On 30/10/04 10:41, in article , "Kay"
wrote:

In article , Sacha
writes

It's very strange - not your increase but the decline here. As far as we
know, nothing has changed in terms of habitat or feeding or predators. The
only thing is the sparrowhawks but I really don't think they can account for
this drop in numbers.
Blackbirds are the most numerous and thrush the least.

Song thrushes have been declining over the years. We get mistle
thrushes, especially in the winter when they come for the holly berries
in the front garden, but it's rare for us to get a song thrush.

We get song thrushes but not many - at a guess, I'd say three. We thought
we'd lost them altogether but a few were seen this year.

I don't count the
rooks because the rookery is in the garden and we can hardly fail to notice
those!

we don't get rooks ;-)

Heaven alone knows what they eat but they seem to go gleaning when the
fields are harvested. They disappear for quite a large part of the summer
and then suddenly return out of the blue.

But we used to see dozens of bluetits and chaffinches.

Bluetits are insect eaters. I get them peeling the aphids of my
honeysuckle. But you're pesticide-free so you should have plenty of food
for them too.

Oh, there's plenty of food for them and every encouragement but numbers have
dropped, nonetheless.

It's a puzzle, because you've got plenty of space and variety there. Are
birds disappearing from the farmland around you? (This is a question,
not a judgement ;-) )

I think the numbers are dropping off generally. Our nearest farmer is
organic in the larger part of his land but about 5 more houses have been
built in the village in the last 5 years, many of whom own cats......I can't
help wondering if this contributed to the decline, though I doubt it would
account for all of it.
Many of the smaller birds, blue tits, finches, robin, like harvesting
insects from the windows' many corners. The windows are all leaded in stone
mullions, so give a lot of 'shelter' for small flies, spiders etc.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)