THE BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH

Once again the garden was under surveillance for an hour over the weekend as three pairs of eyes scanned for bird life.

With two feeders placed on a recently trimmed tree, an upstairs window gave the perfect vantage point to spot incoming birds.

As two children under the age of seven were involved, it proved slightly more ‘interesting’ than just one adult, but it was great to see the young eyes getting excited about seeing a bird and then being able to tell what it was.

One person was in charge of the scoring chart, and the other two had binoculars to confirm the visitors and number.

In line with what is known about bird visitors to the garden from the last nine years of watching, the results weren’t too unsurprising.

House sparrows came out top of the pile, closely followed by great tits and blackbirds.

Blue tits were next on the list, followed by magpies, long tailed tits, dunnocks, woodpigeons, goldfinches and tree sparrows.

One thing that wasn’t included in the birdwatch survey was a tawny owl, and no sooner had I mentioned about not hearing or seeing any for a while, than one was heard calling late one evening last week.

It was hunting over one particular nearby field, but hasn’t been heard of since during the evening and was gone after a short time.

The nest box cameras haven’t seen much action, but one of them (the older one) is seemingly unable to record at night now. The next thing on the list will be a new camera, but I think the birds are not using the nest boxes for roosting because of the relatively warm winter, so far.

Time will tell, but I hope that both cameras will be able to see some action this year, particularly as I’ve changed the opening slot to the newest camera box.

SNOW SAYS NO TO THE GARDEN

As usual when plenty of the country experiences snowfall, the garden and surrounding countryside sees just rain, with the odd bit of sleet.

If it snows in the garden then there’s going to be pretty significant falls of the white stuff in many parts of the country.

The winter storm, which did deliver some strong winds and plenty of rain recently, hasn’t been enough to drive to many new visitors to the garden feeders.

A tempting glimpse of a flock of long tailed tits did briefly pass over, although only one ventured in the garden to feed on a fat snack.

The feeders close to the house are not being used very much at the moment, and I blame the neighbour’s cats for using the nearby bushes as a hiding place to stalk them.

He pyracantha bush is being trained to grow around the feeders to offer more protection and an old feeding tray has been strategically placed to guard the feeders, but it hasn’t given the birds too much confidence to return.

It’s such a shame that people who come and live in the countryside should ruin it for those who are getting away from daily hustle and bustle, to embrace wildlife, only to have it snuffed out by too many cats driving wildlife away.

There used to be barn owls, tawny owls, little owls, kestrels, foxes and badgers seen regularly in the area just outside the garden, but now there haven’t been any owl sightings or sounds for a couple of years, the kestrels are seen in the very far distance once a month or so, while foxes and badgers are an annual occurrence.

The seven or eight cats (I can’t keep count) are far too much for this area and the population of mice, voles and rats, that the predators I’ve mentioned feed on, are seemingly running out.

If only people would think about what having so many pets is doing to the natural wildlife, maybe it would help restore once thriving wildlife areas.

Until then wildlife will simply move on, depriving those of us who moved to certain areas to embrace the natural world.

IS WINTER CONFUSED IT’S AUTUMN

Autumn didn’t really bring the any stormy conditions, or any real autumnal chills, and so far this winter it seems that we’re only experiencing autumnal weather.

Is the wildlife around the garden thinking it’s ‘still’ autumn, or do they simply carry on with life according to the daylight hours?

It must be said that real winter conditions are mostly confined to January and February, although March and even April have generally seen more snow than December.

Snow is a great indicator of what’s been in the garden at night, when we’re mainly sleeping, so we’re currently relying on daylight for visitor spotting.

A walk down one of the lanes near the house with my eldest daughter did reveal a couple of interesting local visitors to the area.

A flock of goldfinch seemed to keep one step ahead of the walk, while a small flock of curlew flew a few feet over our heads after being disturbed in the field within a hundred yards of the garden.

It’s great to now these specialist birds are finding winter sanctuary just yards from the general area round house and garden where the tits, sparrows, robins and blackbirds all spend much of their time year round.

More winter walks beckon and it’s hoped that waxwings are spotted after a friend saw a small flock nearby.

In other news the nest boxes have been cleared out and only one of the five had a nest in – old faithful being occupied for the ninth consecutive year.

One egg was left in the nest, and although I’m sure a pair of house sparrows nested in there at first, the egg looks very much like a blue tit. Have a look for yourself though and let me know if you think any differently to me.

It leads to the conclusion that a pair of blue tits used the nest after the house sparrows and failed to lay more than one egg to left the nest, were disturbed during egg laying or brooding, or fledged chicks but left a dud egg.

Personally I think it was one of the first too.

The nest was made of moss and the top layer contained many horse hairs, presumably from the two horses kept in one of the fields near the house.

So, will 2017 see more nesting? I hope so and I’ll be changing the entrance hole of one of the new nest boxes (with a new camera in) to a slightly wider fitting, to hopefully give more birds a chance to use it.

Both cameras are seemingly working, at the moment, so now we’ll be looking for any roosting birds.