[daffodilgirl]

I use 'Summer' only in terms of the month of the year, obviously, but I'm wondering how many more of you are seeing large numbers of birds visiting your gardens. Although the starlings and sparrows are doing well enough to be coming along with their second broods I can't remember ever seeing so many birds at this time of year. I usually have quite a lull between June and September but I'm refilling feeders more often than I did last winter.

Is it that previous babies remember there being food here, we certainly saw evolution in it's rawest form as our first group of starlings didn't know how to use the fat feeders at first but several generations later even the babies hop on quite quickly. I've also noticed that perhaps due to the presence of our cats the sparrows wait until there are a number of starlings feeding before venturing forth (the starlings seem more cat wary).

[Romafree]

I am also putting out loads of food out there!! There may be a lot of truth in what you say.
The Starlings are quite the acrobat...they hold on with their feet to the pole of the "stand alone" fat feeder (dug into the ground) and very often feed in an upside position!

[HartleyHare]

I am putting food out twice daily, bowls of food plus hanging feeders and its gone within a couple of hours! Difficult to say whether we are getting more birds than normal as we have only been here 8 months and the house was empty for around 18 months before I bought it.

The sparrows, bluetits, great tits, robins, blackbirds were here when we arrived last November. The starlings arrived late Spring and I've seen goldfinches now and again. The starlings are this years chicks and there are about a dozen of them so far. When they arrived they were with parents, who were still feeding them. The parent birds have gone now but the chicks have remained here. I don't think they actually live in our garden, but they are around most of the day.

The sparrows are doing really well and numbers have increased. The last count was around 20 fledgling chicks ( hard to be exact ). WHen I recently bought a ' daisy ' feeder the starlings had it sussed within a matter of minutes. I bought the feeder after the parent birds had left, so I know the chicks didn't learn from them.

I've noticed that the larger birds such as magpies, jackdaws and a rook have started coming in to get food. I try not to encourage them too much, although I have no objection to them taking some food from the tables. I do object to the Rook standing on the bird box perch and trying to stick his beak into the box to get at the chicks though !!

[Romafree]

Ooerr..I would object to that Rook too!! Do yu think he really has GBH in mind?!
Lol, I am just feeling so sorry for the birds this "summer" that I am feeding as in the winter almost??
All the birdies need little umberellasa I think....must google it!!
HH ~ your fledglings sound delightful. Trying to count them must be mind boggling?!!

[bongofury]

The garden has been much busier than previous summers. Most interestingly, Siskins and Redpolls have hung around during spring / summer - normally they are strictly winter visitors only in my garden. I have also seen juvenile Siskins and a single juv Redpoll, so they must have bred locally.