Thank goodness the breeding season is over as, although it's always fun to watch overindulgent parents being harassed by greedy young, the explosion....
....in house sparrow numbers was set to overwhelm us. At one point it was possible to count forty along the wall and sitting in the fence, a hoard which intimidated....
....all but the fiercest small birds - of which the greenfinches were one.
So we stopped all grain offerings except at breakfast time, when we could sit and watch the merry competition, and concentrated on....
....developing peanut feeders which were sparrow-proof - not that this one, modelled by a young great tit, defeated them for long - but at least the numbers in the garden have dropped drastically.
After several false starts, we have finally developed a cage which keeps sparrows off the fat balls but its disadvantage is that only the blue tits can get into it - not that the six which we often see at the same time in the garden are complaining.
We saw a few swifts high over the house during July but they have now gone south and the swallows are showing every sign of following them.
So we're now watching the birds which will be with us all winter start to establish their territories. While we had a very smart red-breasted robin dominating the garden a few days ago, this juvenile was being very assertive this afternoon, so perhaps it will be his garden this winter. The only problem we have is how to make sure he is fed without bringing back the sparrow legions.
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