Monday, August 5, 2024

Birds in the Garden

When we first moved into our newly-built house hardly a bird visited the building site that would become our garden. We've worked hard, and at some expense, to rectify that, with some uplifting results. At first our new visitors were the sort of birds that pioneer opportunities - chaffinches and blue tits in particular, and blackbirds, but not, as one would expect, house sparrows. The pioneers were soon followed by an unexpected mass of....

....siskins - that's a young one on the right in the company of a young greenfinch - and goldfinches, both attracted by copious offerings of sunflower kernels. House sparrows arrived late on the scene, as did dunnocks, the former making up for their late arrival by coming in masses. Wood pigeons and collared doves vied with....

....rooks, carrion crows and jackdaws for the seeds that fell from the feeders, in their anxiety to feed both themselves and the youngsters that harassed them, the crows digging up some of Mrs MW's precious, newly-planted perennials.

Our pond has been a great success, drawing not only swallows and house martins for the mud round its edges, used for building their nests, but also both pied and grey wagtails, probably hunting for the pond skaters which mysteriously appeared in quite large numbers.

We've seen yellowhammers, song thrushes and wrens....

....however, no garden is complete without a robin to own it, so we were thrilled the other day when we spotted this youngster under the feeders, and even more pleased that we now see him regularly in the garden.

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