The Big Garden Bird Disappearing Act (1 Viewer)

DBK

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Had a quick play using the remote control on my camera through my mobile phone and on cue the "charm" of goldfinches arrived (prefer my word! :))
OI000044.jpg


Then the one I really wanted turned up, it seems to come only about once a day, the nuthatch:

OI000045.jpg


The light wasn't brilliant and the asa was 4000 to get a reasonable shutter speed but depth of field could be better.
 

Bertie Bassett

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Had a quick play using the remote control on my camera through my mobile phone and on cue the "charm" of goldfinches arrived (prefer my word! :))
View attachment 91499

Then the one I really wanted turned up, it seems to come only about once a day, the nuthatch:

View attachment 91500

The light wasn't brilliant and the asa was 4000 to get a reasonable shutter speed but depth of field could be better.

Looking at the Nuthatch. Because the pic is so clear you can see the length of the hind claw clearly. As I said, cracker and thanks again(y)

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Bertie Bassett

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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.

Thanks for this thread Clarky. You may have guessed I am a bird nut:D. I became a bird nut in the middle of my Military career when life became a little bit difficult. It is one of the best things I have ever done. (y)
 

Neckender

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I posted this on another thread we have had no birds whatsoever other than pigeons and magpies for years.

So last year I really tried to get the birds to come in to our garden, I spent a small fortune on feeders, fat balls and nest boxes.

We then had Starlings, Blackbirds, and the odd blue tit plus some very dark brown birds the size of blackbirds, they weren't female blackbirds.

Anyway one day in Sept I saw a rat come from under our shed and eat what the birds had dropped, So I connected the hose pipe up and gave him a blast of cold water under the shed.

I found that the rat had chewed a perfect small round hole through our fence so that he could come and go as he pleased. I've blocked the hole taken down all the feeders and the rat as not been seen since.

It's a great pity as I was getting there with the birds and was really enjoying watching them, I feel so guilty starting the feeding regime and then just stopping the food.

John.

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CWH

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I posted this on another thread we have had no birds whatsoever other than pigeons and magpies for years.

So last year I really tried to get the birds to come in to our garden, I spent a small fortune on feeders, fat balls and nest boxes.

We then had Starlings, Blackbirds, and the odd blue tit plus some very dark brown birds the size of blackbirds, they weren't female blackbirds.

Anyway one day in Sept I saw a rat come from under our shed and eat what the birds had dropped, So I connected the hose pipe up and gave him a blast of cold water under the shed.

I found that the rat had chewed a perfect small round hole through our fence so that he could come and go as he pleased. I've blocked the hole taken down all the feeders and the rat as not been seen since.

It's a great pity as I was getting there with the birds and was really enjoying watching them, I feel so guilty starting the feeding regime and then just stopping the food.

John.
Put out water all year round, make sure you have cover (shrubs) for them to hide and nest in. Provide NATURAL bird food: let your garden be a bit 'untidy' (eg blackbirds love to root around in dead leaves), don't kill off insects and grubs, let plants go to seed (eg goldfinches love lemon balm seed). We're very lucky; we don't put out any feed and have a great bird population despite the local sparrowhawks and peregrines.
 

movan

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:( I used to have lots of birds in my garden but now I am lucky to have a pair of pigeons and a couple of magpies. The bird food I put out for them keeps going rotten .. especially the fat balls and so maybe there is some karma going on somewhere ..

I am just hoping against hope that the lovely family of blackbirds that I usually have in Spring and Summer will return .. oh and my little birds in my birdbox outside the bedroom window .. tits or finches of some kind but not sure which. :)

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Bertie Bassett

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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??
Sparrowhawks have recovered Toots but Kestrels are declining, Hen Harriers in your part of the world are virtually extinct through illegal activity by misguided gamekeepers. When I see Raptor persecution I lose it, this year Golden and White Tailed Eagles, Marsh and Hen Harriers and Kites have been poisoned. One day sense will prevail, we can live alongdide these magnificent creatures and we must. Without the warning the world of nature gave us about DDT we would still be gleefully spraying it all over our countryside. Sorry, rant over.
 
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Double like BB

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Bertie Bassett

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@rangitira One year I had a little wren make a nest in my garden. I had a hanging basket on a bracket and one of the plants I had put in on the underside of the basket had fallen out. The little wren had made its nest up inside that hole. I was sooooooooooooooo pleased. :)

Joy, winter roosting Wrens are amazing...See attached vid(y). The record reported in a single box in the last hard winter was 68:D

 
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Did the RSPB thingy yesterday, saw most of the lovely birds that come to our fat ball feeder, robins, blackbirds, long tailed, great, coal and blue tits, GS woodpecker, Jays, magpies , a perigrine calls from time to time, did see a pair of nuthatches a couple of weeks ago but not since, up to 15 pheasants hide in our permanent bonfire and we have a cat who now doesn't bother with birds, he is good with our chickens too when they free range and just scowls a bit at the cockatiel we inherited! Havent seen the wrens in a while but doubt it is him Rabbits come in the garden now too ....think that the cat has worked out sustainability! Not funny when he wanders through the cat flap with baby peter ....though we do manage to rescue quite a few.
 
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The dramatic loss of green garden habitats is one of the main reasons for the decline in birdlife. TV garden shows over the past 20 years and morethat promote the sterile garden devoid of mature trees and shrubs leaving artificial grass and wooden patio's eliminates both natural food and cover for birds to feed and breed. I lived for many years in a green suburbia of Birmingham and sadly watched many many rear gardens reduced to deserts as beautiful fruit trees synonymous with houses built in the boom years of 1920/30's were grubbed out. Birds such as the swift have nested in the eaves of buildings for hundreds of years. Now the roof space is closed off in many old and all new builds leaving the swift no where to breed...hence a 65% decline.

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Lisa

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We did ours today but wished we had done it yesterday. More birds about yesterday. Long tailed tits disappeared today.
Chaffinches, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Robins, wood pigeons and a couple of Black birds were seen today but quantities were down.
 

Bertie Bassett

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I didn't know they did that!
There is a very thick cotoneaster along the back of the swimming pool at work CW, one year the gardeners showed me a brand new Wrens nest with eggs in it. Every year since then (probably 4 years?)it's been a roost. The camera that cover the area has just been upgraded and I will try and vid the comings and goings. Maximum one of the crew counted was 12 about 3 weeks ago, but they enter at dusk and leave before dawn so counting is hit and miss.(y)

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old-mo

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All the "Sparrers" have moved from Wales @Jim to bootiful Dorset..

Just filled the feeders and they have had there fill and gone back to the bush for a kip...

We have hundreds of them here, but not a lot else...

Miss my birds we had in Devon...

Sparrers, Blue tit`s, Great Tit`s. Greenfinches, Gold Finch, Few Wrens and not much else... :(

When we first moved here there were a few Swift`s nesting in the eves of the stables... Hope they come back.... (y)

Taken through dirty windows... :RollEyes:::bigsmile:


DSC01335 (600 x 450).jpg


 
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I think the increase in magpies has decimated some birds like blackbirds and thrushes, they steal there eggs and chicks from the nests which are open for magpies to find and ravage.

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DBK

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I think the increase in magpies has decimated some birds like blackbirds and thrushes, they steal there eggs and chicks from the nests which are open for magpies to find and ravage.
Predator control is a controversial subject. The RSPB do it on some of their reserves but keep very quiet about it!
 
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Predator control is a controversial subject. The RSPB do it on some of their reserves but keep very quiet about it!
I sometimes feel like doing it myself when I see the poor old blackbirds sitting helpless while the magpies tear their young apart.
 
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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.

I had loads of birds yesterday, including goldfinches, when I didn't have time to sit down for an hour. Today, when I did, it rained all day and it wasn't worth doing!

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Clarky
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I hate magpies with a vengeance.
There are not too many around us in Suffolk but if they dare to come into the garden they are chased off sharpish.

Richard.
 
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I heard similar tales about Magpies, but never witnessed myself

But where do we move from hatred to acceptance

I had no idea Greater Spotted Woodpeckers take so many young birds till recently

How different is a Jay to a Magpie in behaviour

I was mortified when I saw a Heron swallow a live nearly full grown Coot

Nature is sadly very cruel at first look, but there must be a reason why birds have so many young and often many times each year
 
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Clarky
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I know what you mean David.
It's just that magpies are so damned crafty.
We had a blackbird nesting in a clematis and watched a magpie searching for the nest that we knew had chicks in. I chased the magpie off several times then heard a commotion and found the magpie had slunk around the back where I couldn't see it ravage the nest.
The pitiful cries of the hen blackbird as she watched her young being taken were just awful and I have always remembered that.
But that is nature and they all have to live.

Now, we have a sparrow hawk that makes frequent visits and zooms in like a fast jet to take the small birds and I really don't have a problem with that. It is a magnificent bird and although it's sad to see another bird killed it isn't done in a sneaky and crafty way. I suppose we should applaud the intelligence of the Magpies, perhaps it's that awful 'croaking' call of theirs that I dislike as well.

Richard.

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