Good morning in the garden

[Booga]

Looking out the back bedroom window this morning I was greeted to a really brilliant show. All my fatballs, coconuts and hanging feeders contained a starling as well as 3 more on the birdtable. They've never really bothered with the feeders before and it was funny to watch them swinging about.

Meanwhile in my ceanothus tree a couple of great-tits were being bullied by a noisy blue-tit who chased them away everytime they landed. The great-tits then decided to gather little bits of my brushwood fence/screens for nesting.

The blue-tit was joined by another and they headed to the birdtable and, believe it or not, chased the starlings from the fatballs under it and had a munch. I was amazed when one of them flew up to the very window where I was watching and about 6 inchesfrom my face proceeded to try and find a way into the roof through the soffit. He was there for about a minute and all the time I was thinking, 'shall I get the camera, will he stay?'. In the end I just watched and he eventually flew back down to feed.

Aside from them have also had a bullfinch, 6 chaffinch, two collared doves, 3 sparrows and a robin.

Take care

Booga

[LuBird]

Good morning in the Garden too. My backyard has three Sparrows making the letter s in the snow. The Sun is shining and little drops of water are resting on top of the snow. The Sparrows are under the snow,up to the neck, and look like a plane taxiing on the ground. Wings spread under the snow makes the melted water drop through and low and behold,they are taking a bath this way. I have never seen that before.

[steve_nova]

I have never seen that before. Quite remarkable.

[LuBird]

Hi Steve_nova, I will post a pick of the letter s they made if it turns out. I just have a 35mm camera,but after the Sparrows left,I went out and took a pic of this unusual pattern in the snow. When I took the pic,I could see the little indents from their feet in part of the s patterns.

So as soon as I take the rest of the pics and get the film developed,I will post it. I do envy the digi pics here. If I had a camera like that, I probably could have caught the Sparrows in the act:(

[Barbara]

Good morning in the garden.
Hello. Most days I wonder if I'll get any birds at all, things have got so bad in my neck of the woods. that said i do have a Wintering Grey Wagtail, who is costing me a fortune in mealworms and he was joined for the first time today by a Pied Wagtail for about a millisecond! I get a few starlings feeding on fat cake but as for Sparrows, no chance, although my Mother, who lives literally 5 mins. walk away, has at least 15 every day. My Greenfinches have dwindled from 25 to 3, but Ive gt Chaffinches for the first tmr, just a few. But for long periods of the day, there is not a bird to be seen, compared to a few years ago, when the garden was constantly full of comings and goings. A sign of the times or just a local problem

[LuBird]

Welcome to the Forum Bobo! This is such a lovely place to be a "birder".What a sad and happy morning in your Garden you are having. Here's hoping all your absent Birds you enjoy return soon!

[Gaye Horn]

Good Morning in the Garden...Grey skiies today and raining(it is our rainy season)we have eight Steller Jays hanging around looking for their cache of peanuts in the shell and my Maggie is here looking over last night's left-overs. My but she is a beautiful bird.
American Goldfinch are hanging off the niger socks and the house finch of all shades of red, orange and pink are here on the feeders fighting over who gets to sit and who gets pushed off making space for yet another.
The Black capped Chickadees are the most polite of the lot taking one seed at a time.
The juncos have the peanut butter staked out as their very own source of food and the song sparrow just watches it all from under neath the rose bushes.
The Cooper's sits watching all of this from his loft high in the Ponderosa Pine and will swoop down in a hearttbeat should he desire a snack of the feathered kind.
Crocuses are coming up and so are my Hyacinth bulbs, tulip bulbs as well and the Aubretia is all ready to burst forth in a couple of weeks with a carpet of colour.
Thanks for dropping by this morning I enjoyed hearing about your garden .

[columbidae]

It's not exactly a garden, but I've had a lot of activity at, around, and under the feeders on my apartment patio this morning. On the suet feeder I have seen downy woodpeckers, brown-headed and white-breasted nuthatch, pine and yellow-rumped warblers, and Carolina wren. At the hanging feeder, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, and house finch. On the ground picking up the scattered seeds from the feeders, I've seen song, white-throated, and fox (!) sparrow, many dark-eyed juncos, eastern towhee, mourning doves, several cardinals, and on a tree just across the street a red-bellied woodpecker.

All this within the space of about 45 minutes. The freezing rain is starting, and when the weather gets crummy it always seems to increase the activity at the feeders, so I'll probably be seeing even more this afternoon.

[LuBird]

Gaye! I didn't know BC had Juncos. Are they Slate-colored "Snow Birds? With all your other amazing Birds,how nice you mention them too!!!!

Dan, That's a Garden to me! A True bird Garden indeed.

I love this thread and all the gardens herein:)

[steve_nova]

I have just erected my first bird feeder in my rather small back garden.
One long rustic pole with two holes bored through it near the top at right angles to each other and about a foot apart with tightly fitting dowling through each. The four resulting foot long pegs each have a hook on the end with fat balls, mixed seed, peanuts and seed block.
It's been up about ten days now and though I'm at work most of the week, I have only seen one Great Tit on it so far. Even that didn't eat anything, only landing, looking around, then flying off. I hope I havn't erected a white elephant in my garden. Maybe I'm just being impatient but I just wish something would feed.

[steve_nova]

If I had a white elephant in my garden, at least the seeds in the elephant's dung might attract a Chaffinch or something!

Which reminds me of an enduring childhood image of Chaffinches picking out the undigested cereal constituent of our dogs....er...droppings on the lawn. Funny how some images never leave you!

[Booga]

don't worry too much steve, it took a while for anything apart from the ever present blue tit to get into my feeders.

they have been there now since november, replenished often though, and I have seen increasingly excellent results.

Some of the best as follows, a collared dove eyeing up the fat balls and trying to hang upside down and eat, it didn't happen but it stuck it out until my dog took exception. Minstrel hates pigeons and is not skilled enough to tell the dove and a tree-rat apart.

Also the starlings trying to be blue tits yesterday morning, it was mad, every single hanging feeder I have (9) had a straling on it whilst the tits were gathering nesting materials.

Nothing much happened until late december with the feeders but it has got better each day. I believe now is the best time, as the natural berries etc are starting to run low so you should see more action soon.

Also a groovey recipe is as follows:

Take one small (10cm by 10 cm) tupperware type container

the boiled peelings of 2 potatoes

the fat from the last meat you have eaten, if veggie use sunflower oil chilled in fridge overnight.

a handfull of mixed seed.

the rinds of a pack of bacon.

a handful of museli.

sweetcorn.

bread and pastry.

mix it all together and put it in the tub in the fridge and watch the action.

trust me they love it.

[T0ny]

Wil,
Pardon me for being thick, but how do the birds open the fridge to get at the sumptuous repast you have prepared - indeed, how do they even know of its presence ?

Tony

[Booga]

ah T0ny, our hampshire birds are a little bit more ' on the ball' than your norfolk chaps!

not only do they get fodder from the fridge but they also cook their own bacon sarnies every sunday morning!

Check out my post "Painful memory of a robin!!!!" and see the deal here.

Thanks though T0ny as I really should have said theat after 24 hours you can place the said food tub on a table or hang it from a tree.

Ta!

[steve_nova]

You can never make a slip up or let your guard down with TOny I see!
Thanks Booga for that recipe. I just hope I don't come back from the pub one evening looking for some munchies!!!

I will try it.

Cheers.

[paula]

When I first bought my place and hung up a sunflower feeder....nothing for weeks, I was in dispair. Then, great joy.....one greenfinch. My week was made.
Now, 6 years later......hundreds of birds, sometimes too many to fit on the many feeders I have now.
Moral of the story:.....patience, the birds will eventually find you.