Small Bird Report

We start with the not-so-small birds who insist on muscling in on the food and facilities provided, including a pair of herring gulls which perch on the roof above our bedroom around dawn - which is now very early - and jump up and down to make sure we're awake. Not only do they use the bird bath, they also scavenge under the feeders: a big herring gull trying to pick up a grain of millet is a ridiculous sight.

The corvids, rooks (above) and jackdaws, continue to be pains. While they can't perch on the feeders they've quickly learnt that they can knock against them and then pick up the grain that's fallen to the ground. We discourage them but they are becoming ever bolder: at one time a tap on the window sent them on their way; now we have to go outside and chase them.

The starlings know very well where they're not supposed to be. It seems a shame not to be able to include them in the small bird category but they have the appetite of a crow and the table manners of a herring gull.

We started our bird feeding at the new house with a pair of sparrows. Now we have a host of them - but they're great fun, enjoying communal baths whether they be of the wet or....

....dry variety, having fights and arguments, and trying to sort out, very noisily, who is mating with whom this year. Further, to save time, they've stopped roosting somewhere else and now spend the night in the tangled honeysuckle bush by the side of the house.

The greenfinches have become regulars here, possibly as many as three pairs. This is the slightly dowdier female.

The tits are becoming very used to us. When we go out to shoo away the crows they watch with satisfaction from the tree and are back on their food as soon as we've shut up. As well as blue tits, we see plenty of great its and the occasional coal tit.

We've seen three male chaffinches in the garden at one time so they are also doing very well, the cock chaffinches looking very smart in their mating plumage.

Goldfinches are occasional visitors, and then only one or two at a time. They don't hang around either, perhaps because they don't enjoy the competition around the feeders. It's a shame as they are a pretty little bird.

In addition, we also have visits from dunnocks, blackbirds, collared doves, wagtails and, now, a sparrowhawk, which comes barrelling along the fence and pounces on anything that doesn't get into the trees extremely quickly. I have no problem with them feeding on the birds: it keeps the population healthy and is part of the rich natural order, but I do wish they preferred to eat gulls and crows.