• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

daily delight, lymm UK, garden and nearby reports (1 Viewer)

jape

Well-known member
As a new birder and participant I have been asked, rightly, to remove my extended observations and rambles from my intro to here.

Background, a small patch of garden, 40 sq m or so, grass with oliander, hawthorn, conifer, ivy around back and side fences all backed onto a football park with mature sycamore, conifer, cypress mixed trees in clumps and belts within 50 metres. Canal nearby with some side foliage. suburban, semi-rural fringe.

I do not intend to list or twitch in any form other than reasonably competent identification, observation and questions related to that. I am retired, housebound pretty much and seated often by french window to garden. I have a table at 3m hanging from tree and a feeder pole with dishes and hangers also a bird bath. Watching the birds and their behaviours is a large part now of my limited perceptions of the world. It calms me, informs me and has become a daily delight.

Initial list of identified species is quite usual. At present I do not include the many gulls as they do not often come into my close observation zone. That may change.
When I state 'variant' it is my own observation of colour variation and I certainly do not proclaim hybrid or other status, just definite perceptual difference or contrast to majority. Some I would call resident as frequency of visit, territorial behaviour and possible nesting
in garden or closeby would suggest.

blackbirds, resident, four of each sex including juveniles. an interesting dark grey variant.
thrush, mistle and song,, infrequent
starlings by the dozen with a couple of interesting silver and gold variants
sparrows by half dozen or so, rarer than i expected
dunnock, two, resident
robin, both sexes, up to four at a time, resident
great tit, infrequent
coal tits, nearby small groups, frequent
blue tits, nearby small groups, frequent
long-tailed tits, resident
wrens, resident
hawfinch, infrequent
chaffinch, infrequent
goldfinch, infrequent
bullfinch, once
greenfinch, infrequent
black cap, frequent, single or pair, upto four or five, infrequent
jackdaw, infrequent
rook, infrequent
magpie, infrequent
wood pigeon, pair frequent, upto four, infrequent
collared dove, pair frequent
sparrow hawk, male taking prey, once, female visit, once, both photo.
greater spotted woodpecker, infrequent. photo.
nuthatch, infrequent

in sight and or close but rare in garden
common crows and rooks
various gulls for later id
passing ducks, geese and swan. they will became ID project later if mobility allows visit to local canal, brook and reservoir
unidentified owl, close nearby, seen at dusk
possible raven, well identified by sound, not seen yet

wildlife: hedgehog, rabbit, grey squirrel
domestic: seven local cats, half a dozen dogs in garden in passing.
human: within 10 metres but fenced off include domestic walkers with young, footballers, drunks, druggies and some sex trade. a neighbour that feeds white bread daily.
visitors: very, very rare, single females invited...

I am 67, retired, literate but autistic and sometimes offend by accident or miscue.
thank you.
 
Last edited:
Hi Jape

I am envious to note that your garden bird list includes Hawfinch even if listed as 'infrequent'. If they visit your garden at all that is amazing. Wow. I have only ever seen one at Castor Hanglands reserve and it was high in a tree and disappeared after a few seconds.

Lee
 
Lee, I include birds that sit on fences two sides. Quite a few passing birds use that long run of fence and hedge for rest and cover even if they don't stop to feed. My 'infrequent' rating means one or more definite observation beyond a quick flash, usually with notes or time to quickly flick through my pics for comparison and may include other possibles when backlit or dawn/dusk.

Most 'infrequent's I nominate are regular appearances over a period of weeks but not days. Some are definites but only once or twice observed in garden such as bullfinch, magpie, nuthatch, woodpecker but may have been seen farther away or in passing also. I am not going to be too fussy about definition of garden as locality, will simply define that as frequent or resident. Might look up twitching definitions if anyone provides a lead, lifer etc. but not that fussed .... yet ....

I watched the hawfinch a while as he fussed around in the bushes by fence thinking some variety by sex or juvenile chaffinch, okay der me but I am new, then suddenly realised no blue, heavier bill, paler belly and looked it up and was able to compare pic on 'net while he sat, actually in a hawthorn. So sure of ID and have seen chaffinches since. Subjective observation is that chaffinch is slimmer and faster but that may be feather fluff and circumstances. I am still learning about sex based and juvenile characteristics of all my visitors but I was sure of this one.

As with the black cap, infrequent close up but observed several times over a few days backlit in trees overhanging garden by behaviour. Unsure because of the fact of four or five at times until one finally peeled off while I was watching down to the newer height of the hanging bird table for close ID. See him most days now. He doesn't feed but comes down to check it out. Will try mealworms asap.

A new one today was a larger raptor circling and drifting 50 metres away. Nothing but silhouette but it gives me a new area to watch at a different angle, when I can drag chair across that is lol. Just didn't feel like a buzzard, seen plenty of them down in town and elsewhere over years, seemed large but slimmer profile.
Hmm, just seen again lower down the park, certainly big.

Through circumstance I spend 8 to 10 hrs a day seated next french doors, reading and browsing and glancing up at movement. That is why my interest and observations have grown. Today a gibbous moon has lifted from horizon to halfway up my window so far, in a rare, wonderful blue sky. A new blackbird with two white tail feathers has shown up and been driven off a couple of times. Contentment is rare for me but the birds are not too active but seem content enough, so should I be.
 
Last edited:
Hi and welcome to the forum - I have found it most helpful.

I am a fairly new birder, just coming up to my first year "anniversary". Try Niger seeds for the finches, especially the gold finches. They have a fascinating burbling song which always makes me smile.

I live in a first floor flat - so rely on walks and nature reserves for my birding :)
 
Hi and welcome to the forum - I have found it most helpful.

I am a fairly new birder, just coming up to my first year "anniversary". Try Niger seeds for the finches,

Thanks Julie. I did have niger in a hanging seed thing but it kept getting clogged and mouldy. I shall try some in a dish and hope the pigeons dont sit in it and scarf it down. Could try a dish on the hanging table, yup.

Nice little caravan that, I want one! Thought it was a VW van at first glance, I want one of them too!
 
J
Differences comparing our garden with yours:

Bullfinches are very frequent and up to 10 at a time although perhaps 5-6 is more usual.
Great Spotted Woodpecker (male and female) visit our fat blocks every day.
Just now we also have up to 5 Siskins most days and up to 2 Goldcrests every day.
Sparrowhawk is seen cruising by or circling overhead probably about 3-4 times per week.

Mammals have been fox, badger (only once years ago), bank vole, field vole, wood mouse, common shrew, grey squirrel, brown rat and hedgehog (but this latter not for many years).

Lee
 
Thanks - it's an Eriba Familia. We used to have a VW T25 and then a T4, could never afford the really trendy ones!

You can get plastic seed hangers with a tray which might work - The ones by Supa are inexpensive!
 
I wonder if you are more rural and/or have more birch and conifer around Lee. I have those leylandii things as hedge and tree which are evergreen and otherwise sycamores mainly. Poplars across park. Never seen a siskin yet but confirmed greenfinch today. I shall try more pine nuts and niger but not trying too hard to pull birds in if my wider environment doesnt suit.
 
I wonder if you are more rural and/or have more birch and conifer around Lee. I have those leylandii things as hedge and tree which are evergreen and otherwise sycamores mainly. Poplars across park. Never seen a siskin yet but confirmed greenfinch today. I shall try more pine nuts and niger but not trying too hard to pull birds in if my wider environment doesnt suit.

We are about 200 metres from farmland but more important we have a row of oak trees at the bottom of our backgarden that is actually an extension of a wood that occupies the steep slope of a ridge which is too steep to build on. We think birds move through the wood and continue along the line of trees as they leave the wood and so pass through our garden.

In our back garden we have a big mature hawthorn hedge, a field maple, a holly, a barely surviving elm, the oaks I mentioned as well as a baby oak and apple tree and finally a rowan. And what used to be a pond but which is halfway along the succession to ancient mature woodland. It used to have two species of newt in it and still has one at least.

Did I mention we have regular Nuthatch?

Lee
 
Hi, Jape.

I used to live on Oughtrington Lane & before that on Sandy Lane - so many many years of birding from Lymm gardens.

You can probably still find some of my sightings here on BF for comparison - with maybe 90 species over the years. Never a Hawfinch there, though, but this is an exceptional year.

I did manage Lesser spotted Woodpecker, Marsh Tit, Goshawk, Marsh Harrier, Short-eared Owl, Merlin, Hobby, Peregrine, Great white Egret, several waders, Waxwing, Lesser Whitethroat and many more, so keep your eyes open to the wider horizon!

All the best,

H
 
Hello H, thank you. I shouldn't be grumpy in Lymm after Latchford and Widnes but I ended up here from nearly 30 yrs on 6 acres backed by bush, in Oz. Apart from the M6 which I can always hear it is a decent, pretty quiet area. I am looking forward to getting mobility enough to walk down the canal and to the reservoir whicb should extend my birding opportunities. I will take time sometime to browse back through your reports to see differences if any.

The sparrowhawk taking my favourite blackbird in front of me was a surprise, everyday has something, today was a goldfinch for just a minute but of all the birds, the tiny bluetit drove it off!
jape

edit: i can also add fox and wood mouse (photo) today, daylight both.
 
Last edited:
I am starting to get more interested in behaviour. Often the birds I see are backlit so difficult to tell colour but I get an idea of size, shape, movement rather than colour. Which books go into detail of behaviours? For example, sparrow size or smaller, groups of four or five sometimes more, tops of sycamores pecking around buds and twigs not seeds. Don't come down lower. Fly in short bursts, dip, short burst. Not tits. After 4 months of regular observation I cannot tell much more. So what are they after?

Another is always alone, usually in bushes or around 2 to 3m height of shrubs. Very shy, disappears at any movement even other birds like blackbirds or tits. Similar to dunnock but much darker and the dunnocks here I know, they are a pair and come out together or alone, usually ground and bottom of shrubs and even backlit are lighter in tone.
How do you get to identify? Nothing in the online identifiers seems to match. I am not hopiing for rarities, more to find ways of ID by behaviour rather than colour and develop my skills.
 
Last edited:
If there is anything that you cannot ID or are not sure about why not take a snap and post it on the ID Q&A forum. There are always plenty of people on there willing to help out and generally no-one will belittle you for posting commoner species. Often it is the common stuff that can get even the most experienced birders confused sometimes.

Thinking about your mystery raptor Red kite may be a good shout there. They can often appear very large due to their long wingspan.
 
thanks halftwo, i shall do so if i ever get on top of the bloody winter gasbills! which will time well with strolls to the canal, good idea mate.

thanks Paul. I only have a cheap phone cam and so far it has enabled ID of sparrowhawk of both sex, lesser spotted woodpecker, blackcap and wòd mouse! so you idea is a good one and has worked for me despite awful impulse pic (see identify raptor thread) but many regular birds i see are only ever in silhouette or shade. my mutated grey blackbird was eaten by the sparrowhawk before photo and my mutated spadgers were dunnocks which i never knew even existed. thus my ignorance and photigraphic inability could be balanced by my interest in behaviour. you never know! i have started a thread in the 'books section
 
Last edited:
Cracking garden list, Jape, and you've obviously achieved rapid 'expert' status by quiet and careful observation and attention to detail! I am particularly envious of your Hawfinch and Nuthatch. The former I've only seen twice, and had to drive to twitch them at a particular location in Limerick (the beautiful Curraghchase House Park, former seat of the DeVere family, of poet Aubrey DeVere fame). The latter, Nuthatch, is absent from Ireland, and every time I go to England to visit friends I stare into their gardens hoping to see one...so far without success.
As regards behaviour...there's a good book by Dominic Couzens, 'Birds by Behaviour', published by Collins. I don't know if it's still in print.
 
hardly expert Sancho!
i get more time than most, in chair by french doors 8 to ten hours a day for most of 5 months and I am quietly realising that compared to many folk i am fortunate in that this small garden has trees and park nearby.

apart from absence from UK for decades which gives strange gaps in knowledge (i had never heard of a dunnock), i have most always been a countryside or bush dweller; thus i know many birds quite well by sight and habit, almost unconsciously aware of them or their absence, but do not necessarily know the 'names'.

i shall soon have binos, then you shall get a lot more questions!

i was used to 'treecreepers' in Oz as a common bird so had not realised 'nuthatch' was infrequent, but he was a definite sighting same day as the lesser spotted woodpecker. A very cold crisp morn, which is where the behaviour interested me. what moved them from the copses nearby?

I also miss kookaburras and bloody great white cockatoos screeching very, very loudly by my bedroom window to wake me.
 
Last edited:
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top