Feeding the small birds continues to cost a king's ransom. At present we have crowds of house sparrows: I counted 17 in the front garden this morning but the sparrowhawk came through, low and at great speed, causing them all to dive for cover.
We feed the small birds - and, indirectly, the sparrowhawks - throughout the 'summer' even though some expert opinion is against it because, for our money, we do receive hours of amusement. Some of it is obtained by changing things - like covering this small feeder in the front garden with mesh but leaving a very clearly marked hole for the small birds - but hopefully not the greedy blackbirds - to get in and out. For some time none of the sparrows could work it out but, as happens so often, once....
....one of them caught on, the rest rapidly followed. Sadly, the bird which is best at problem solving continues to be the jackdaw, particularly....
....one semi-resident jackdaw which has managed to work out how to get at the food protected by this wire cover. It can't reach it all - I add strands of wire each time it develops a new trick - but it keeps catching up.
I feel bad about the wire covers, of which there are more and more in the garden, as they keep out some of the rather gentle birds, like this constantly-nervous collared dove, which would otherwise be very welcome to a quick snack.
For some time we were without any woodpeckers and we worried that this was because we were seeing so much more of the sparrowhawk, and dreaded finding red feathers scattered across the lawn - but the woodpecker was back the other day, always on the same feeder.
The sparrowhawk is very welcome to a few of the small birds as long as he doesn't take the rarer ones, like....
....the coal tits, which are only just back in the garden after a summer spent doing important things like raising the next generation.
It's good to see some of the next generation in the garden. This is a young greenfinch which we hope will stay with us through the coming winter.
For some time there seemed to be only one robin in the garden, one of this year's with a barely-developed red breast, but now we have at least two others, both adults, and as a result the conflicts have started. This is good as we can now look forward to an autumn and winter of watching the robins sort out their territories.
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