Family Meeting

Don't you just love Spring?!  Our garden has all of a sudden become a focal point for families of Starlings & Sparrows.  I love the way the fledglings open their beaks & flap their wings whenever an adult bird is near - they don't care if it's their parent or not - it has food!!

We have this small family of Greenfinches down most evenings now, the young are so adorable, often sitting there for half an hour or more with the one sunflower seed trying to get to the middle! I suppose I should really start buying the sunflower hearts for them instead to make it a bit easier!

Also saw something really positive at the weekend - the Housemartins are back rebuilding their old nests at the side of our neighbour's house!  It seems to be taking them a while but fingers crossed we'll have young in a couple of months!  I've never seen so many Housemartins before swirling above the roofs and they're so vicious to each other! One could be clinging on to the wall and another will literally fly up and pull it off! I'm going to try and video them this weekend if the weather is okay (i.e. dry!)

Will also keep an eye out for other fledglings in our garden in between shooing next doors cats away!

Does anyone have  any tips for keeping cats out? So far we've come up with barbed wire and a gun! Don't think the neighbours would approve though!

New Old Visitors

Have been in the new house for a couple of weeks now & I'm still trying to get used to the back garden.  It's quite strange that I get excited when a Coal Tit visits the feeder when they were the most common bird at the last house! 

We had 2 Blue Tits flitting in and out of the shrubs yesterday & I couldn't stop smiling!  Its as though I'm rediscovering all the birds I took for granted at the last place.

I suppose at the moment the feeder is quite hidden.  I can hear Goldfinches in the vicinity and Greenfinches keep passing overhead but none have landed yet!

I have ordered a load of new feeders online which should be with us next week, so hopefully any birds flying over will see all the culinary delights we have on offer!

We get the House Sparrows every day and the Starlings always come down for a bit of a nosy.

You looking at me?

However there's one bird that I'm missing!

The Robin! I thought every garden had one - so where's ours?  I've only heard him sing once and that's it. It's quite strange not to have one wake you up at 5.30am claiming his territory!

And I would've thought the gardens around here are ideal for the little scamp but I've still yet to see one!

We're planning on doing a little digging this weekend though so if there is one around then I'm sure he'll appear as soon as the spade hits the soil ;-)

New Home!

We have finally moved into our new house, after just over a week of packing, cleaning, working, unpacking, more cleaning - I've come to the conclusion I hate moving!

The new home is lovely and the back garden is fantastic!  Its quite a mature garden with lots of shrubs & bushes.

It has a narrow path leading you all the way around the grass to the back of the garden through more bushes and ends up at a shed which is covered in ivy!
I would like to say it's a haven for birds but we've had 2 different cats hiding in the garden so far :-(

We have got our priorities right though, and after an hour of being in the house on the first day, we decided unpacking can wait - the feeders must go up in the garden first!

So far, we've put up the coconut, seed feeder and the house.  

 These are all just in temporary positions until we get sorted.

 

After just 4 days, the House Sparrows have found the house!

The Starlings have discovered the coconut!

A couple of Coal Tits have been helping themselves to the Sunflower Seeds, Blackbirds have been rummaging around in the tree bark under the shrubs and a Dunnock has been underneath the seed house picking up any bits that the Sparrows throw off.

We've also put up a nest box at the side of the shed in the hope that a Robin might take an interest (especially with all the cover there is!)

I'd forgotten how noisy Starlings & Sparrows can be having not had them in the garden for a year - I have actually missed them!  Hopefully, once more feeders and a bath have been put in the garden, there'll be plenty of photos to be taken!