Eight Fieldfare in my Aspull garden every day since Tuesday

Been ground feeding a similar concoction to Pete recently ,with the addition of a few grapes and chopped up Christmas puddings, waffles and croissants.Max number of Blackbirds at any one time is 11 , eight males to three females! The three Grey Wagtails have disappeared recently, however just had four Redwings briefly, a Mistle Thrush and a Black-headed Gull ! Finch numbers are generally down ,but still up to five Bullfinch regular though, plus usual tits,robins etc.  All very near central Stockport.

Cheers Chris

Eccles garden 28th February - 1st March 2018.

Mistle Thrush x 1 (has set up residence in the garden over the last couple of days - attacking any birds trying to get food from the bird feeds) including:

Collared Dove x 2
House Sparrow x 1
Blue Tit x 2
Blackbird x 2
Starling x 10
Dunnock x 1
Goldfinch x 1
Feral Pigeon x 3
Magpie x 1 (left alone by Mistle Thrush - must have been a bit too big!)

Also, I saw a Grey Heron fly over (from direction of local mosses).

I'm putting extra apple halfs out on the ground as our blackbirds and starlings are struggling to find food. These Apples are instantly going! I'd advise whoever hasn't to see if they can follow suit. Usual bunch coming in with larger numbers of goldfinch. They are kind of flighty though - no doubt due to the Beast from the East. Snow has been getting into the mealworm feeder so I'm having to watch out for that covering the food (The wren was one of the first to get some grub from it- (sorry for the pun)).

-- Edited by Richard Thew on Thursday 1st of March 2018 09:19:22 AM

Noting a definite drop in numbers in last 3 or 4 days. Hopefully birds are moving west away from what is coming rather than mortality. Still, three greenfinches yesterday was an increase, and both siskins and redpolls have now appeared on 44 successive days (apart from one 'miss' for redpolls). Everyone make an effort to feed and water the birds this week - it's going to be tough for them.

Female Blackcap in my Didsbury garden daily since 10/12/17. I have put out apples for it as recommended on the RSPB website. See pic

 

My Radcliffe garden update;

After days of trips here and there, it's nice to catch up on my garden activity.

No sign of the grey wagtail in recent days, as it's possibly down to me not been able to keep the mealworm feeder topped up. Even my lesser redpolls have reduced slightly to 4 or 5 (due to garden disturbance).

However, though the mealworm feeder wasn't topped up as often as before- it still remains as popular as ever and should now increase now that I'm back in my normal routine. Below is a list of birds that go inside- with a new suprising addition just within the last hour:

House sparrow,
Blue tit,
Great tit,
Coal tit,
Robin,
Long tailed tit,
Wren,
GOLDCREST (NEW TODAY)

Others that have been seen taking advantage of its pickings below it were

Starling,
Blackbird,
Dunnock,
Grey wagtail (missing since last Saturday).

Ta!
(Attached - male lesser redpoll, the rosey colour chest on this bird extends to his wing bar which is just about seen here)


-- Edited by Richard Thew on Saturday 24th of February 2018 02:11:26 PM

2 Siskin 6 Bullfinch 6 Goldfinch

My suburban Golborne garden (in a housing estate) had the below when I spent an hour watching (around a week ago) after filling up the feeders, we have 4 medium sized (12ft or so) trees and I regularly fill up the feeders with a variety of food (mixed seed, fat balls, suet blocks, mealworms,sunflower hearts, berry suet pieces, peanut nibs, chopped apple, golden syrup coated seed from Bents sparingly too). I've been building my bird feed area up a lot in the last couple of years (with a wooden gazebo I can spy with my binoculars from like a bird hide) and I can now easily spend an hour in my garden with a coffee looking at the birds. It just shows it can be done anywhere!

4x LT Tit
1x Siskin
2x Coal Tit
3x Blue Tit
1x Great Tit
1x Willow Tit (I have seen the garden Willow Tit a handful of times, couldn't actually believe my eyes as it's not usual for my garden by any means, it seemed to be travelling with the other Tits, coming from "The Bonk" disused mine area, this is probably the most exciting sighting ever recorded in our garden :) )
1x Wood Pigeon
7x Collared Doves
1x Goldcrest
3x Robin (which I thought was strange)
2x Blackbird
25+ House Sparrows
15+ Starling
1 Goldfinch
2 Chaffinch

Not during this hour but at other times in the same garden we've had Grey Wagtail on our pond, there is usually a Wren, we see 3 Buzzards circling regularly (and one landed on the neighbour's roof one day), A frequent Sparrowhawk visitor and I have seen a Kestrel hovering nearby several times but not directly inside my garden. Someone else said they have seen a Peregrine at The Bonk wasteland nearby but I have not seen that yet myself. Never had a Nuthatch or a GS Woodpecker, not sure what I need to do to attract them but that would be exciting for me to get those in this garden. Also Lesser Redpoll sound fantastic, I would definitely drop my binoculars if I saw them here but nice to see all can be possible since the birds fly. Some great things happening in people's gardens! :)

In the garden late afternoon

A Goldcrest was present at the back of the garden.
Song Thrush singing
I was also dive bombed by a Long-tailed Tit as it was carrying nesting material into a neighbour's garden!

Adult male Sparrowhawk sat on "bird feeder" stand this afternoon for thirty minutes or so generally having a good preen then hopping onto hawthorn hedge just above two blue tits which were safe as houses in the dense framework of growth. This was barely thirty feet away. Pity I've not moved onto the camera stage yet.

Been a very good week since Saturday at my Radcliffe garden for activity. The lesser redpolls have now increased to 7 on the feeders and no two are ezactly the same as they vary very slightly in markings or shade etc. And I'm getting to know each one and I am convinced I have all 8 former regulars (from late last years peak) at least! Also noteworthy - my grey wagtail has been showing exceptionally well lately and the long tailed tits may have reduced to 2 but they are behaving like they have bonded to each other and I've seen both in the mealworm feeder together whilst avoiding the wren. I'm hoping to get fresh pictures when I can but I have to time it between my busy schedule and the weather, Ta!

Sparrowhawk (m) having an early breakfast on my chorlton lawn this morning. Good start to the day. It was still quite dark at 7:30 and I didn't realise they were active that early.

A Mediterranean gull flew low over my old trafford garden at 4.08pm calling & headed towards Salford quays.
The female blackcap has been enjoying my garden for a week,feeding on the apples, fat balls, foraging under the bushes through the leaf litter & even been on the sunflower hearts feeder. But not seen her for a couple of days now.
Photo attached from last Friday.

I missed redpoll yesterday (first time in 24 days), but four were seen today. Siskins kept up their ever-present status since January 13th. Best other sighting was of a pair of bullfinches, the male feeding on the floor just 4 feet from my front window.

I have just seen two Blackcaps in my Woodsmoor garden: one male, one female - a pleasant surprise at this time of year.

A Goldcrest visited the garden this afternoon.
Birds in and around the garden included Song Thrush and Dunnock singing and a Great Spotted Woodpecker

No sign of that mealy redpoll nor the grey wagtail today , hopefully they will return, but at least I still have my 6 lesser redpolls, the females came down first only feeding on the Niger seed, and strangely 3 males settled after but only feeding on the sunflower hearts.

Word is spreading amongst the long tailed tits as 3 are now regular taking mini mealworms from the feeder.

Attached- one of the male lesser redpolls and one of the females.

Both siskin (2) and redpoll completed a run of 19 consecutive days of visits in January today, which has kept me busy looking out for them. An ominous pile of pale feathers were in the garden when I first looked out this morning. Might have been a close call for a collared dove because there were still 4 today.

Me again! The neighbourhood has been quieter today after 2 weeks of noise- enabling my lesser redpolls to return with at least 6 or 7 (but still no sign of that unusual dark one or that paler one). Also the grey wagtail has been getting more tolerant to us providing we stick to a routine. And the cheeky wren is getting bolder by staying in the feeder for longer and is literally living in the shrub just a short hop from the mealworms (like breakfast in bed)- Can't say I blame it! Ta!

A memorable moment at dusk this evening as I was filling the two feeders at the front of the house. As I hung the second back on the tree (the two are less than 5 feet apart), a single redpoll flew in, called, and proceded to feed from the other feeder nearly within touching distance. I've rarely had a better look at any passerine without the use of a hide and without optics. I felt privileged. 

RSPB garden birdwatch and, as usual, it was a case of some you win etc...

Ones that didn't go by the script were great tit, greenfinch and collared dove, which all turned up in the following two hours or so. However, redpoll (3), the male bullfinch, and 1 siskin (although there were 6 later) did make it a worthwhile exercise. Note to RSPB though: it needs to be earlier in the month what with climate change and all that!

At least 5 lesser redpolls visiting my Radcliffe garden feeders still but- one male that I've not seen before is very very dark. But, I'm more interested in another very pale larger looking male (sat directly next to the others) as it looked very similar like the Mealy redpoll that is seen at Elton (but obviously not the same bird I must add). But unfortunately I couldn't manage to get a picture of it and has now since vanished so I ain't gonna risk saying it was a mealy as I've been fooled before but it certainly was different from normal and i will keep eyes open. Also grey wagtail and wren still. Ta!

-- Edited by Richard Thew on Sunday 21st of January 2018 03:06:26 PM

A day for window birding. A new winter high of 10 (maybe 11) siskins on feeders/ground. They only get a chance when the goldfinches take a breather. Still 5 redpoll, and the nuthatch returned for the first time in a while. The most pathetic sight was of a male bullfinch reduced to picking fragments of sunflower heart from the top of one of my waste bins, its head being too large to use the feeders! From my windows today I reckon I saw about 27 species (inc. lesser black-backed gull, jay and starling which did not use the garden), more than I saw on a trip to Audenshaw yesterday!