a bit depleted, there must be better sources of food out in the wild at the moment. Blue tits have returned as have the gold finches. Otherwise it is the annoying wood pigeons, green squawky things and crows.

[Sue]

malumbu Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Bird life is a bit depleted, there must be better

> sources of food out in the wild at the moment.

> Blue tits have returned as have the gold finches.

> Otherwise it is the annoying wood pigeons, green

> squawky things and crows.

All I get lately is sparrows (up to thirty of them at once, which are fun to watch), wood pigeons and lately - for some reason - feral pigeons.

Who arrived shortly after my partner commented on the fact that I never got any feral pigeons in my garden. A couple of days later, there were two at the front of my house. A few days after that, they (well, possibly not the same ones :)) ) arrived in my garden.

Strange, eh?

[Effra]

I'd just love to some sparrows visit. We have a couple of dunnocks most of the time but they are not at all chirpy and social like sparrows.

Have you figured out what it is you have in your garden that attracts them?

[Nigello]

Flocks of sparrows (I think tree, mainly) like fat balls in hanging feeders in my garden. They can?t always manage the pellets in the closed feeder with dispensing spout.

[Effra]

Nigello Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Flocks of sparrows (I think tree, mainly) like fat

> balls in hanging feeders in my garden. They can?t

> always manage the pellets in the closed feeder

> with dispensing spout.

We do have fat balls out for 6 months of the year and Mr & Mrs Dunnock go there occasionally but house sparrows never. We don't have a cat or anything that might frighten the away.

I even made a sparrow nesting box under the eaves but never got a cheep!

Distraught of Dulwich

[seenbeen]

I see more action at the bird bath. Robins, tits, blackbirds are regular visitors especially in the hot weather. There are a fair number of cats in my neighbourhood though but I got one with the hose a couple of weeks ago and it hasn't been back

[malumbu]

Goldfinch numbers well up. Think it is the horrid weather and my feeders providing a relatively safe haven. Nuisance wood pigeons eating up the nyger seeds that fall onto the feeder tray - broke one of the trays, and the grass seed that I sowed.

[Sue]

Effra Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I'd just love to some sparrows visit. We have a

> couple of dunnocks most of the time but they are

> not at all chirpy and social like sparrows.

>

> Have you figured out what it is you have in your

> garden that attracts them?

I have feeders with mixed seeds and suet balls (also a feeder with niger seeds, but still I get no goldfinches!)

I also put crushed up (since a squirrel made off with one) suet balls on the ground, and mixed seeds on the ground, plus sunflower seeds and dried mealworms (but I think a robin eats the mealworms).

The sparrows also sometimes seem to eat insects from the roses and climbers, and I think rosehips in late

Summer/Autumn, though less so now as my rambling rose on one side have been drastically reduced (see below).

Also there is quite a lot of shelter and places for them to perch in my garden, but less so lately due to somebody nearby making all their neighbours (including me) cut back trees, shrubs and climbers :( on the grounds that they were blocking their light (they have a North East facing garden, but don't seem to realise the implications of that ..... )

I also have large saucers and bowls for birds to drink from/bath in :) and I try to keep them topped up (not a problem at the moment, obviously :))

But this particular flock of sparrows seems to be around a lot of the time, I'm not quite sure why. They seem to be mainly very young (though less so now), apart from one older male (who is maybe showing them the ropes?).

The little male ones are just getting their black bibs.

[Sue]

Can hear a great tit singing somewhere near.

Can't see it though 😐

[wolis]

What's happened to all our small birds. Nobody had used our feeders for months and just spent about 4 days in the garden and haven't heard or seen one. We usually get at least one Robin when we start digging. Plenty of larger birds. We saw 14 Magpies in Camberwell Old Cemetary a few weeks ago. Several young Green Parakeets by the pond in the park the other day. My brother in North Wales has noticed the lack of small birds too. Is this something seasonal or more worrying?

[Sue]

I still have a flock of up to thirty sparrows coming to my bird feeders.

And an occasional robin (usually on the ground).

[LJC56]

wolis Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What's happened to all our small birds. Nobody had

> used our feeders for months and just spent about 4

> days in the garden and haven't heard or seen one.

> We usually get at least one Robin when we start

> digging. Plenty of larger birds. We saw 14 Magpies

> in Camberwell Old Cemetary a few weeks ago.

> Several young Green Parakeets by the pond in the

> park the other day. My brother in North Wales has

> noticed the lack of small birds too. Is this

> something seasonal or more worrying?

Yes, we noticed this too. Lots of birds in spring and early summer, then nothing since. However, the good news is we have Great Tits back on the feeder, and great flocks of sparrows settling in the trees in the road, in the past 3 days.

[Nigello]

Same here ? lots of wood pigeons and the usual variety but very few sparrows and no blackbirds, robins, tits, jays despite their being lots of food in the feeders and on the top of the wall. 🤷‍♂️

[malumbu]

When there is plentiful food in the fields, woods and hedgerows I suspect that our gardens are visited less. Trouble is me suet pellets keep going mouldy. I seem to get gold finch activity when it is raining. But agreed, sadly rather birdless at the moment. My view in the summer was all the building and garden work was putting them off, particularly you out there using petrol garden implements. And of course we used our gardens more. The blue tits disappeared really early.

So I get pigeons, robins, great tits, occasional magpies but not a lot else at the mo.

[Effra]

Sue Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I still have a flock of up to thirty sparrows

> coming to my bird feeders.

>

I'd really love to see some sparrows. I have a couple of feeders out (with red millet which I believe they favour) in

quite a large garden, but not a squeak.

Apart from your feeders., what is it you reckon brings them to your garden? Are you away from busy roads for example? Do you have a bird bath?

[Sue]

Places where they can perch I think, plus a few large saucers of water.

And quite a lot of cover from climbers.

[legalalien]

Not just us then. Our wood pigeons and robin (and some thrushes) have disappeared but we seem to have gained some blackbirds and some sort of small tits (not an expert - great tits or coal tits maybe)?

[heartblock]

Long tailed tits.... a whole little gang of them 😁