Weather - Forecast or Fantasy

I should not have taken notice of the local weather forecast this morning: 80% chance of rain all day. So, I postponed my visit to Warnham Nature Reserve and busied myself preparing all the garden bird feeders in readiness for the Big Garden Birdwatch that occurs this weekend. And I did all this in the dry - no sign of rain and it is now 12:30pm. I should have stuck to my original plan. Oh well...

I was watched closely by a Robin as I topped up the feeders - the first Robin I have seen this year. And a juvenile Dunnock showed keen interest in the food that finished up on the ground.

And the Goldfinches got stuck into the sunflower seeds as soon as I disappeared indoors.

Meanwhile I shall have lunch and then continue reading the book about Bletchley Park and the wartime code-breakers......

Bird Feeder Battle Zone

The amount of food my garden birds are consuming is increasing daily. I have just spent another £20 ($32) on sunflower seeds and I will be lucky if they last a week. The Goldfinches in particular love this food source and I often count 15 or more of this species at the feeders. Their comings and goings and occasional skirmishes are entertaining but hide the fact that they are in deadly earnest and sometimes have serious outcomes.

Our garden visitors are invariably in competition. The food we leave out is still a limited resource. If a bird is displaced from a feeder, an event which is commonplace in my garden and technically known as a "supplanting attack", it can appear to be a minor incident. The juveniles are often displaced by adult birds. If this happens repeatedly a bird could lose body condition little by little and be vulnerable to a change to colder weather. This is becoming of increasing concern given the forecast that we could be in for the coldest winter for 100 years.

This winter then it will be more important to spice up our watching to appreciate just how important aggression is. Bird feeders seethe with tension and it won't take long to spot it. I am seeing it already. Threatening birds stoop forward, head down (like a charging bull) with the bill open. The threatened bird usually simply flies off. It might also offer an appeasement posture, as finches do, which involves fluffing up the plumage. I have also witnessed the unusual appeasement ritual where the subordinate brings food to a dominant bird and feeds it beak to beak. I saw this only this morning.

Other inherently aggressive signals are more subtle. Watch Blackbirds and Woodpigeons when they land. They often lift the tail up and let it down slowly, both acts drawing attention to the individual.

Our garden birds are wild animals in every sense. Remember that when you top up your feeders. and do keep them replenished during the harsh winter anticipated...

October Garden Birds

It is still pleasantly mild in Brighton for early October. The temperature today is 20℃ and the garden is bathed in sunshine with a light breeze.

Since hanging out feeders containing sunflower seeds at the back end of last year the number of Goldfinches Carduelis carduelis has grown from 2 or 3 in January to a squabbling number of 14 or more today, the 'charm' containing first and second brood juveniles. A delight to watch.

Yesterday we had a solitary Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita flitting around in the lilac tree and the Dunnocks Prunella modularis are back after an absence of several months. A pair of Blue-tits Cyanistes caeruleus are daily visitors and a single Great-tit Parus major makes the occasional brief visit. Starlings Sturnus vulgaris have reappeared over the past few days. They certainly enjoy the fruit flavoured red suet pellets. A number of Woodpigeons Columba polumbus raid the feeders every day and since the beginning of the month a Eurasian Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto has returned. Herring Gulls Larus argentatus and Jackdaws Corvus monedula are always about although they seldom land in the garden. The Jackdaws though do attack the fat-balls with relish.

Noticeable by their absence at the moment are Blackbird Turdus merula and Robin Erithacus rubecula.

Goldfinches

These beautiful, highly coloured finches with a bright red face and yellow wing patch first visited my garden on 24th December 2012 just 48 hours after I first located a feeder containing nyger seeds in my lilac tree. In 27 years of recording birds in my garden these were the first Goldfinches to be seen. Since this occasion I have added two feeders containing sunflower seeds and these have quickly become the food of choice. Seven months on and there is hardly a moment goes by when I do not hear their delightful liquid, twittering song and call and see as many as six in the lilac tree. Most encouraging is that the number now includes two juvenile birds that have not yet developed their red faces.

They are a delight to watch and incredible time wasters.