Long Tailed Tits

It always cheers me up when I see some Long Tailed Tits make one of their brief visits to the feeders. They really are one of my favourite sights. So many species squabble when they arrive in large numbers but these will feed peacefully even when they are all bunched together on one feeder. Occasionally they will try the peanuts but by far the most popular food with them is the large fat balls. Today, for the first time that I had noticed, I spotted one go inside the caged bird table. It had a brief look but didn't take any of the seeds. The wire mesh is to keep out the largest, greediest birds and give the smaller visitors a safer eating spot where predators cannot reach them. Altogether they visited three times today.







Canada Geese
About 7.15 this morning Bobby and I were walking along a track between two fields. From the distance a skein of five Canada Geese flew very low over the fields. On their way they passed almost over the top of us and I felt as though I could have reached up and touched them. A beautiful sight but alas no camera with me!

Predator Protection

Not really done much these past few grey days. As the temperature has improved there have been less frequent bird visitors to the feeders. I guess there is an improvement in some natural food such as spiders and flies appearing.

As the tit nest box doesn't seem to have been visited for a while I decided to add a bit of anti predator protection. The box is positioned near roof level at the back of my shed so it is within easy reach of predators. A while ago I bought some anti intruder spikes. They are moulded plastic and the very tips of the spikes are flat, not pointed, so they cannot easily pierce the skin. Each strip has three rows of spikes and would be uncomfortable to try to cross. Hopefully these will act as a deterrent to any would-be predator.

Hard to spot on this small picture but hanging in the artificial Ivy I could see several pieces of wood shavings (under the hole at about 5 o'clock) which the Blue Tit had thrown out of the box so maybe it has been tidying up ready to move in. I live in hopes.

Spring Around the Corner

I found this poem here on the internet in the section on Spring:

WHEN

In February there are days,
Blue, and nearly warm,
When horses switch their tails and ducks
Go quacking through the farm.
When everything turns round to full
The sun upon its back -
When winter lifts a little bit
And spring peeks through the crack.

Dorothy Aldis

Bird signs of Spring approaching:

Throughout the Winter I only ever saw one Blue Tit at a time at the feeders. This past few days there are always two together (a pair?). Also where I used to get one Dunnock at a time I now see a couple.

Yesterday there was a Rook sat on a telephone cable. It was bobbing its head right down, making a cawing sound and spreading its tail feathers out in a display. This morning as thirty or more Rooks gathered on a nearby rooftop many were making the same gestures. I can't say I had ever noticed this behaviour before but it is only recently I have observed the local wildlife more closely.

This afternoon as I was walking home after taking Bobby for his romp on the field I saw a group of Goldfinches at a feeder in a front garden. When they noticed me they flew off. A short while later I saw several which were sat on branches. Some were twisting the whole body from side to side and at the same time making a very quiet sound while others just watched.

It would appear to me that with the slight rise in temperature and the longer daylight hours many species are starting their courtship rituals. Today's weather forecast for the week ahead looked much better as far as temperatures go and we might even reach double figures.

Cheese
This afternoon I had just about come to end of a block of cheese so I chopped the remains into tiny pieces and scattered it on the bird table. A short while later the Chaffinches and Greenfinches, which normally spend most of their time picking up seed from the lawn, were feeding closely together on the bird table. They were so closely packed that the normally bossy Starlings couldn't get a look in. The Robin wasn't interested. He carefully chose his favourite seed from between the bits of cheese.

National Nest Box Week 2009

Today is the start of National Nest Box Week 2009 (14 - 21 February). Full details can be seen on the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) website where you can also register for the Nest Box Challenge. Nest Box Challenge is a joint project between BTO and the BBC Breathing Places campaign. If you fancy building your own nest box then information can be found on those sites along with the RSPB's "Helping Birds" pages and many other wild bird sites.

Last year I erected two nest boxes. One (pictured on the left) is for tits and I bought this from a local garden centre. I chose this particular one as it used substantial thick wood, had a deep entrance hole making it more difficult for predators to enlarge the hole, and plenty of extra space above the entrance hole so I had room to fit a camera. The other is a rebuild of a bought one which I modified to be more suitable for Robins and installed a camera in that as well.



Both these nest boxes are fixed on the back wall of a shed which is pretty well north facing though protected from the worst of the winds by a tall hedge which is about ten feet away.

As far as I can tell the Robin box has been ignored. Though I have tried to make it look more like it is in a hedge with the use of artificial ivy I think they probably still find it too exposed. After the breeding season I will move it to a much more sheltered position in a hedge.

The tit box was used by a Blue Tit as a roost on a couple of cold nights and the bird has made brief visits on quite a few occasions. When I set up the box I put a layer of fresh wood shavings in the bottom as recommended by several organisations. At one time I thought the tit was just tidying up when it removed a few of the shavings but as time has gone by the amount of shavings has reduced considerably. Maybe the bird is just using the box as a source of dry material for a nest elsewhere. Only time will tell.

Near the end of last summer I saw a large nest box being erected on a house in the village. That one is for Barn Owls so whenever I pass in that direction I keep an eye on it in case there is any sign of activity and I will be keeping a camera watch on it from time to time over the spring and summer.



If you are feeding and attracting wild birds to your garden then why not give a home to one of them. There is plenty of good advice to be found. Some people find their nest boxes being used almost immediately but don't be too disappointed if it doesn't get used this year. Many birds seek out and investigate possible nesting sites in the autumn and winter. It took nearly a year before I noticed any signs of the tit box being used.

Food - Glorious Food

With the cold, dull snowy weather over the past few weeks the birds have not hesitated in helping themselves to the food I put out. I try to use a mixture of seed so there is something available for all the different species which visit my garden. Originally I started with a typical Wild Bird Seed Mix from a local garden centre. One problem with the large bags is that one cannot see what the mixture is and I found it contains a high proportion of cereal which the small birds ignore. It is fine for attracting pigeons. Lately I have ordered a more expensive but more suitable mix called Ultiva Mixture which goes down well with the local bird population. This has a mixture of small seed including sunflower hearts which are popular with the finches and Dunnocks. With that I mix a small amount of Bogena which is a soft mix designed for insect and berry eating birds.

Wild Bird Seed Mix (on the left) and Ultiva.


Coal Tit with Sunflower seed.


A high energy source is the fat balls which can come in various 'flavours'. These are popular with all varieties of tits and the flock of Starlings which descends three times a day. Also the blackbirds will feed from them if there is something suitable to stand on which is close enough for them to reach. Suet treats always go down well. Some I scatter with the seed on the bird table, some I chop up with the peanuts in the feeder.

Suet treats. The pink ones contain berry and the others have seed and insect in them.


Female Blackbird at the fat balls.


I had read that small birds love millet so I bought a bag of white millet seed to mix in but my visitors simply ignore them. At the end of the day most of these seeds remain on the bird table. Of course the peanut feeder is a great favourite with most of the tit family except the Long Tailed Tits which prefer the fat balls.

The Wild Bird Mix I scatter on the ground these days, along with a small amount of the Ultiva. This attracts Greenfinches, Chaffinches and Blackbirds along with Pigeons and Collared Doves.

A Bit of Colour

I was looking round the garden this morning after I had topped up the food on the bird table. A few days ago I noticed a little clump of yellow crocuses had appeared, along with a few snowdrops, in one of my planters. Also there are a couple of heather plants in full bloom and a variegated ground hugging evergreen is looking a particularly cheerful sight on a grey morning. The Corylus avellana 'Contorta' (Corkscrew Hazel) has been showing catkins on its bare branches for quite a while now.





To cap all that as I returned to the back garden there was a Robin singing away in a nearby tree. I went in and got the Zoom H4 recorder and captured a snippet of his song which can be heard by clicking HERE. I hope this works - if not please let me know. It should use whichever mp3 player is on your computer.



Even though there seems no end to the cold dark weather for a while yet there are at least a few signs that Spring is on its way.

Blue Tit Nestbox

Yesterday evening it kept trying to snow and by the time I went to bed it was snowing gently. This morning there was a small covering everywhere but it was frozen solid and the village paths were very slippery, especially where the snow had dropped from tree branches and made pools of ice during the night. At the moment it looks more like Autumn. It has turned very misty as the rising temperature is melting the snow.

Today is the first time I have seen the Blue Tit in the nest box during the morning hours so once again I have hopes that it will get used in the Spring. I often see a couple of them visiting the peanut feeder so they are probably resident not too far away.

Blue Tit at the peanut feeder


While I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea I watched a Rook attacking the fat balls in a feeder near the bottom of the garden. It has such a strong beak and was attacking the fat ball so hard pieces were flying off in all directions. On the ground under the feeder were three Blackbirds and a Collared Dove busily gathering up the pieces so nothing was going to waste.