Birds in your garden

willtheman45

willtheman45

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Due to the snowy weather (and a day off school!) I have spent most of this morning watching the birds flying into my garden.
Living in the suburds of Sheffield I was very surprised when I saw 2 yellowhammers in my garden-something which have never visited here before!
Like many other gardens I have many blue tits, great tits, goldfinches, blackbirds and robins. Other visitors that have also been in many garden include redwings, greater spotted woodpeckers, red-legged partridge(a massive surprise as I live a few miles from the countryside!) as well as sparrowhawks and ravens flying over.

So I was just wondering what types of birds you often get in your garden as well as some more surprising visitors that have been in your garden!

Willtheman
 
Last week I had a maniac magpie who was intent on pecking his way through the window, while on the wing! It continued to do so even as I watched and didn'tfly away until I flapped the curtain.

Apart from magpies, I have the usual stuff tits, thrushes, robin, wrens, crow, chaffinch and greenfinch. Had a red-legged partridge about 15 years ago. Prably escaped from someones aviary.

Back in 2002 or 2003 a red kite flew over, it was wonderful to see.
 
I had a magpie come down my chimney once and get into my living room. It was quite strange to walk home and see a magpie looking out of the window:D
 
So far, I have recorded forty four species of bird either landing in the garden or living in the near-vicinity. Obviously, I won't go to the trouble of naming them all, so here is the basic breakdown-

Some notable highlights among the garden birds include:
- Seeing three buzzards circling directly over the garden
- A particularly hard winter that brought pheasant, lesser black-backed gull, brambling and siskin to the garden
- The yearly visit of a fieldfare to a crab apple tree in the front garden
- One summer a turtle dove (now sadly quite threatened) came in to feed on peanuts
- Other highlights include green woodpecker, sparrowhawk, kestrel, tawny owl, blackcap, red-legged partridge, coal and long-tailed tits, bullfinch and once a lesser spotted woodpecker that met a sad end with one of our windows
- Every year, three Bewick's swans fly over our garden during their winter migration

I count myself lucky living so close to so many good wildlife habitats. I'd talk about the other local wildlife, but then we'd be here for months :D
 
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As I have said in the past I live in an area were my back garden backs on to country side so I can myself lucky with the species I have seen in my garden or near by but highlights are -
Tawny Owl, Buzzards, Cuckoo, Pheasants, Skylarks, Lapwing, Kingfisher, Sparrow Hawk, Barn Owl and Goldcrest
We also have the more common Finches, Blackbirds, Trushes, Pigeons, Tits, Crows, Ravens, Jays and Magpies
There are many more I have just started keeping a record of the bird species I see locally and am up to 31 different species so far
 
I have been taking part in the BTO 'Garden Birdwatch' for quite a few years now so make a note of what I see in the garden weekly and provide food for the birds all year .

My 'common' birds that appear most weeks include blue and great tit , chaffinch , sparrow , dunnock , magpie , collared dove , robin , blackbird , great spotted woodpecker , nuthatch , goldfinch when niger is on offer . Other fairly regular visitors include jackdaw , wren , song thrush , coal tit , long-tailed tit , jay , woodpigeon . Most winters I get siskins . I also get bullfinches , greenfinches , crows at times . The most unusual species I have seen coming into the garden have been redwing , brambling , reed bunting and redpoll . Buzzards are common in the area and red kites fly over sometimes . I am sure I have also missed a few species .

I am lucky to live in a semi-rural area with wet rough pasture and woodland close to my garden .
 
I too spent a while watching the birds in my garden today after putting out seed, mealworms and lard. I had 2 robins sitting on the roof of my hedgehog house. I spent ages watching them interacting and feeding. They were beautiful.

I also get blackbirds, greenfinches, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, blackbirds, collared doves, pigeons, goldfinches, chaffinches, sparrows and starlings. I have also seen a wren and a song thrush, but only a handful of times. One afternoon in the summer I went out in to the garden to see a herron looking at me! Not seen it since.

I live about a mile away from a town centre, but my garden is very "wild" (lots of places for birds to shelter and hide as I don't garden...) and always has bird food and fresh water about. I got some pictures of the robins so will upload them next week when I sort all my pictures out.
 
I grew up in Ipswich, and our garden backed on to Rushmere Heath. One summer night in the early 70s I heard a Quail calling from the garden; it was actually on the heath, but counts as my best garden bird ever.
The local heath and woodland in those days had Red-backed Shrikes [now long gone], Stone Curlews [not sure if they are still there] and Nightjars [probably still there].
 
That really is an impressive garden bird! I am almost jealous that a place with shrikes, stone curlews and nightjars was just near your back garden!The nearest open space to me is a park at the bottom of my road which often has woodpeckers, treecreepers and nuthatches in the woods and Iv'e seen fieldfares in snowy conditions
 
Here in a Dorset town garden over the years we have had occasional Kingfishers, which never stay more than a few minute as there are no fish in our [duck-] pond. We have also had Mallard dropping in, feeding with our ducks and flying off. Turtle and Stock Doves have each visited twice. Overhead [as opposed to actually in the garden] Buzzards are regular, often more than one at a time, Little Egrets and Ravens occasional, and we once saw a Peregrine. Geese and Owls in our collection often spot birds overhead before we do.
 
FBBird said:
The local heath and woodland in those days had Red-backed Shrikes [now long gone], Stone Curlews [not sure if they are still there] and Nightjars [probably still there].
Click to expand...

Stone Curlews are still there I would think- they've actually been increasing in recent years again.

A few years ago I sometimes visited one particular carpark/ picnic site in Thetford Forest. Later I discovered this was actually the location where the last breeding pair of Shrikes in East Anglia used to nest...

This week I've had Redwings in the garden. They stripped the Holly Tree bare of berries in 24 hours and now moved on.
 
Thanks for that Pertinax, nice to know about the Stone Curlews.
What year were the Thetford Shrikes? Mine were on the edge of Rushmere heath and may not have been 'officially' recorded [the downside of that is that I have only myself to blame if nobody believes they were there].
Have you any Waxwings locally? They haven't hit Dorset yet.
 
While I don't have a garden as such, I am fortunate to have a rich diversity of habitats around the building in which I live.

A pair of Buzzards nest in a tree behind the house and in the woods to one side there is another pair, a pair of Tawny Owls (whose owlets are an unusual visitor to the neighbours bird table when curtains open in the morning!), Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, the more common warblers etc. Roe deer in small number are in the woods and on occasion on the grass in front of the house.

In the field in front of the house I regularly see Kestrel and Barn Owl hunting for voles, and occasionally see Hare in the field too.

A minutes walk from the house is a small river estuary where I see various waders such as Redshank, Oystercatcher, Dunlin, and in the last couple of years an overwintering Little Egret. Osprey pass by the estuary twice a year on migration.

Raven are present all year and breed in the woods nearby.

I once heard a Grasshopper Warbler a little way from the house and was surprised to see it was recorded for a number of years in the county breeding bird atlas. Sadly that was the first and last time I heard it. Interesting seeing that species go and others like the Egret arrive. Such is the nature of, well, nature; extinctions and colonisations.

It may seem odd but despite having all this around me I still wish I had nice little garden with bird feeders and the regular blue and great tits, chaffinch and greenfinch etc to watch. We are each of us lucky in our ways. :)
 
We get blue, great and coal tits, sparrows, dunnocks, reed buntings, wrens, goldcrests, collared doves, woodpigeons, jackdaws, rooks, jays sometimes, magpies, greenfinches, chaffinches, the occasional bullfinch, goldfinches, fairly regular greater spotted woodpeckers, long-tailed tits sometimes, pied wagtails, a couple of hundred starlings, blackbirds, plus the occasional oddball: pheasant, stock dove, siskin, redpoll also diamond dove, zebra finch, parakeet, budgie, racing pigeons... various escaped domestic birds that know a good diner when they see one!
 
I like the personal interactions with native birds at this time of year.

Minding my own business getting shots of the condor in the zoo yesterday, a guy walking by shouted "Excuse me mate, did you know there's a robin sitting on your head?". There was too, and although I couldn't get a photo, I did snap the bird when it decided to settle on my tripod.



At home, there's often a queue at my bird table in the morning as wrens, robins and sparrows wait for their handful of meal worms, and the bird cake has been a particular favourite this past few weeks, including with a unseasonally late flock of long-tailed tits.
 
FBBird said:
Thanks for that Pertinax, nice to know about the Stone Curlews.
What year were the Thetford Shrikes? Mine were on the edge of Rushmere heath and may not have been 'officially' recorded [the downside of that is that I have only myself to blame if nobody believes they were there].
Have you any Waxwings locally? They haven't hit Dorset yet.
Click to expand...

I can't say for sure on the Stone Curlews, but numbers including the East Anglian subpopulation are definately increasing so I would think so.

Shrikes. Last nesting I believe was in Thetford in 1988, though a male was present the next year but no nesting. (It was at a picnic site by the railway line near Santon Downham) I certainly believe 'your' Shrikes near Ipswich if its a heath. I can remember when they were still common in the New Forest.;)
They have successfully nested on Dartmoor this year(common knowledge on Internet)- first breeding for many years.
No waxwings yet but I've heard of them in Sussex.
 
Loving the pic and the tale behind it SMR, I would like to add that when I was cleaning my rabbit out the other day, a robin flew onto the corner of the hutch. Wish I had my camera with me at the time, because by the time I went in to get it the robin had gone :(.
 
I've only just started paying attention to the birds who need a bit of help in my garden within the past year and yea I have

Blue tits
Great tits
Coal tits
Long-tailed tits (small group randomly appearing after the past few days)
Robins
Goldfinches
Chaffinches
Starling
Collared doves
Wood pigeons
Yellowhammers
Greenfinches
House Sparrows
Magpies
Redpoll
Pied Wagtails

These are the ones I have noted so far, the greenfinches, yellowhammers haven't reappeared in the winter months however
I give them all sorts of food, mealworms, Niger seed, ground mix, bill odd food, fat cakes, fall balls, sunflower hearts, peanuts
 
blue jay, cardinal, black capped chickadee, red and white breasted nuthatches, downy and red bellied woodpeckers, quite a handful of sparrow species, juncos, goldfinch, pine siskin, purple and house finches, mourning doves, robins, rose-breasted grosbeak, baltimore oriole and ruby throated hummingbird are all very common birds here at our feeders/yard and are all seen mon basically daily occurences

Indigo bunting, yellow bellied sapsucker, sharp-shinned hawk, red-tailed hawk and yellow warbler have all made appearences in the yard at one time or another

Fly overs have included canada goose, tundra swan, turkey vulture, red-tailed hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, broad-winged hawk, various gull species and many others

We live very close to a field and a large forest/swamp, so I am hoping to attract more species (escpecially nesting species such as screech owl, wood duck, tree swallow, bluebird, wren, etc.)
 
Well, I thought we were doing rather well with the birds that have visited our garden... until I read all the posts! lol To date, we have had 17 different kinds of birds since we put up the feeding station.

In the years we've been here, (24!) we hardly ever saw a bird! :eek: Then, gradually, a few appeared. It was very rare to see any sparrows, never mind anything else, but then one year some sparrows appeared in somebody's hedge down the road and now we have them! lol Here's the list....

Buzzard - a very rare sight round these parts.
Wood Pigeons - a pair
Collared Doves - a pair, plus a pair of young ones on a separate occasion
Jackdaws - Have seen 6, but about 2 visit mostly
Magpie - 1
Blackbirds - 8 incl 4 migrants, one of which has a broken leg :(
Starlings
Thrush - 1
Sparrows
Dunnock - 1
Robins - 2
Goldfinch - 1 (but maybe a pair)
Bull Finch - 1 spotted today!
Great Tit - 1 spotted the other day
Blue Tits - 2 (we did have 3)
Coal Tit - 1
Long-tailed Tits -1 pair

Living near the sea, we do see seagulls but they don't land in the garden..they just circle it for a while then fly off.

I feed the birds peanuts, bird seed, fat balls, suet blocks, (fruit, insect and mealworm), lard (melted over the bread and mixed in), sunflower seeds, sunflower heart seeds, black sunflower seeds, niger seed and bread.

I have a feeding station with a water dish, food tray, peanut feeder, and a bird seed feeder. In the tree hanging up next to it I have another bird seed feeder, 1 niger seed feeder, and 1 black sunflower seed feeder.

I'm keeping a daily Blog here
 
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