Heya
I live in Chippenham and used to have loads of blackbirds visiting our garden, but we haven't seen any since around Spring, and even then we didn't see many young as we usually do. Is there anyway we can attract them again? We get some other birds like long tailed tits, blue tits, crows, wood pigeons, robins, chaffinches and once we saw a green wood pecker (Which we've never seen again :( )
Thanks
Melissa :)
Hi Melissa and welcome from me.
My blackbirds came back last week after being away on holiday somewhere else all summer. I wouldn't worry - they will come back.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
hi melissa, strange that one, if you go on google and find your local
bird recorder, they may be able to help, if they come up with any answers, please
come back to us, unless any bloggers, out there know. And welomb to the forum, enjoy. best regards mac
hi melissa & welcome, only just seeing bb's in the last week on my patch after an absence of about a month!
Melissa Heya I live in Chippenham and used to have loads of blackbirds visiting our garden, but we haven't seen any since around Spring, and even then we didn't see many young as we usually do. Is there anyway we can attract them again? We get some other birds like long tailed tits, blue tits, crows, wood pigeons, robins, chaffinches and once we saw a green wood pecker (Which we've never seen again :( ) Thanks Melissa :)
hi melissa, dont forget birds like the blackbird robin, move about during winter, the robin you had in gardens in summer may well be a different one in winter, all the flocks of starlings you are seeing now, are coming
from the continent. best regards mac
Hi Sparrow,
Reasonable chance your blackbirds are different ones to those there earlier in the year.Fairly certain I lost both my adults in 'mysterious circumstances'.
Re blackbirds in general, I can't help but notice there have been fewer around this year. It certainly feels like that, regardless of their usual dispersals.
My theory is they are mirroring the fall in starlings and other garden dwelling birds.
I was baffled when I read in Birds (page 14), "There are undoubtedly fewer feeding and nesting opportunities in our concrete towns and cities, but that seems an unlikely explanation for the urban crash". Why does Derek Niemann think that? Clearly, all sorts of things are having an effect, e.g. more raptors in our towns than 30 years ago, and more birds killed on our roads than then too. Cats too! But, I think research will either be inconclusive, or it'll come down on the side of blaming what Derek has directly ruled out!
Would be interesting to know what Derek actually believes is the cause as I've no idea what else there is apart from the above list.
Also, the huge falls in countryside is surely the same as other farmland declines, i.e. again habitat (feeding and nesting)!
One specific I would add is, 'grey squirrels'. I can't be sure, but I suspect they've taken my garden's collared dove and blackbird eggs in the last few years. If you've got a plethera of them, or cats, your blackbirds are going to be targetted by both animals as they are relatively easy pickings.
Rob
Thanks for all the replies. I've never seen a squirrel in our garden but we do have 3 cats, but we don't have a cat flap and they are very, very lazy so they mostly live indoors. There are a quite a few other cats in the neighbourhood, so it could be them. I'm still waiting for a reply from our local bird recorder, so I'll wait to see what they have to say then choose a best answer :)
I was also wondering, is there any way we can attract tawny owls to our garden? There's a large tree nearby which we think is the nesting area for a tawny owl - I often hear it calling at night and I really love owls :)
Thanks!
Melissa
Hi-
if the big tree is secluded and quiet then an owl box put up about 25 feet on the trunk might work. :)
S
For advice about Birding, Identification,field guides, binoculars, scopes, tripods, etc - put 'Birding Tips' into the search box