Garden Birds

Small birds are a scarce commodity in our garden even though every effort is made to attract them, from copious amounts of seed and peanuts through to bird baths and protected feeders. Their absence is probably down to two main factors, of which the depredations of the local sparrow hawk is a major factor, along with the hunting habits of a neighbour's ginger tom.

After a summer in which the main visitors have been a few dunnocks and blackbirds, with one of the latter having a terrible fright from a sparrow hawk the other day, we now have a robin. He's seen here waiting patiently for a very greedy blackbird to finish at the bird table so he can have his turn.

To add to our excitement, we had a house sparrow visit twice the other day, and then a small brown bird which may have been one of the flycatchers. Neither have reappeared, so either they heard about the hawk and the cat and took themselves elsewhere, or they didn't and ended up as a predator's snack.