Watching birds (and other wildlife) in the garden

[FleetwoodRaincoat]

Not sure if this is the right place to post but I couldn't see a wildlife thread anywhere.

I've been really enjoying watching birds in our garden over the past year. I've put up several feeders, a bird box, built a little wildlife pond etc.

For the past few days I've been watching a pair of blue tits going in and out of the nest box. At the moment they seem to be going in then throwing stuff out, rather than building a nest.

Anyone else interested in what's going on in their garden?

Thanks for this thread @FleetwoodRaincoat ! Today while I was in the garden my cat locked eyes on a bird in a tree. Normally I ignore it because she doesn't hunt but I decided to have a look myself and saw a blue tit up above us. I've never seen one before and wouldn't have looked if you hadn't mentioned it.

We’ve added a hedgehog hole to our fence as we just laid a new patio which was higher than our old one and I was worried they wouldn’t be able to squeeze in anymore. The wildlife camera shows them happily trundling in and out through their new hole 😊. I also made them a feeding station from an underbed storage box as the local cats kept eating all the food.

We love watching the birds too, we have a table and a tray for ground feeders (which the squirrel also enjoys!) we buy sunflower hearts by the sack load. The price has leaped up recently, maybe they are taking advantage of everyone’s new hobby!!

And this robin is enjoying the the extra bird bath we put out when it’s really busy when the starlings have all their babies. It’s an old paint roller tray. The birds love it, loads can fit in all together.

I love watching the wildlife and I try and make the garden wildlife friendly, we have bird feeders, hedgehog houses and a pond, I try and plant bee and butterfly friendly plants. We have just created a little bee watering hole (a deep dish full of glass pebbles topped up with water) and planted more lavender. Last year was the first year we had hedgehogs. At the moment I’m watching all the starlings and sparrows collect all the jasmine I chopped down to take to their nests in the eves of my house.

I'm beyond excited, we put bird houses up a month ago, a blue tit was looking inside one of them today 😁

I've never really been into watching wildlife before but am really getting into it, particularly as my 4 year old seems keen. We moved into a new house that has a little woodland area so have put in a bird feeder, bird bath, bird box and "insect hotel". I also found a large log on one of our walks that I'm going to chop up and turn into a little log pile. I'm yet to see anything using the bird bath but we've loved watching the birds on the feeder.

Mixed feelings about blackbirds as they steal our newts

A blackbird is currently sat on top of the neighbour's tree singing its heart out. A starling is on the bird table eating mealworms and we just had a goldfinch on the feeder eating sunflower hearts, a great tit on the fat coconut and a sparrow on the ground eating more mealworms.

We have a wood pigeon who sits next to the feeder hogging the sunflower hearts while the goldfinches wait in the apple tree so I have to go out and shoo him away so they get a turn.

That's so cute, Squiz81. I am going to copy your idea .

The wood pigeon in our garden is making use of a hole in the bird food sack made by an enterprising squirrel and is pulling food out of it. I'm happy to feed the squirrels, they use the bird table and leave the feeder for the birds.

The bluetit was on the perch for the nesting box again this morning.

Very excited a kestrel just landed in the garden. Was only there seconds but never had one before!

Now that is exciting. I'd be delighted to see one.

In less exciting news two bluetits have just gone in the nesting box together

I was but it left so quickly before I even got a proper look. Think it was after Stuart my resident field mouse that lives in my shed

@polarnopirate you need to encourage hedgehogs in by leaving them some food. Dry chicken flavoured cat biscuits are ideal (not fish flavour). You can leave these out in a dish, but if you have cats locally they'll probably get to them first, so you need to cover them somehow. There's lots of good advice online. They also like a drink, so a dish of water is good too.

If you cut a small hole in your fence they may well use it - several of my neighbours have done this and now get nightly visits. We have two regular hogs and occasionally a third. Hedgehogs are in decline so anything that can be done to help is good.

I see a hedgehog in the evenings. I call her Henrietta

My son set up a bird table..... lovely until 2 turtle doves decided to get it on whist on the sky dish so every time the telly goes weird we know what they are up to 😬😜

But we have lots of lovely birds visiting
Blue tits
Chaffinches
Black birds
Thrushes
And a very fat wood pigeon
And of course the turtle doves

We have a couple of squirrels, NDN have a huge sycamore and they seem to live in there. I love watching them and so do our cats - although at 15 they'd never catch them ! We have a big hedge of mature leylandii which the tits and other small birds love, I so enjoy watching them. Plus robins in another hedge

@Tangledtresses

My son set up a bird table..... lovely until 2 turtle doves decided to get it on whist on the sky dish so every time the telly goes weird we know what they are up to 😬😜

Turtle doves? Really? You are lucky! According to the RSPB, they're Britain's fastest declining bird ad on the verge of extinction. Cherish them, and never moan again about their use of your satellite dish

We have a big hedge of mature leylandii which the tits and other small birds love, Yet so many people tell you leylandii is value-less for wildlife. We had goldcrests nesting in ours.

My favourite birds which regularly come to our garden are bullfinches. They are so pretty! Also a big fan of the goldfinches. My most impressive spot was a tawny owl which flew up from behind the garden wall and gave me quite a start! That was years ago though. We also get bats flying around in the garden on summer evenings.

Turtle doves? Wow - they are pretty unusual to see, I think!

Are they definitely turtle doves, not collared doves?

We bought a bird bath last weekend and didn’t expect anything to use it for a while but it had literally only been out in the garden for an hour and a female blackbird hopped in for a bath. She comes daily and has a flap in it after she’s foraged on the lawn.

We used to have a pair of wood pigeons which nested in the leylandii in the garden behind (well, it overhangs so much it may as well be in our garden). Neighbors “topped” it but I think they took off too much as I think it’s slowly dying and the wood pigeons have been in and assessed it and have given up on it for this year. . I won’t miss having to go out to defend the nest against the murderous magpies that nest in the big tree over the road. The wood pigeons did a fairly good job of trying to look hard but it was a losing battle sometimes against the magpie thugs!

Might get a bird box.

We have starlings nesting in our garage roof. I have loads of bird feeders front and back. Regular visitors include wood pigeons, a Robin, a blackbird, sparrows.
I've made a log pile in a quiet sheltered corner, planted lots of bee and butterfly friendly bulbs, flowers and plants over the last few years and have seen loads of them and other insects this year already. I have some of those insect hotels dotted about. I have a wildlife pond and a wildflower patch. I am in the process of planting another wildlife hedge down one side of the driveway.