Tag Archives: House Sparrow

Signs of Spring

Spring is in full swing now. I haven’t posted very much in the last month, but here are a few of the sights and sounds of spring that have caught my attention so far this year:

  • Woodpigeons courting on our roof, our lawn and our fence. The male bowing, puffing up his neck and fanning his tail. The female ignoring him.
  • Blackbirds, sparrows and starlings gathering nesting material.
  • New blooms of flowers almost daily in the garden.
  • Black-headed gulls with their breeding plumage again, the heads black once again.
  • Bees starting to emerge. Not only bees, but ants and other creepy-crawlies. Today I twice saw millipedes.
  • The sounds the make up the dawn chorus when I get up for work. And during the day, the repeated song of the blackbird, the guttural croaks and gasps of the rook, and clicks and clacks of the starling.

Yep – definitely spring!

Big Garden Birdwatch 2014

This weekend was the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.

Here are my results, set against last year’s for comparison. It was raining the whole time, but this didn’t seem to put the birds off. I think they’ve got used to it this Winter. I was chuffed that the greenfinch made an appearance.

Woodpigeon

  • 2013 – 1
  • 2014 – 2

Blackbird

  • 2013 – 1
  • 2014 – 2

Chaffinch

  • 2013 – 3
  • 2014 – 16

House Sparrow

  • 2013 -5
  • 2014 – 7

Dunnock

  • 2013 – 1
  • 2014 – 1

Robin

  • Not seen in 2013
  • 2014 – 1

Jackdaw

  • Not seen in 2013
  • 2014 – 1

Siskin

  • Not seen in 2013
  • 2014 – 2

Blue Tit

  • Not seen in 2013
  • 2014 – 1

Greenfinch

  • Not seen in 2013
  • 2014 – 1

Hello 2014!

I’ve resolved this year to be much more rigorous about looking after my life list and year lists.

With that in mind, I kept a note of all the species I saw on 1 Jan, to give my 2014 year list a kick start. Here’s what I saw. These were all seen either in my back garden or the local estate.

Chaffinch
House Sparrow
Rook
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
Woodpigeon
Blue Tit
Robin
Blackbird
Brambling
Goldfinch
Dunnock

Today I added great tit to the list (seen at work).

The birdfeeder is back!

Today I put our bird feeder back up. It’s hanging in its usual place on our lilac shrub.

What prompted me was finding two small bags of seed in a box in our storage cupboard.

Already, it’s attracted robins, coal tits, blue tits, woodpigeons, chaffinches and plenty of house sparrows. It’s great to see so many birds in our garden again!

I had stopped putting feed out earlier this year to try and save a bit of money, but now I’m seriously tempted to order a new sack of bird seed.