Garden Birds

This morning we were thinking about going for as walk, but the cold weather turned to a smattering of snow, so we decided to see how the day progressed.

After morning coffee, I watched the garden activity.  As always, the squirrels were a main attraction.

There is a robin (or perhaps a pair of robins) who patrols the edge of the garden frequently.

The squirrels seldom stray far from the bird feeders when the weather is cold.  I suspect they consume about half of the bird food that we put out.

The main reason for feeding the birds in my mind, is to maintain the local sparrow population, which has shown an increase in the last 20 years.  That is also why we keep the hedges around the garden.

Starlings are always on the lookout for food. and can often be the first birds to attack the freshly filled feeders.  They usually arrive a dozen at a time, all scrapping for the same feeder, but we do occasionally see a lone bird during the day.

Now that it is cold, the goldfinches are regular visitors again.  They will sit on the feeders and eat till they are full.  They seldom move aside for other birds and the sparrows treat them with respect.

The other regular visitors are tits.  You have to be fast on the trigger to catch a blue tit as they fly in, grab and run.  We also see great tits and occasionally long tailed tits.  The feeders are always a source of passive entertainment for us.