Pete Mella
Getting there...
Ok I thought I'd start a garden list. The house I'm living in is in Loxley, Sheffield, and has a tiered garden like many in the area that is quite useless for using for any practical use, but is great for wildlife. It is full of trees and bushes, and a large plum tree has become our feeding station, with various feeders and a hanging bird bath high up out of the way of cats.
When we first moved there in May, we got mainly blue tits and great tits, but our feeders very quickly got discovered by a female great spotted woodpecker, that would visit the fat cake at least ten times a day. Sadly we haven't seen her since the flooding at the start of the summer - we weren't affected but other parts of the area were, and I hope she wasn't a casualty.
At least three magpies also visit the feeders, and greedily chug down as much food as they can. They're great to watch though; once two stood on the ground while another frantically shook the fat cake, trying to dislodge it to make it easier for them to reach.
Recently the feeders have been visited heavily by long-tailed tits which often arrive in a big gang along with the blue tits, great tits, and a couple of coal tits. Two robins also frequent the feeders. One is a very young one that is only just acquiring its adult plumage.
Jackdaws, woodpigeons, blackbirds, carrion crows, song thrushes and collared doves are frequent visitors in and around the garden, and grey herons can sometimes be seen in good view in the surrounding areas, sometimes overhead and sometimes perched in trees or on top of houses. Jays are also quite regularly seen flying over.
Other, less frequent visitors include blackcaps (I've seen a male and a female), house sparrows, greenfinches, goldfinches, chaffinches, dunnocks and wrens. They're all common species locally, but for some reason don't visit our garden much. Chiffchaffs have been constantly heard throughout the spring and summer, and I've seen one in the garden. I saw a bullfinch once over the wall in next door's garden, but not in ours.
Swifts, swallows and house martins have been numerous overhead, and other birds I've seen flying over include sparrowhawks, mallards, black-headed gulls and Canada Geese. Starlings also fly past quite frequently, but haven't been seen in the garden yet.
At night tawny owls can be heard. I've noticed this more frequently in recent weeks, and have been woken up on numerous occasions by the frantic alarm calls of blackbirds, robins and jays close to the open window, sometimes accompanied by shark "ke-wicks!" giving away the cause.
I think that's all so far... I'll add any new species or observations as I see them!
When we first moved there in May, we got mainly blue tits and great tits, but our feeders very quickly got discovered by a female great spotted woodpecker, that would visit the fat cake at least ten times a day. Sadly we haven't seen her since the flooding at the start of the summer - we weren't affected but other parts of the area were, and I hope she wasn't a casualty.
At least three magpies also visit the feeders, and greedily chug down as much food as they can. They're great to watch though; once two stood on the ground while another frantically shook the fat cake, trying to dislodge it to make it easier for them to reach.
Recently the feeders have been visited heavily by long-tailed tits which often arrive in a big gang along with the blue tits, great tits, and a couple of coal tits. Two robins also frequent the feeders. One is a very young one that is only just acquiring its adult plumage.
Jackdaws, woodpigeons, blackbirds, carrion crows, song thrushes and collared doves are frequent visitors in and around the garden, and grey herons can sometimes be seen in good view in the surrounding areas, sometimes overhead and sometimes perched in trees or on top of houses. Jays are also quite regularly seen flying over.
Other, less frequent visitors include blackcaps (I've seen a male and a female), house sparrows, greenfinches, goldfinches, chaffinches, dunnocks and wrens. They're all common species locally, but for some reason don't visit our garden much. Chiffchaffs have been constantly heard throughout the spring and summer, and I've seen one in the garden. I saw a bullfinch once over the wall in next door's garden, but not in ours.
Swifts, swallows and house martins have been numerous overhead, and other birds I've seen flying over include sparrowhawks, mallards, black-headed gulls and Canada Geese. Starlings also fly past quite frequently, but haven't been seen in the garden yet.
At night tawny owls can be heard. I've noticed this more frequently in recent weeks, and have been woken up on numerous occasions by the frantic alarm calls of blackbirds, robins and jays close to the open window, sometimes accompanied by shark "ke-wicks!" giving away the cause.
I think that's all so far... I'll add any new species or observations as I see them!
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