ED Nature Watch

[SpringTime]

Almost certainly a grey wagtail. Nice looking bird, good spot. Think males and females look similar but that's probably a female?

[IlonaM]

SpringTime Wrote:

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> Almost certainly a grey wagtail. Nice looking

> bird, good spot. Think males and females look

> similar but that's probably a female?

Yes, I was leaning towards possible female. The yellow is quite muted. LOts of tail wagging going on!

[malumbu]

Got a brown bird at the feeder, doesn't look like a black cap (these occasional visitors confused me earlier in the year when they arrived) but not sure if a redwing as (a) too small (b) do they go to feeders? Not a sparrow as they are ground feeders. Possibly a dunnock but do they feed on suet balls? PS don't buy Aldi suet balls, the tree feeding birds don't eat them. I've put them out on the ground - pecking order was wood pigeons to crows and then tree rats with long furry tales. Sadly the crow didn't attack the tree rat.

[Sue]

I have a dunnock who comes to my garden. The sparrows do feed from my feeders, though!

Dunnocks have a different bill (beak?) to sparrows - longer and thinner. Also they don't go around in groups.

"Mine" hides at the side of the garden, then darts out to feed, then hides somewhere else, sometimes on the ground in the "undergrowth" :)

I can't remember if it feeds from the feeders, though I think so.

ETA: On a different note, I stopped buying bird food from Tesco as although it was convenient (came with my groceries) it was producing a wheat (?) field below the feeder.

So I bought at vast (ish) expense some premium non-sprouting bird food from elsewhere, and so far the bloody birds (apart from pigeons) have not been near it so far as I can see, though the sparrows still come to the garden.

At my sister's suggestion I mixed the two lots together to wean the birds onto the new kind, so I will see if that works, GRRRRR :))

[Trinnydad]

Sue Wrote:

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> I have a dunnock who comes to my garden. The

> sparrows do feed from my feeders, though!

>

> Dunnocks have a different bill (beak?) to sparrows

> - longer and thinner. Also they don't go around in

> groups.

>

> "Mine" hides at the side of the garden, then darts

> out to feed, then hides somewhere else, sometimes

> on the ground in the "undergrowth" :)

>

> I can't remember if it feeds from the feeders,

> though I think so.

>

Our two dunnocks come to the feeder but what I'd give to have a squabbling family of regular sparrows.

[Nigello]

The pound shops are great for suet balls, suet pellets and seed (including Niger). The one just opposite station on Rye Lane has 800g of seed for a quid!

[Zig-Zag]

The Sparrows in my garden do use the feeders.

[Sue]

Nigello Wrote:

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> The pound shops are great for suet balls, suet

> pellets and seed (including Niger). The one just

> opposite station on Rye Lane has 800g of seed for

> a quid!

But does the seed sprout when it is dropped on soil?!?!?

Niger seed has not attracted a single goldfinch to my garden, so far as I know 😭

[Nigello]

It?s never there long enough to sprout. Also, re redwings - saw about four or five in D Park, near the lake close to the tennis courts.

[Lynne]

I once bought a sack of very cheap bird seed and it was infested with weevils, They were all over the house before I realsied what they were and where they were coming from.

No jokes about the lesser of two weevils, by request

[Sue]

Nigello Wrote:

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> It?s never there long enough to sprout.

Mine gets dropped underneath the bird feeder by birds who presumably prefer something else and discard the stuff they don't like :(

I've seen them doing it :(

ETA: Resisting the temptation to post weevil jokes :))

[Sue]

Do pigeons sleep during the day?

Around midday today there was a wood pigeon apparently asleep on a branch of a pear tree in the garden which backs on to mine.

Later on it woke up, moved about a bit, then next time I looked it had disappeared.

Then it (I presume the same one) appeared again, asleep on a different branch of the same tree.

Is this normal, or could the pigeon be ill?

[malumbu]

Curiouser and curiouser.

We've got a thrush, great blue and long tailed tits, dunnock, robin, maybe sparrars, wood pigeons, crowes, magpies and occasional jay, occasional gold finches and I am pretty sure a redshank in a tree at the top of the garden - I need better binoculars

When we had lots of goldfinches in 2019 they were incredibly messy and much of the nyger seed germinated on the ground which was a pain. Less so now as we probably only go through 10% of the feed compared to then.

We get weevils in both wheat and gram flour from time to time so it's not simply a case of quality.

[Lynne]

We have a very small brown bird that I suspect is a wren. It's so shy we never get a close look. It has a sharply up-pointing tail.

[Sue]

Lynne Wrote:

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> We have a very small brown bird that I suspect is

> a wren. It's so shy we never get a close look. It

> has a sharply up-pointing tail.

Yes, that's a wren, they are very sweet.

[Sue]

That wood pigeon (or a different one) is now asleep on the ground at the back of my garden, in full view and in easy reach of cats

It must be ill, surely?

😭

[elloriac]

Sue, you could try approaching it and see if it flies away? If you can catch it, then it's not well. :-)

I've taken a poorly pigeon to the Neighbourhood Vet before, they have a connection with a wildlife rescue. If you can get it into a box, you could take it there? or ring them for advice?

[Sally Eva]

And also very noisy. And very territorial, all year round. I think the noise is bickering about the boundaries. Our robins fight for the same reason.

Sue Wrote:

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> Lynne Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > We have a very small brown bird that I suspect

> is

> > a wren. It's so shy we never get a close look.

> It

> > has a sharply up-pointing tail.

>

>

> Yes, that's a wren, they are very sweet.

[Sue]

elloriac Wrote:

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> Sue, you could try approaching it and see if it

> flies away? If you can catch it, then it's not

> well. :-)

>

> I've taken a poorly pigeon to the Neighbourhood

> Vet before, they have a connection with a wildlife

> rescue. If you can get it into a box, you could

> take it there? or ring them for advice?

Thanks, I did get quite near it, but then it flew away.

It came back to feed, but now it's hiding under a large Acanthus mollis I have in the garden.

Unfortunately I can't take it to a vet even if I could catch it, as I'm shielding, but thanks if it is still in the garden later I will phone them for advice.

[Sue]

Pigeon was still hiding under the Acanthus, but when I got near it flew into the pear tree and now it's sitting there very still 😭

[malumbu]

Getting quite a lot of birds in the garden at the moment, including robin/s and dunnock feeding from the feeder, which shouldn't happen! The black caps are back, thrush and possibly a redwing, but certainly saw one in Sunray gardens.

I thought robins were very territorial but see two in close proximity.

And a bird of prey overhead, assume a sparrow hawk (bins aren't good enough to ID).

Need to get the goldfiches back, see flocks of them on trees at the front, but rarely in our feeders at the back

[Penguin68]

I thought robins were very territorial but see two in close proximity.

When they pair to breed they lose that element of territoriality. An established pair (not that they live that long) may set-up early. They are quite cute when courting, with the male bringing titbits (robinbits?) for the female.

[Nigello]

I am getting mostly pigeon (normal and wood) and the occasional robin, some sparrows (think they are house) and a very occasional jay and blue tit. Surprisingly, a crow has been taking food from the top of the brick wall - I have not seen a crow do this in 20 odd years here, though there are plenty of them around generally.

I have been chopping up apple cores and mixing with oats and any meat/fat scraps and bird peanuts rather than just putting out seed and suet feed.

[malumbu]

The robins are in close proximity but don't seem to interact.

We get magpies, crows and jays, far more of the former, and I shared earlier a crow off once with all three species arguing on our lawn. We've big trees behind often home to wood pigeons, crows and green squawky birds, the garden isn't a mecca for crows and fortunately the gkt's haven't invaded yet.

[Penguin68]

The robins are in close proximity but don't seem to interact.

If they are an established pair from last year this may be a period of armed neutrality before courtship (re)commences.