My Garden

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

April 13th: Purchased the latest Nikon bridge camera after much researching. The model came out in February this year, so looking forward to taking some vids and pics. Will continue using the Sony compact and Sony camcorder.

April 22nd: For the past week two families of Blackbird have been feeding their young, one pair are in the privet hedge in front garden and other in the conifer in back garden. Mid afternoon spotted the Sprawk over the road opposite looking for a meal :wink:

. Then early evening had five geese going south towards MSQ? probably, not sure what they were, didn't have bins or glasses on, most likely Greylag or Canada from the size.

April 26th: Yesterday spotted one juv Blackie next to conifer in rear garden, and this morning the other juv Blackie under the privet in front garden being fed by Dad.

Other than the House Spugs, Blackies, Wood Pigs, endless C Doves [where is the Sprawk :wink:

] and a few Starlings not much in garden at present.

Hope it doesn't rain tomorrow then I'll fill the feeders and bird tables etc.

Enjoying reading the latest report from the club, found quite a few of my sightings.

Kind regards

John

David Morison · **Posted:** Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:31 pm

An interesting couple of days in the garden:

My first Chiffchaff, although I regularly see one or two down the lane opposite.
2 Reed Bunting (f)
Treecreeper, Usually only see one 3 or 4 times a year
2 Siskin (m) rare visitor to my garden
Apart from large numbers of mixed tits and finches this year there are much larger numbers of Greenfinch despite the effects of Trichomonus last year.

David

Anthony Bentley · **Posted:** Thu Apr 26, 2012 3:50 pm

WOW ! Not everyday a sparrowhawk scares me. I was sweeing the path after cutting the grass, I heard a House Sparrow call and Woosh very loud turned around very quickly to see a Male sparrowhawk fly 1 metre past my face a bit of a thrill I must say ! Carried on and flew acroos the other gardens.

Great views and the sounds of the birds going past me was imense !

Well chuffed :mrgreen:

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

Ooops seemed to have done a double take. Have wiped this one.

John

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

Anthony,

Reminds me of an incident a few years back [I reported it on the forum] when I was weeding in back garden, I heard a whoosh past me and I knew whatever it was had landed very close. I wasn't sure if to have a peep or not, but decided to and turned my head very very slowly and the Sprawk was perched in the lilac about five feet from ground and no more than three feet from me, what a shock :shock:

I couldn't my eyes with that it went. I know I'm thin but surely it must have seen me, unless it thought I was a garden statue :lol:

David,

Got some great sightings there, do you live in the countryside? =P~

Cheers

John

David Morison · **Posted:** Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:55 pm

Nearly, on the edge of a village with old parkland paddock opposite the front door. Lots of old hedgerows along my lane and others close by.

David

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

May 1st: Two juv C Dove and two juv Blackie in front garden with both sets of parents nearby.
May 4th: Blackie - 2 adult male + 5 juvs [ 4 juvs in front garden], C Dove - 4 adult + 3 juvs, House Spugs 9 + 1 juv, Blue & Great Tit - one of each, Starling - 2, W Pigeon - 4, Chaffinch - 1, Goldfinch - 4 and Greenfinch - 3.
May 5th: Juv Blackie in back garden seen feeding itself along with it's parents feeding it. One of the front garden Blackies is also feeding itself with the adult male supplementing it, I can only assume the female is on the nest or it has met an untimely end [-o<

.

[ While speaking with my family on the phone on the south coast I was told an Herring Gull had landed on their bird table, they said it was massive [ when I've been visiting in the past a pair have nesting on next doors roof alongside the chimney stack, I got loads of photos and video of the adults and juvs, maybe it's one of those I saw].

Kind regards

John

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

May 6th: Three adult Blackie + five juvs.

May 7th: Sprawk high over the neighbouring gardens.

May 9th: In the front garden the adult male Blackie is going flat out to feed his brood of five, I'm helping by throwing out loads of songbird mix and mealworms. One of the juv Blackies looks to be a tadge older than it's siblings, and I saw the strangest thing it was feeding one of them, all the juvs were right outside the lounge window so I wasn't mistaken. The lone juv Blackie in back garden is still being fed by dad but it is feeding itself as well.

May 10th: Two juv H Spugs perched on Buddleai being fed by female from the fat ball feeder.
Still got the usual crew in both gardens. No shortage of corvids going back and forth, but no sign of any hirundines.

Take care

John

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

May 16th: 3 juv Starling, 1 juv Dunnock having a bath, got pics of it after, 6 juv + 3 adult Blackies, Great and Blue Tit plus usual crew.

Taken a few pics of the front garden juv Blackies who are still being fed by Dad, I've been helping out all week giving them dried mealworms and songbird mix plus any scraps I have. One day they had the remains of some tinned mackeral that gave me wind, hope it didn't them :lol:

The five juvs certainly look in fine fettle, and I'm surprised the moggy or Sprawk hasn't collared any of them. I never see them in the back garden.

Regards

John

Ian Benford · **Posted:** Sun May 20, 2012 8:37 am

Due to the attention of a very large Rat I've just changed from mixed seed to Sunflower hearts in the 3 feeders on our bird table. The mixed seed was very cheap and although it only attracted House Sparrows (and the Rat) we did have a flock of over 30 visit every day to attack the feeders. Only problem was that they threw it all over the ground, hence the Rat.

So, I changed (overnight) the contents of the feeders from mixed seed to sunflower hearts.
We now have Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Blackbirds and Dunnocks on the feeders but no Sparrows (and no Rat).

I thought the Sparrows would enjoy the sunflower hearts! Will give it another week or so then if the House Sparrows haven't returned I'll buy some more mixed seed for the Sparrows (and an air rifle for the Rat).

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

May 17th: Dunnock - 1 adult plus one each of Blue and Great Tit adults.
May 23rd: the five juv Blackies in front garden have gone their separate ways leaving dad to have a rest from daily feeding. The single juv Blackie has also gone in back garden.
May 24th: Spotted a female Blackie collecting part of a custard cream I'd left out, she then flew two doors away to their back garden hawthorn, so expecting another brood to appear soon.

The 40+ House Spugs in front garden is now reduced to about six. Still have one female Chaffinch comes most days. Even the Collared Doves have drasticly reduced in number, saw one sat on next doors fence. Still got two W Pigeon plodding up and down garden :lol:

Two Goldfinch most days. Had a few juv Starlings. About three Greenfinch still going at the black sunflower seeds. No gulls or hirundines seen. Today ( 25th ) had a single Jackdaw over and a few Crow and Rooks other than that nowt.

Also today popped to a site of mine for thirty mins, first time watching out for two months!

Kind regards

John

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

May 27th: Heard a Magpie somewhere in garden, so went to check it out, spotted a pair on top of conifer mating, never had any young uns in garden so hoping they return in time.

May 28th: Goldfinch - 1 juv + 2 adults on niger feeder, Common Gull - 2 over, Jackdaw - 2 over, Blackie - 1pr, House Spugs - 4 + 1 juv, C Dove and W Pigeon - 2 of each, Chaffinch - 1f.

May 30th: Blue Tit - 1 juv possibly more but didn't investigate, not seen any since. Heard a Rook giving it what for so went out and it was on neighbours roof opposite :lol:

June 1st: Starling - c30 mostly juvs in two of my trees, Great & Blue Tit - pair of each, Chaffinch - 1pr, Goldfinch - 6 + 1 juv, H Spugs - 10, Greenfinch - 7, Wood Pigeon - 2, C Dove - 2, Magpie - 1, Blackie - 2m 1f and a steady stream of Rooks going back and forth to the rookery I expect at YWT nearby.

That's all for now!

John

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

Got behind a bit so thought I'd bring it up to date.

June 5th: Greylags - 19 over low going south-east [ MSQ maybe] during mid-evening.
June 8th: Song Thrush - 1 adult, new brood of Blackies 3 juv + both parents, Blue Tit - 3 juv + both parents, Starling - 10 juvs, Dunnock - 1 juv, House Spugs - 3 juv, Black-head Gull - 1 over, W Pigeon - 4 and C Dove - 2.
June 9th: As I was washing up at sink I spotted an unusual sight at the end of rear garden. Earlier I'd put some cat food and biscuits out for the cat and noticed the male Blackie feeding one of the juvs the cat biscuits firstly then came back twenty mins later and fed it all the cat food, in fact it cleared the plate! Also spotted a Robin for a change plus a Greenfinch and Magpie plus those I'd seen yesterday.
June 11th: Two pair of Blackies + 3 juvs etc.
June 17th: while I was sat in the armchair speaking to a family member on the phone a juv Song Thrush landed on windowsill, that was a lovely surprise

. Also spotted a crackin male Chaffinch and a juv Dunnock. Also saw the young Dunnock for next three days. Captured a few pics and video of one juv having a bath earlier in month.

Since refilling the niger feeder a few Goldfinch have returned including one juv. There is still a good selection of birds both in the front and back garden but nowhere near as many as previous years obviously. It's weeks since I saw a butterfly here. Next door to me told me they have a Blackie nest with three eggs in it. We have certainly done well for young Blackies and thankfully in my garden none have been killed. Had two casualties one a juv Goldfinch and not sure of other it was too far gone to recognise.

Just read GPC's report from Laughton it's very upsetting but lets hope that things get better sooooooooooooooooooooooooon.

Kind regards

John

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

June 26th, 27th: Blue Tit - 3 juvs [ got pics with new Nikon ] on nut feeder.
June 28th: Blue Tit - both adults + 3 juvs.
June 29th: Goldfinch - 3 adult + 1 juv [ first one this season, it was seen on the nut feeder].
June 30th: Sprawk female seen from back bedroom window passing through with prey and it landed in a conifer three doors down.

July 2nd: The family of five Blue Tits still at it, seen first juv Greenfinch plus three adults, one juv Goldfinch plus four adult, four adult plus three juv Blackies, c20 Starlings of which three parts of them were juvs, these plus the juv Blackies were taking the berries off the tree in front garden. A single female Chaffinch, four Wood Pigeon, six Collared Dove, c15 H Spugs, three feral Pigeon and a single Black-head Gull over. Today I've seen more birds in the garden than for some time, but as is being reported elsewhere the numbers of juvs are well reduced compared with other years, either that or I'm missing them. Having so many trees and shrubs in the back garden makes it hard to spot the dickies even though I lost three tree earlier this year and I've been hard pruning the weigela and forsythia of late.

Looking at the weather forecast it's not due to get any better for at least two weeks Grrrrr.

Kind regards

John

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

July 6th: Blue Tit - 1 adult + 4 juvs [took pics] & Great Tit - 1 juv at 0630
July 8th: House Spug - 1 juv
July 12th: 1 - Bat, 1 - Moth and several bees.
July 18th: House Martin - 4.
July 19th: Blackie - 2 pr adult + 7 juvs [ new batch of five nested in garden and almost adult size, the families have done really well this time, have had five broods and no deaths as far as I know]. Had a yellow moth about half the size of a Brimstone butterfly, didn't go out to see it close to.

July 23rd: [Have reported the following on Bird Reports section as well.]
Sprawk - 2, Swift - 16, House Martin - 12+, Swallow - 1, Crow - 15, Black-head Gull - 2, Common Gull - 15, Osprey - 1 going easterly [garden tick]

Plus the usual gang although a bit depleted of late.

Kind regards

John

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