The past week has brought stormy weather too much of the country at one time or another and here in Kent we had a very windy day last Friday and again Sunday evening and early on Monday morning. Fortunately, I haven’t suffered any damage to the house or garden apart from a few twigs down from a couple of small trees. The birds of course had challenging conditions to land in and feed and so their routine was slightly changed. It was noticeable during the strongest winds that the smaller birds tended to keep away and those who were inside the big conifer at the bottom of my garden, flew out of i ..read more

Bird activity at my feeders has been high through the past week and I’ve had my usual visitors to the garden including the feral pigeons. Another new mainly white pigeon has been coming some days amongst the original group. The pair of crows are still swooping down in the morning for special scraps of food and also having another look around in the garden in the middle of the day and late in the afternoon. I do enjoy watching them strutting about on the lawn. Yesterday afternoon it became blustery and the birds were finding landing conditions quite difficult and one of the crows who arrived l ..read more

It has been a busy week with bird activity in the garden and they are noticeably coming earlier in the morning and staying later in the afternoon. I don’t have to rush anymore to make sure an afternoon supply of food is out in the garden by 2.30 or 3 pm. There have been some reasonably spring like days but also some chillier and windy ones, but it doesn’t seem to deter the birds much. The feral pigeons and the starlings have been bathing in the bird bath saucers and sunbathing if possible to dry off, with several of each at different times the other day in one saucer. As I mentioned in a previ ..read more

Spring – luckily – is on the horizon and although we can’t believe that it’s nesting season again, it’s one of our favourite times of the year. How can anyone not enjoy the sight of newly fledged birds taking their first tentative steps in the world? Firstly, though, like all young parents, or parents to be, you first need a home to raise your young and as nesting season gets underway many of us put up a nest box - or those of us that are handy at DIY may build their own. Whichever way you choose to obtain a nest box, rest assured that you are replacing a habitat that is no longer there and ..read more

A couple of days ago I was delighted to see one redwing in the garden, as that was my first sighting of one of them for about 10 months. Unfortunately, the wood pigeons have eaten most of the holly berries that they come for but the one that was there was at least finding some of them. The wood pigeons have also been eating the berries on the ivy which grows up in my cobnut tree. While walking around the local countryside, I have seen them enthusiastically pecking at the ivy at the edge of a nature reserve. The other day in the space of a few metres I saw eight of them. My gathering of wood pi ..read more

The past few days have certainly brought what you could almost describe as spring-like weather and temperatures. I have been able to work in the garden with just a light jacket on and I have even seen a butterfly, probably a Red Admiral or something very similar, flying about. The birds I think are definitely starting to think about spring and the breeding season and it’s noticeable now that I have a pair of collared doves coming into the garden most days and a pair of wood pigeons. One of the wood pigeons is searching around on the lawn as I write, and it looks to me as if it might be startin ..read more

Spring and summer, usually the warmest months, are when the majority of us faithfully supply our garden birds with fresh water for drinking and bathing. By this time of year, however, some of us have put away birdbaths and other water features, presuming that birds won’t need them until the spring. However, we’re here to spread the word, that no, please don’t put that very important water source away! Birds and other wildlife, need water in the winter just as importantly as in the summer. If you don’t have snow or ice in your area, then there is literally no water, which can lead to big troub ..read more

During the past week it has been frosty most mornings with white hoar frost on the grass and ice in the bird bath saucers, so I’ve had to add to my routine breaking the ice in the saucers first thing. The coldness of the water doesn’t seem to have deterred either the pigeons or the starlings who have still been drinking and bathing on the sunny days in the icy water. The sunshine is warm enough I guess on the calm days. Not surprisingly with the cold weather, the consumption of food is considerably higher, although at the moment the birds don’t seem to be favouring the fat balls. The suet squa ..read more

Over the Christmas period as I mentioned in a recent blog, I was putting out extra food in the garden that was scraps of chicken, sausage meat and so on leftover from Christmas meals. I generally threw this onto the lawn away from the bird table and other feeders so that the smaller birds could continue to feed, while the larger birds such as the crows or the magpies, could come down and take the extras. It’s been noticeable in the last few days when I haven’t had any such scraps, that the crows have come down strutting about on the lawn in the same area where they had been feeding, as much to ..read more

Firstly, a Happy New Year to all who read my bird blogs. I think the birds have been spoilt over the Christmas and New Year period with plenty of extra treats on offer, varying from stuffing from my Christmas chicken to leftover scraps of meat, ham and sausage meat. They’ve also enjoyed some pastry in addition to their normal food of suet balls and squares, peanuts and seed mixtures of various sorts. At the moment bird activity in the garden is brisk and there are least two male black birds and a female regularly coming to the garden now for food. The robin and the immature robins can be seen ..read more