Our feathered friends

[ideasguy]

Eric posted a lovely photo of a Robin in his seasonal greetings message to wish us all a Happy Christmas.

Its the time of year when the birds need us to help keep them fed and watered to get through winter.
They are so nice to see coming in closer to the house.

We now have a regular visitor to our garden nearly every day - a very healthy looking hen pheasant, to the seed I throw over the tarmac outside the office window.
I'm hoping she will bring her boy friend along soon . Mind you the "running costs" are high! She has a good feed each visit and a good appetite
I'm learning a bit about the whims of our birds.
Starlings like just about anything - bread disappears rapidly and they love the fat balls.
I throw out a handful of porridge - and see the Robin and other small birds like that. It goes quickly, thank you!
The Goldfinches (red blotches on head, yellow markings on wings) arrived magically within half an hour of filling the Niger seed feeder - unseen prior to that and the same thing happened last year. I hang it in a small Acer palmatum atropurpureum in the side garden which we overlook from our dinette. I didn't replenish until it had dropped all its leaves (which hung on until last week). Great entertainment at coffee and lunchtime.
The blackbirds are now arriving - they seemed to be keeping a low profile. I think they are eating fallen apples up the garden. They seem to like granulated peanuts and mealworms. They seem to be more active just before dark when Starlings and other birds have called it a day. I now know when to throw them their supper time treat
Other regular visitors are Crows, Doves and Magpies.
I'm disappointed not to see any Thrushes. Last year they were rarely spotted.
Then we have that pesky cat from the house behind us. They have 5 of them and don't allow them into the house - so they wander in here. One in particular is a real nuisance, a young black one. I have to look out for it sneaking up on my feathered friends and chase it more than once a day
In between, I try to get some work done on the computer

Perhaps our members will add a few photos to this topic

[NightHawk]

It's great to hear you are becoming 'one with nature' George and learning so much more about our feathered friends behaviour patterns.

Because they are around us all the time they seem to be taken for granted by a lot of people.  But when you really take an interest and observe their mannerisms, they are fascinating creatures.

Like you George, we have a cat problem.  The feeders we had in our front garden are rarely visited now, to the extent that the nuts and seeds are not being eaten and become waterlogged with rain water and have to be thrown away.  The only up-side to the cats is that they keep the mice under control.

Just recently though, we haven't noticed many of the 'local' cats crossing over our front garden.  I think it is because one of our neighbour's main dominant cat is now out and about again.  His name is Henry and is an 'English Grey'.  He has such a good nature and doesn't cause us any problems but has just come outside again after being injured (cause unknown).  He fights with all the other cats so when he's on patrol the coast is clear.

Because of this I think we'll try restocking our feeders and see what happens.  The good news is that living in the Forest the birds always have an abundant supply of food, so that's not an issue here.  We always keep our birdbath full of fresh water though, especially now as the winter months bring ice and freezing temperatures.

Even with the cats about, we get our regular visitors of robins, blackbirds and wrens, plus the odd goldfinch to take advantage of our water supply.

We used to get Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Green Woodpeckers (much rarer), song thrushes, house sparrows, goldfinches, blue titis, great tits and long-tailed tits to name but a few, on a regular basis to our garden.  We can still see them in the trees around us and in the Forest when we go out walking, but it's nice to have them come to you 

The common buzzard regularly flies overhead circling the trees around us looking for prey.  Thankfully though they don't venture into our gardens as the food source is not to their liking.

To get some photos would be very nice George, but it's not for the lack of trying on my part 

[ideasguy]

I could have gone on a bit more Laurie!
One thing that I amuses me is how the birds not only have a pecking order among their own species, but its how they interact with other species. Its nice to see how placid some of the larger birds are in feeding side by side with smaller birds.
The smaller birds dine alongside the starlings in harmony, but I they are wary of their strong beaks - especially on nut feeders.
I know you advise not to throw seed on the ground for them, but I'm afraid I do. I can throw it over a wider area (tarmac) so they all have a plate! I also have a few spots of bare soil (tulips planted and still dormant) and they soon find the offerings. Another daily handful or two goes over the grass just outside the dining room French windows, so we (and the children) can see them up close - bird book at the ready

The Pheasant was here earlier and she was quite happy to be in the middle of a dozen or more smaller birds - very sharing
She had disappeared, so I went out to chase that pesky black cat sneaking up on the blackbirds eating the apples (now confirmed!) on the ground at the top of the garden. Miss pheasant flew past me, a mere few feet away. Hope she comes back.

Last year we had a grumpy blackbird which spent so much time chasing other blackbirds and other small birds away that I wondered if it ever managed to get time to eat! The smaller birds were persistent. When one was chased others arrived a foot or so from its tail. No wonder it was grumpy

Update: We spotted a thrush at coffee time and Mary has spotted one in the front garden. It chased the blackbird away!
Theres a lot of berries on the ground and some still on the Rowan tree. They don't seem to be all that popular though. I think they are picking up grubs.

Now you've mentioned nuts, I believe there is a quality problem. Sometimes they disappear in a few days (or at least are noticeably reducing). Other times they don't (and the nuts are new stock) even though there have been lots of birds visiting. They peck a little then fly off. I suspect they are too soft and don't crack open when struck with a sharp implement (little bird bills).
Haven't seen the squirrel for ages. It is fun to watch as it tries to get to the nuts in the nut feeder (hanging from a branch).

Oh, yes. Haven't seen the sparrow hawk for a long time either. We like it like that around here

Better get some programming done