The only slightly annoying thing for me was the fact that I was hoping for some tree sparrows. They were seen on Friday afternoon but failed to make an appearance over the weekend. Well, it's their loss, not mine...
The sparrowhawk was thrilling and the jackdaws made me laugh. My count will go into the database with everyone else's, and after a couple of months of analysis by RSPB boffins, the nationwide results will be revealed. What will this year's Top 15 look like?
I don't know about you, but with the excitement of Christmas and New Year celebrations over, January can seem to stretch out with not much to look forward to.However, one look out of my window and January doesn't seem so bad after all; whether it's a mixed flock of tits hanging in a tree, a blackbird trying out bits of his song and the wren angrily moving him along, or the local starlings looking for tasty grub in the lawn, I could look at their antics in my garden for hours.I enjoy watching wildlife, and being lucky enough to work on a nature reserve I get more than my fair share of wildlife fixes. However, when wildlife vists my garden it always feels somehow more special. The birds are visiting my garden because they like what it offers - the shelter it brings, the plants that I'm growing, or maybe the water and additional food that I put out for them.How cool - my own personal nature reserve, and right outside the backdoor. And the best thing is, you don't have to have acres of space to make a difference for wildlife, either.I'm lucky that I have a decent-sized garden in which there is already a good variety of plants for wildlife (more by accident than design, mind!) - we let nettles grow in amongst our flower borders (great for attracting butterflies), have plenty of bushes that provide both shelter and juicy berries for the birds to eat, and even have a spot of dead wood lying around (great for mosses, lichens and insects).However, this weekend as I helped prune the hazel - getting in before the birds start nesting - I got to thinking that there was probably still a lot more I could do in the garden to attract a greater variety of birds and other wildlife.The great thing is the changes can be as huge, or as small, as I want - I could let parts of the lawn grow longer before mowing, maybe I'll get really ambitious and create a pond for dragon- and damselflies to visit, or I could put up a hanging basket or plant out a window box with a variety of wildflowers that'll not only look pretty, but be great for insects and the birds that eat the insects!Like the blackbird practising his song in the hope of attracting the best mate he can, I am reminded that maybe this year I should try a few new things in the garden in the hope of attracting the best mix of wildlife I can.
What can you do?
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Today, I've been doing some preparation for Big Garden Birdwatch, which takes place this weekend, 26-27 January.My masterplan involves the strategic deployment of an arsenal of bird foodstuffs. I bought some tasty fat cake which I'm hoping will pull in a great spotted woodpecker, but I'll also be using up some apples which are past their best. They could attract blackbirds and starlings, or maybe even a fieldfare or redwing.Apart from anything else, Big Garden Birdwatch is a really good reason to scrutinise what visits your garden. I can spend hours gazing happily out of the window; this weekend, my garden birds get to do their little bit for science.If one of our local sparrowhawks turns up at any time during my hour-long count, that could disrupt things slightly. You have to look on the bright side: it's such a great bird, I shall be only too pleased to add it to my results form.Good luck with your Birdwatch, readers!
Whilst Sunday appeared grey, overcast and generally pretty horrid, staying at home was fairly boring! So, upon looking through various touristy leaflets, we decided on a visit to a local zoo park. Now this isn’t necessarily first on the list, but is quite a nice place to spend a grey, wet Sunday afternoon. I was to be pleasantly surprised.
We mosied round the obligatory sleeping tigers and excitable lemurs and then into the bird section. The exotic creatures on show captivated all the children around us. However, I think that I then turned into the most excited person in park! ‘Look, look, look’ I shouted with all the excitement of a child looking at the tigers. I, however, was not pointing into the cages but into the sky. For what I had seen doesn’t live in Zoos, and a few years ago didn’t even live in England. A red kite! The beautiful, majestic red kite.
This master flyer soared over the park, dipping and diving before one flap of those powerful wings took it forward. I watched, astounded. When I was young, I remember being taken to dark, wet (they are always wet in my mind!) Welsh valleys and woodland in search of this rare, mystic almost, fork-tailed bird. Yet now here I was, staring at one merely half an hour from my home, in the fens of Cambridgeshire! It really is the most awesome of sights.
All the exotic beasts in the Zoo were second to this, a wild red kite in England. A huge smile was on my face, in fact it’s still there!
It’s all too easy to take some birds for granted. It could be robins, starlings, chaffinches, blue tits, dunnocks - whatever it is that you see all the time. Then, something happens that makes you think ‘oh! Perhaps I should look a bit more carefully next time I see one’.
Recently, I went to visit my parents in the village where I grew up. Their garden feels different to how it did when I lived there. There’s no sign of the swings or slide anymore and the grass hasn’t been churned up by my little brother (now aged 26) playing football for some years…
There’s usually something to see when I go back to visit. A few years ago, it was a grey wagtail that dropped in to inspect their pond while I watched. Another time, a female brambling was feeding with the chaffinches on the lawn. That was quite annoying - I had to wait years for my first proper look at a brambling, and my parents hadn’t even noticed it.
This time, it was blackbirds. Hordes of them. We counted carefully: one by the greenhouse, another on the patio, two chasing each other under the cherry tree, another rummaging in the flowerbed, more under the hedge... Altogether, nine, all together in the same, smallish garden!
I felt quite pleased with myself until I saw Brian Tonks’ photo, e-mailed to us after he read our monthly e-newsletter.
His total of 16 really puts mine in the shade.
So, why are there so many blackbirds around at the moment? Imports, that’s why. It’s likely that a large proportion of these birds have flown all the way from Scandinavia to enjoy our mild weather and traditional British earthworms.Bear that in mind next time you see a blackbird in your garden. Its name isn’t Mr Blackbird, it’s probably Sven, Anders or Lars.