GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - The Birds

Roger Tonkin · 30-01-2011, 10:34 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article ,
ks says...

Earlier I predicted that the local bird population would, as they have
doine for years, disappear for the weekend as today/tomorrow are the
RSPB's birdwatch days.

I was wrong this year, for once!

Our first nuthatch appeared, early for round here, and was as nutty as
his or her predecessors have been - though not in any way anti the
idea of sharing the bird table with others. A robin appeared on the
bird table just before a flock of starlings swooped in. Poor little
robin was hemmed in on all sides until he managed to escape and joined
the tits hanging from the peanut feeder - I've never seen a robin
hanging from a mesh feeder before.

The main event was a bird appearing on a hanging feeder that turned
out to be a male green woodpecker - first time for one of those here
though we get great spotted ones regularly.

The only laugh was that after the hour of birdwatching, accompanied by
a decent bottle of wine as I couldn't go out and dig as that would
disturb the birds (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), I tried
to submit the results and found that all links to the RSPB's birdwatch
site returned "not working " errors!

So this year it's birds 1, RSPB 0!

Otherwise, significant changes this year are the total absence of
sparrows, collared doves and magpies. FWIW next door is a farm.

How did others fare?

Jake

SWMBO said it was to nice a day to sit indoors for an hour watching
birds, and "suggested" a walk. Having got frozen in the bitter north
east wind, but envigorated by the views across the Wye valley from the
hill top, even she decided that it might have been better to stay in!

Promptly fell asleep for an hour, by which time dusk was falling, so
must try harder tomorrow!

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales