It’s 6am and have just put some grated cheese out on the ground and on the ground feeder. I’ve found if I put the cheese and a bit of bird food out early then the only birds that appear are the blackbirds followed by thrushes.
If I put the cheese out later in a morning we get quite a few pigeons, starlings and crows getting the cheese.
I find the cheese goes nearly as soon as I put it out. The blackbirds appear from all over the place. They usually hop swftly towards the food as soon as I put it in the garden., with the thrushes joining in.
The blackbirds often come quite close to me as they perch on the fence – I think the prospect of a bit of cheese makes them brave. I can see the brightness of the feathers as we look at each other for a second.
A robin has just hopped onto the empty birdtable.
There isn’t any activity as the nest boxes yet. There is still a quietness in the garden.
There is frost about this morning. The grass is covered with f rost and the water bowl is frozen but I think the sun will soon be out and the frost will disappear.
Time for breakfast before I fill up the birdtable
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Have just this minute seen a blue tit taking an interest in the nest box we put up a few days ago.
It half entered the box then flew off.
Now I have seen a sparrow taking an interest in the same bird box.
Perhaps next year I should put up some nest boxes with smaller holes. Perhaps.
We may get all 5 nest boxes being used this year.
The roof felt has come away from the flat porch roof and some sparrows have build a nest inside. They perch on the spouting and seem at home hopping in and out of the roof space. Instead of a neat porch roof we have twigs and old grass coming through the gap. I think nature is taking over round here.
It is certainly the nesting season. The memories of the long hard winter will soon be long gone.
WHERE SHOULD A BOX BE PLACED?
I recorded this two years ago! It is still stored on my computer. I thought I would let it face the world!
Just click on the link below
We’ve just put a nest box. Maybe should have put it up earlier, but this is one of the jobs that got forgotten. Will be interesting to see if it is used this year. It looks very neat among all the old nest boxes
One of the reasons I chose this nest box was because it only had one nail fastening the lid down, so it should be easy to open when we clean it out at the end of summer.
Did I do right? The nest box lid is not sealed from the elements. There was one that had a tile roof and was really fastened down but I could not see how it could be cleaned out.
Any advice is welcome from anyone who reads this.
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Another reason I chose this nest box is because it has openings at the base that will let any rain run out of the box – so keep the nest box dry.
I have heard of fledgling drowning in nest boxes when the rain enters and slowly fills the nest box, But again – have I chosen the right nest box. Should I have got one where the base was totally sealed. Again any knowledge, tips and advice welcome.
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New nest box waiting for a family
I suppose one out of three isn’t bad!
The base of the bird table
The canes that stop the large birds getting on the birdtable have blown down. When I get them put up again I’ll see if the canes stop squirrels – I doubt it.
This third photo is actually a blackbird. It sheltered on the birdtable for a while, pecking away at the bird food for ages.
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Grey squirrels are vermin. They eat baby birds and eggs. They kill trees by gnawing through the bark and making them susceptible to infection and fungus, so in conservation areas they are often killed.
Red squirrel numbers have reduced because the grey squirrel is out-competing them. They are larger and stronger than the red squirrel
At the moment I daily see grey squirrels in among the trees near our garden.
They are coming onto the birdtable again and roaming round the garden. They don’t seem to show any fear and leisurely leave the garden if I appear.
It is estimated that there are three million grey squirrels in Britain. They must cause so much damage to the bird population – and what good do they do?
Surely if they are left to grow unchecked they will do more damage – as well as eating more bird food they will eat more bird’s eggs and kill more young birds.
Grey squirrels must reduce the number of songbirds in Britain. By killing young birds and eating eggs they must reduce the number of birds. I have been watching a squirrel leap from branch to branch, run down a tree, run up a tree. They do this with such ease. How can a small songbird escape. They can’t.
If we say that one squirrel only eats one bird’s egg a year – that is 3 million birds eggs that have been destroyed. Three million birds that will not live.
It is perfectly legal to kill grey squirels. I believe the only law about killing grey squirrels is that if they are caught in a live trap they must be killed humanely and not released
Mmmm. I will give it some thought
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