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- Redwing and Fieldfare
Lisa’s challenge this week is birds in our own gardens. She lives in Florida, so her birds are very different from ours.
We live in the middle of England on a housing estate near the edge of the small town of Loughborough. Our garden is small (smaller than a tennis court) but we have a disused railway track running through the estate nearby as well as some patches of mature trees. We put food out for the birds and have tried to create a wildlife-friendly garden.
Over the twenty years we have lived here, we have kept a monthly record of all birds we have seen (or heard) in the garden or in the sky around us and have clocked up 63 species (out of about 600 species recorded throughout the UK, including those seen only once or twice). We have noticed significant changes over the years, with a number of common birds (such as House Sparrows, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Starlings, Song Thrushes and Pied Wagtails) sadly ‘dropping off’ the list.
The comments about whether they are common or rare etc refer to what we have seen in our garden, not their status in the country generally.
Here are some of my photos over the years (I am trying not to repeat any that I have put on earlier posts).
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- Blackbird (male) in the winter (seen daily) ….
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- …. and a blackbird in the summer, trying to cool off! They nest in our garden
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- Brambling (rare winter visitor)
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- Bullfinch (male – rare)
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- Chaffinch (male – rare)
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- Collared Dove (unusual)
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- Dunnocks have a beautiful song
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- Dunnock
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- Fieldfare (uncommon winter migrant)
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- Goldcrest (rare)
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- Goldfinch (now common)
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- Goldfinch
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- Goldfinch
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- Goldfinch
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- Goldfinch (immature)
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- Greenfinch (now rare)
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- Black-headed Gull (more common in winter)
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- Black-headed Gulls only have black heads when breeding
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- Heron being mobbed by a Gull
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- Heron and Rook
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- Magpie in our garden
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- Magpie
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- Nuthatch (rare)
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- Nuthatch – we put fat and peanuts in the tree crevices
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- Red-legged Partridge
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- Wood Pigeon (too common!)
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- This pigeon became tame enough to feed from my hand (the only one to do so in 20 years)
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- Wood Pigeon preening
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- Robin (common)
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- Robin (they nest in our garden)
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- Redwing (uncommon winter migrant)
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- Redpoll (probably Mealy – rare)
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- Siskin (male) (rare winter visitor)
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- Sparrowhawk (female – uncommon)
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- Starlings (sometimes common)
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- Treecreeper (rare)
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- Blue Tit (common)
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- Blue Tit (common)
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- Great Tit (common)
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- Great Tit fledgling (they breed every year in a box with a camera on our house wall)
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- Long-tailed Tit (occasional – usually in small flocks)
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- Long-tailed Tit (occasional)
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- Coal Tit (uncommon)
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- Grey Wagtail (rare)
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- Grey Wagtail (rare)
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- Pied Wagtail (rare)
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- Willow Warbler (summer migrant, sometimes common)
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- Willow Warbler (summer migrant, sometimes common)
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- Pied Woodpecker (uncommon)
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- Green Woodpecker (uncommon)
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- Wren (usually uncommon)
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- Wren fledgling – they have only nested once in our garden)
CROSSING CULTURES, FINDING FREEDOM 
So many great pictures of different birds. Tit’s fledgling is so adorable as well as the little wren. The pigeon was tame enough to eat from your hand. You take good care of these birdies. It’s so interesting how they interact with each other, such as the Heron been mobbed by a Gull. The birds’ characters were reveled through your pictures. I especially liked the magpie with a peanut and the robin with a worm in her beak. I have never seen a Sparrowhawk before. Thank you.
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Thank you so much for your encouraging comments. We are so lucky with our garden birds, especially considering it is such a small garden and surrounded by houses. Hope you have a happy Christmas.
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Merry Christmas to you too!
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Pingback: Bird Weekly Round-Up – Week #20 – Our Eyes Open
Another wonderful gallery of birds from you, Margaret! I’m working on the round up now and I had a hard time picking just one. And between now and tomorrow, I might change my mind from now. Typical! I really want to see that Green Woodpecker. He is a peculiar looking dude! 🙂
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I’m sorry I posted so late in the week!
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