The Big Garden Bird Disappearing Act (1 Viewer)

Oct 30, 2010
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Every morning we have breakfast looking out at the garden and the bird feeders. It's always manic with the birds queuing up and bickering to get to the feeders.
This morning we took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, as we have done for years, and yet again there wasn't a bird to be seen.
It happens every year, more birds than you can count for weeks before but when you come to count the little bu***rs they disappear.
Do they know what's going on?
Is there a neighbour pinching 'my' birds?

There be strange goings-on in the countryside there be!

Richard.
 

Jim

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Just been feeding some hedgesparrows in Spain, lots of them. When I was a kid our gardens were full of these little birds, we're lucky to see one or two in the wilds of Wales.
 

Tootles

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And yet our garden bird numbers seem to be increasing. More sparrows, more Dunnock's, more blue and great tits. Yesterday they were going full tilt in the hedgerow behind the house.

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This morning after Jackie had filled the feeders one of the boxes of feed was so near empty that she tipped it on the ground. The influx of Greenfinch was immediate, more than 20 on the ground with at least eight on the feeders.

The Blue-tits and Coal-tits we started out with don't get a look in. Only the occasional Gold Finch, I have now spotted my first ever Hawfinch and another first for me two Firecrests.


I haven't seen a sparrow yet this year...

I can spend hours watching them.
 

Tootles

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Yes we have lots of birds, and LOTS of hedges, but just one or two visits by hedgesparrows.
And yet we have noticed a marked increase in our sparrow numbers over the last three years mate. Maybe it's a regional thing?? o_O

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Clarky
Oct 30, 2010
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We used to have lots of Green Finches but there is a nasty disease which has decimated their numbers. We had one or two sparrows but now have a 'sparrow gang' who live in the hedge and spend most of their time squabbling and chattering, much to our delight.

Richard.
 

Bertie Bassett

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Sorry if this post comes across as pedantic. Hedge sparrows are Dunnocks which are 'fairly' common. House Sparrows are now in decline, but Tree Sparrows which is what I believe Jim is talking about are almost extinct here in Wales. We have Siskins and Lesser Redpolls and a host of other garden species but we have never seen a Tree Sparrow in our garden. In Spain they remain common......
 

Bertie Bassett

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And yet we have noticed a marked increase in our sparrow numbers over the last three years mate. Maybe it's a regional thing?? o_O
House Sparrows I think Toots, though there is a good colony of the rare sparrow.....Tree Sparrow at Leighton Moss which isn't a million miles from you(y)

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CWH

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It happens every year, more birds than you can count for weeks before but when you come to count the little bu***rs they disappear.
Do they know what's going on?
Is there a neighbour pinching 'my' birds?
The BGB "instructions" say to start by feeding the birds... I reckon a lot of people who don't NORMALLY put food out, just do on BGB days so yup, maybe the neighbours have been and pinched your birds :mad:

We don't feed the birds, but we do 'garden' in a way that keeps them happy (willful neglect!) and we always have water available for them to drink & bathe.

I had a cat wander through the garden halfway through my watch yesterday morning so I started again later: robin, magpie, dunnock, wren, blackbird, thrush, pigeon, blue-tit, great-tit, longtailed-tit, chaffinch & goldfinch... Did quite well! We used to get a few starlings here but none these days. We'd get a big flock of greenfinches in the trees but they are now rare. We do get coal-tits but none around at the moment.
 

Bertie Bassett

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We used to have lots of Green Finches but there is a nasty disease which has decimated their numbers. We had one or two sparrows but now have a 'sparrow gang' who live in the hedge and spend most of their time squabbling and chattering, much to our delight.

Richard.
Yes I agree, Greenfinches have declined for all sorts of reasons but the finch disease has decimated them here in Wales and where I work in Hampshire. Doesn't seem to affect Goldfinches though? Strange.

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CWH

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House sparrows are the ones that spend their lives scrapping ans squabbling... :D
 

Tootles

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A lot of controversy about this in our area. Since the local authority cutbacks, no sewer baiting is taking place, hence a visible increase in the numbers of rats. Feeding birds increases rat sightings, and so people are cutting back on bird food, and feeding.
 

Bertie Bassett

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This morning after Jackie had filled the feeders one of the boxes of feed was so near empty that she tipped it on the ground. The influx of Greenfinch was immediate, more than 20 on the ground with at least eight on the feeders.

The Blue-tits and Coal-tits we started out with don't get a look in. Only the occasional Gold Finch, I have now spotted my first ever Hawfinch and another first for me two Firecrests.


I haven't seen a sparrow yet this year...

I can spend hours watching them.
Hawfinch in the garden...magic. They are so rare now. When we lived in Germany they were a common garden bird but we've only ever seen them twice here in UK. Brilliant and good news about your greenfinches(y)

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DBK

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I'm not sure if there is a collective noun for them so I will invent one - we are visited by a "hooligan" of goldfinches. They turn up mob handed, at least a dozen of them and often fifteen or so, and they make a determined effort to empty the feeder. They like sunflower hearts and now have their own feeder, the other one containing whole sunflower seeds which many of the other birds seem to prefer - as I learned on Spring Watch I think it was.
 
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Clarky
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Yes I agree, Greenfinches have declined for all sorts of reasons but the finch disease has decimated them here in Wales and where I work in Hampshire. Doesn't seem to affect Goldfinches though? Strange.
We have seen an increase in Gold Finches as the green variety has decreased as well.
We usually have a little family of Long Tailed Tits that come bobbing by for a feed then go off to the next stop. They never stay long but you can hear them chattering away to each other as they go from bush to bush.
 

Tootles

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We are also seeing, (locally), an increase in Treecreepers, and Wrens. Maybe because of the decrease in forest management??????????o_O

Oh, and family's of Bullfinches.

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Feb 24, 2013
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Some great sightings, Firecrests brilliant still on my not yet seen list, we have had the massive decline in Greenfinches as well, mainly beacuase we took out all the leylandii conifers when we moved in and put in laurel hedges

Our birds were equally absent today, but our claim were a pair of yellowhammer, not even on the list of birds, but neither was the goldcrest who didn't reappear :)
 

Bertie Bassett

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I'm not sure if there is a collective noun for them so I will invent one - we are visited by a "hooligan" of goldfinches. They turn up mob handed, at least a dozen of them and often fifteen or so, and they make a determined effort to empty the feeder. They like sunflower hearts and now have their own feeder, the other one containing whole sunflower seeds which many of the other birds seem to prefer - as I learned on Spring Watch I think it was.
Scoff of preference for Goldies is Niger DBK, they go wild (swidt) for it and as a bonus niger also attracts Lesser Redpoll and Siskin.(y)
 

Bertie Bassett

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We are also seeing, (locally), an increase in Treecreepers, and Wrens. Maybe because of the decrease in forest management??????????o_O

Oh, and family's of Bullfinches.
Same here, mild winter helps Wrens. Bullfinch increase is marked here too?. No idea why.

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Feb 24, 2013
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We have seen an increase in Gold Finches as the green variety has decreased as well.
We usually have a little family of Long Tailed Tits that come bobbing by for a feed then go off to the next stop. They never stay long but you can hear them chattering away to each other as they go from bush to bush.

we love our long tailed tits, as you say they suddenly appear, but go as quickly, quick scoff on our fat candles and suet pellets then off

I read ages ago in a bird book that they 'roll along the hedges' which sums up their movement perfectly for me, we get about 10 at a time, the first is on his way off again by the time the last one comes in, and the lovely chatter as you say

Its all for free as well (y) apart for the bird food of course, but so well worth it :)
 

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There were always house sparrows at my old home, but gradually as the Sparrowhawks became more prevalent in the area they disappeared, as did the flycatchers and thrushes and collared doves.

They seem to take the more visible birds first :(

Raiding on the RSBP website Sparrowhawks have now occupied 100 percent of the country
 

Bertie Bassett

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we love our long tailed tits, as you say they suddenly appear, but go as quickly, quick scoff on our fat candles and suet pellets then off

I read ages ago in a bird book that they 'roll along the hedges' which sums up their movement perfectly for me, we get about 10 at a time, the first is on his way off again by the time the last one comes in, and the lovely chatter as you say

Its all for free as well (y) apart for the bird food of course, but so well worth it :)
Same here David, the Long Tails need to feed throughout the day and they have a set pattern and route which we can almost set our clock by. AM its around 9.50 PM its around 3.30, tge largest single flock to date had 42 long tails in it. Suet cake is the big draw though most of my neighbours put it out now too.

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Tootles

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There were always house sparrows at my old home, but gradually as the Sparrowhawks became more prevalent in the area they disappeared, as did the flycatchers and thrushes and collared doves.

They seem to take the more visible birds first :(

Raiding on the RSBP website Sparrowhawks have now occupied 100 percent of the country
Our local gamekeepers used to poison them, but now they don't. It seems that hawk numbers have risen to such a rate, that many have failed to breed, as they cant find woodland territorial space??
 

Bertie Bassett

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A 30 second vid showing the difference between the House and Tree Sparrow.

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Jun 2, 2010
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I replaced a conifer hedge with fence panels two years ago and the abundance of birds we had in the garden disappeared!!, the garden has matured again now and despite putting up several feeders with a variety of foods in them the only bird life we get now is bloody pigeons. They quickly eat all the food we put down for ground feeders and shake the hanging feeders to displace the food out of them. I'm really disappointed we had a good variety of birds before, maybe if the weather turns for the worse they may come back and enjoy my hospitality.
 

Bertie Bassett

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I replaced a conifer hedge with fence panels two years ago and the abundance of birds we had in the garden disappeared!!, the garden has matured again now and despite putting up several feeders with a variety of foods in them the only bird life we get now is bloody pigeons. They quickly eat all the food we put down for ground feeders and shake the hanging feeders to displace the food out of them. I'm really disappointed we had a good variety of birds before, maybe if the weather turns for the worse they may come back and enjoy my hospitality.


Because of the proliferation (as Toots says) of Sparrowhawks birds need cover as close to the feeders as possible. Even though we have it and have put up bamboo to hinder the Sparrowhawks low fast strike our local male still takes a bird a day, sadly. The female is too big to negotiate the bamboo and she is the real killer. (say no more:sneaky:)

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