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?

I'd heard about mealworms in excess being bad for hedgehogs but not realised they were also a concern for birds.

Today, we saw a pair of Jays in the garden. They were regular, but fleeting, visitors last year so I'm pleased they are back.

Our Jays are back - and having some peanuts from the feeder station where they just flew through yesterday. This makes me hope we will have some babies visiting later in the year 🥰

The bluetits are back and taking wool etc in now rather than out like last week. Looks promising

Wish our blue tits would come back - they were in and out of one box for weeks but have since disappeared

I have several birdbaths and nesting boxs, love to see the birds using them, blackbirds, wood pigeon, blue tits and a robin.
I also grow a lot of foxgloves and hollyhocks that attract the bees, love to hear them humming in the summer.
I see a couple of frogs under the shrubs and am thinking of creating a small pond. Last summer l often saw a couple of hedgehogs on the lawn, in the evening , l leave out ca t food and water for them .

Suburban garden here too and I am a crazy bird woman. About 13 different birds frequent plus hedgehogs, squirrel, a foxand a badger occasionally. My old cat ignores all but our kitten is starting to try to hunt and I spend all my time chasing away birds when she is out. Our robin died this week when I found it with a broken wing (not due to our cat)and I was so upset. It raised four babies in the jungle gym last spring which made lockdown magical. It had just built a nest. Now the mate has disappeared. I am far too invested in my birds and think I am developing some kind of anxiety disorder worrying about them all the time so I’m trying to disengage a bit.Not my decision to get a kitten - over ruled by family when we found it abandoned. If I had no cats I would have so many nests in the garden,I spend a fortune on seed, worms, fat balls, hedgehog food. I can relate to the poster who said she was avoiding going out to stop the magpies attacking the other nests!

Just spent a very peaceful 10 minutes watching the sparrows rooting about in the hedge, there was so many it looked like it was moving

Lovely mn's I wonder if you could give me some advice? I have several bird feeders in the garden, some hanging feeders and a couple of tables plus a bird bath. They just don't seem to attract any birds, other than a couple of pigeons, a magpie and a blackbird there are no other small birds. Where am I going wrong?

popgoesperfection are there bushes, shrubs, trees etc for cover next to the bird things? Small birds are predated upon by so many things, that they really like to be able to pop in and out of a safe zone.

I buy suet in coconut shells which seems to suit the little birds. I think they're too unstable for the bigger birds but I often see little tits and sparrows hanging upside down eating from them.

I have a couple of small trees but no bushes. I've tried positioning the feeders around the garden in different places but still no luck.

I bought new feeders a few years ago and was disappointed that the birds didn’t use them. But eventually they did it just took time for them to trust them and now I fill four feeders nightly and they are stripped bare daily. So just leave them and the birds eventually will arrive. I throw lots of leftover food on the grass too to attract them to the feeder area

pop birds really need cover to feel secure, I imagine your small trees are not providing enough protection? They need to be able to flit from cover area to cover area, and then to the nearby feeders and back.
In bitter weather birds will brave more open feeders but as it is so dangerous they don’t like doing it. Plant some bushy shrubs, and site them as near to neighbouring shrubs as you can. Then feeders near to the shrubs.

pop how long have they been there?
I recently added a new feeder and it took about a month before it was found and another month before it was regularly used.
As per PP they do need to have cover - for mine, hanging from a branch in a bushy shrub/ small tree works best. Basically think like a small bird - if a sparrowhawk suddenly came along, how far is the nearest cover? Are there other cover options within a foot or so of that cover, in case sparrowhawk is persistent? That is what the birds will be weighing up.
I'd say if they'd need to fly further than a foot from the feeder to shelter that's probably too risky in the mind of a little bird.... they are hugely paranoid creatures (probably rightly so!)

We have been feeding the birds for over a year now. The Nyger seeds brought the goldfinches - I think we counted 15 one day. It's funny how they must be out there all the time, but I have only ever seen them when they are around the feeder. We alsi have robins, wagtails, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, wrens, chaffinches, dunnocks, tree and hedge sparrows, wood pigeons, blackbirds, magpies, bullfinches and a buzzard or two overhead. We used to get green finches years ago but no sign of them this year. The feeders are on and across from the window nearest our kitchen table so it's like looking a lot TV when they are all swooping around. So interesting to watch them. The see-through window feeder lets you really get up close once they get used to it.

Been up about 2 weeks, maybe I'm been a bit impatient? I'll have a look into getting a couple of bushy shrubs and see if that encourages them. I've been and bought some different seeds too after reading some info on the rspb website.

I'm still patiently waiting for the blue tits to move into the bird box

I love watching them but fed up with the sparrows raking tons of seed out of the feeders to get their favourite and then getting fat wood pigeons eating from the ground. Then they sit in the birdbath like fat Buddhas. I have goldfinches, tits, chaffinches, robin, blackbirds and starlings plus 2 nests in our hedges.

Thirstquenching how long have you been waiting? I'm the same. I put a little bird box up a few weeks ago and keep looking out the window in the hope of some new tenants...

What interests me is how much I don't see. A couple of times a year I see a goldcrest, but their habits are such that they're likely to be around much more. I have suspicions of about one nest a year, but when I do my winter pruning I find more - one year, five in the front garden alone. There's a jasmine by the front door - I discovered it had nests from 3 successive years in it that I was quite unaware of.

Then we put out a trail camera. We discovered that as well as our own cats, we are visited by: two black and whites, a long haired black and white; a blotched tabby, a long haired black; two gingers. And not one but two foxes.

Love our birds. Hate the crows and magpies. Tree surgeon friend said they go in the hedge one end and basically eat their way along raiding the nests, which is so sad (assuming true ).

Our cat, who is an incredible hunter (rescued stray) wears a birdbesafe ruff over her collar, and hasn't caught a single bird whilst wearing it. It's basically a brightly coloured ruff, about 20cm long. Would cost nothing to make your own. And it's the best thing I've ever bought. She snuck out without it one day, and had a dunnock within 15 minutes. Personally think all cats should be required to wear them.

I think corvids have a bad PR agent. Or woodpeckers have a very good one.

Woodpeckers are also murdering bastards, and great spotted woodpeckers will peck through the hole to a nesting box to get and - and eat - all the lovely baby tits.

Yes, circle of life and all that but last year was traumatic (and noisy!) as the woodpecker went systemically though the boxes at houses nearby. This year, our nesting boxes' holes are reinforced with a metal ring.

I didn't know this about Magpies. One has started to sit on our fence and the blackbirds, Robins and tits go mad. I scare it off. They all have babies in our garden. Could this by why Mrs Robin is collecting nesting material for her second brood but going elsewhere with it?

We have Robins, long tailed, blue, coal and great tits, goldfinch, dunocks, wrens, house sparrows, black birds, woodpeckers, wood pigeons, a magpie and red kite and buzzards that fly overhead. Only a smallish garden, but filled it with trees and berrying plants.

Magpies systematically killed the nest of wood pigeons in my garden more than once

@DaftVader42

Love our birds. Hate the crows and magpies. Tree surgeon friend said they go in the hedge one end and basically eat their way along raiding the nests, which is so sad (assuming true ).

Our cat, who is an incredible hunter (rescued stray) wears a birdbesafe ruff over her collar, and hasn't caught a single bird whilst wearing it. It's basically a brightly coloured ruff, about 20cm long. Would cost nothing to make your own. And it's the best thing I've ever bought. She snuck out without it one day, and had a dunnock within 15 minutes. Personally think all cats should be required to wear them.

Just googled the birdbesafe ruff and would also love all cats be required to wear them, just to see all cats wearing these cute little ruffs!