A good year for nuthatches? (1 Viewer)

Hello

I noticed on Sunday what appeared to be a nuthatch flying out of our garden as I came into the kitchen. I've never seen one in the garden before. By Monday morning we had three of them in the garden at once, and there has been a pair or more there almost every time I've looked out the window since.

Nice - but not a hugely unusual garden visitor, albeit we've never had one in our garden before.

But then on Monday night I got an emailed photo from my dad, who lives 40 miles away, asking what the bird was on their feeder. It was also a nuthatch, and the feeder is outside my old bedroom window - I can assure you that in 10 years looking at that feeder I never saw a nuthatch!

So -two gardens, 40 miles apart, both getting their first nuthatches within a day of each other. Coincidence, or have they had a very good year? Has anyone else noticed there are more of them about?

Thanks.

(Edit to add - it's a busy time in the garden. We have blue tits, great tits, coal tits, dunnocks, house sparrows, blackbirds (resident and continental), collared doves, woodpigeons, bullfinch pair (yesterday - but not seen them for months), nuthatches, robin, starlings and a greater spotted woodpecker - the most diverse list I can recall)

We had the same list as Len Scap but with the addition of Goldfinches and Greenfinches. I wouldn't know the difference between types of blackbird. On Saturday a buzzard also flew over.

We know there were two nuthatches born because we saw two immature birds together Now they have adult plumage and we seldom see more than one at a time so cannot estimate if they survived or not.

We live in Sussex

I don't know how to tell UK and continental blackbirds apart?

We have 2-3 nuthatches in our garden most days, and have done so for many years.

Kits said:

I don't know how to tell UK and continental blackbirds apart?

Click to expand...

To all intents you can't - bill colour (it is often stated that 'continental' male birds have dark bills) is an indication of age, not geographic location. Male birds bills start out very dark just after they complete their post-juvenile moult (now) and become lighter and more orange with age. The species in the UK is the same as on the continent - there is no UK subspecies (like with Pied Wagtail for example).

The fact that juvenile male blackbirds complete their moult to black adult plumage at about the same time as migrants start to arrive in the UK might well be the cause of this.

See this thread with an interesting comment in the last post from a ringer.
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=185648

Mick

Thanks, Mick. Very interesting information and made me feel better as that was what I had thought. Thank you. :t:

On average, Blackbirds from Scandinavia that winter in Britain have marginally longer wings than resident UK birds, but there's a lot of overlap. So if you're a ringer catching Blackbirds and measure the wing, it is sometimes possible to tell. If I remember rightly, wing length (of the folded wing) under 123 mm is UK resident, over 127 mm is Scandinavian migrant, and 123-127 mm (which is most Blackbirds!) can be either.

Re Nuthatch

Re - nuthatch
Saw first nuthatch in over 10 years at my squirrel feeder in Highland Perthshire yesterday. They are spreading north so very pleased to see at home.

Wow!! How wonderful for you Valgal. This is great news. I do so hope he hangs around for you through the winter too.

There was one at Camperdown park for a few months a couple of years ago, but I never got to see it.

I'm just down the road from you in Blair... looks like I'll have to get out into the more wooded areas here to see if there's some around the town.

Welcome to Birdforum from all the Staff and Moderators.

All things Scottish can be found here. Also, keep an eye on threads titled something like Scottish Bashes; we usually have one or two meets each year and they're all great fun. We had one earlier this year and you can read all about it in this thread. You'd be most welcome to join us on another if you can manage.

I have a pal in Dumfries and Galloway and he tells me he is seeing more nuthatches in the forestes than ever.
At least one good news story.