Avian Visitors

Tags

Barnacle geese, birdsong, Blue Tit, Fieldfares, Firecrest, Garden birds, goslings, greylags, mallards, moorhens, nesting, Redwings, song thrush, Springtime, starlings, Suffolk, Swallows, Tufted Ducks

We have had some warm periods of weather at last, after a long, cold spring.  Spring flowers have rushed to bloom and set seed before summer arrives and the trees have clothed themselves in delicate green leaves.

Any warm days we had in early spring were quickly followed by much cooler and wetter weather and the returning birds were confused, I am sure.  I saw a couple of vanguard male Swallows (Hirundo rustica) at the beginning of April but the ensuing wet and windy weather must have sent them back south because I didn’t see them again until mid May!

Two Swallows on the electric cable above our garden in April

Swallow number 1

Swallow number 2

We are pleased to say that the Greylags (Anser anser) did arrive in our garden, a little later than usual and spent a couple of hours a day inspecting the place…..

Greylag male and female

…..until they were ready to set up home here for the duration.  A nest was built on the island and the female began to sit on her eggs at the end of March.

The geese taking up residence.

The island

The goose on her nest. She lowers her head to become less noticeable.

The gander patrols the water…..

….but often went off elsewhere to eat and meet his friends, though was within calling range.

The goose sat and sat and sat, only leaving the nest for a couple of minutes in the morning and evening to snatch a quick bite to eat.

Eventually, right at the end of April the goslings hatched.  There are four of them but I have had great difficulty photographing them.

Retreating Greylag family

As the goslings have grown the parents have become a little more relaxed but still beat a hasty retreat if anyone gets too close.

Gander on the lookout

Four fat babies eating our grass

These photos were taken at dusk and with my zoom at full stretch!  The goslings are on the move all the time and it is very difficult to get them in focus.

This photo was taken a few days later from Elinor’s bedroom window

I managed to get the whole family in this one!

While the goose was still sitting on her nest we had some surprise and unexpected visitors in the garden.

Barnacle Geese! (Branta leucopsis)   They had the cheek to land on the Greylags’ island while the goose was on her nest!

They appeared to want to set up home there too.

Richard saw them visit a few days later when the Greylag goose decided she didn’t want them there any longer.  She called her mate who arrived very quickly and saw them off.  These photos were taken from Elinor’s bedroom window again.

The pond has also had many visits from Tufted Ducks (Aythya fuligula).  There have often been two pairs of them swimming together.

Male and female Tufted Ducks

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) male and female

Mallard drake

A pair of Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus)

The Moorhens again; one displaying its white feathers under its tail.

Before the leaves appeared on the Ash tree we had frequent flocks of Starlings visit in the evening

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

We also had Fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) and Redwings (Turdus iliacus) congregate in that same tree before they flew north and east to their breeding grounds.

Once the winter birds had left, Spring decided it ought to do some catching up.  Flowers appeared, summer birds arrived despite the cool temperatures and I took this rather shaky video of our pond, mainly to record the birdsong (and the lambs!)

I managed to photograph a Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus) in our Rowan tree.

Blue Tit. There is also a crescent moon behind the tree

The next photo is a bit sad.  Sad in one sense that it shows a dead bird and sad in another that I am strange enough to want to photograph a dead bird!  I apologise to anyone who is upset at seeing these photos which were taken to record the presence of the bird in the area.  I buried the bird as soon as I had finished looking at it.

A Firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus).

I found this poor bird in the flowerbed under one of our windows and I assume it had flown into the glass and killed itself.

It is a tiny bird as you can see when compared with my hand.

Here is a link with information about Firecrests

We get Goldcrests in our garden but this is the first time I have seen a Firecrest here and am sorry that it had died.  It proves though, that there are probably other Firecrests about so I must be more observant.

A Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) singing at dusk

I also made another poor video of this lovely bird singing.  I had to balance on one leg while peering round the corner of our house to make the video which is my excuse for the poor quality.  The video is dedicated to Richard Sutton of A Listening Heart blog who lamented in a recent post that he hadn’t heard a Song Thrush for a while.  Please do visit Richard’s blog.  He writes beautifully about the countryside where he lives and about poets and writers too.

 

Some More Visitors to my Garden : Birds

Tags

birds, blackbird, chaffinch, coal tit, Garden birds, Great Tit, greater spotted woodpecker, greenfinch, house sparrow, moorhen, Muscovy duck, pheasant, pied wagtail, Robin, rook, Suffolk, wren

During this summer and early autumn I managed to photograph a number of animals, birds, insects and other creatures in my garden.  Some of these photos are of very poor quality but I will include them as a record of what I saw.  This post will be of the birds I’ve seen in my garden.

This Great Tit has an insect in its beak and was fluttering its wings very quickly (hence the blurring). It was waiting for me to go away so that it could feed its chicks in a nest box we have in the garden.

I quickly took another photograph and then walked away

Here is one of the pair of Great Tits using that same nest box nearly two weeks later. I am fascinated to see how carefully they hold the insects in their beaks so as not to crush them.

This is a Greenfinch. There are always plenty of these in the garden. The feeder pole is always leaning and covered in mud because of the squirrels and rooks that use the feeder too.

I didn’t quite get all of this cock Pheasant’s tail.

Cock Pheasant

Cock Pheasant

A female Blackbird collecting insects for her chicks.

Another female Blackbird searching for food.

And again.

My daughter came running to me one day saying that there was a strange bird in our garden.  She described it as being half duck, half chicken.  I had to have a look and discovered that one of our neighbour’s Muscovy Ducks was visiting us.  If you have ever seen a Muscovy Duck walking you will know that they move their head and neck back and forth while walking just like a chicken does.

Female Muscovy Duck

Walking like a chicken

I thought I would post this photo of a Wren again as I was quite pleased to get it.  Wrens are quite shy birds and fairly small (3.75″) but have very loud voices.

Wren

I’ve posted this photo of a Robin before too

Female Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Male Chaffinch

Pied Wagtail

Rook

Rook.

Coal Tit. These birds are very slightly smaller than Blue Tits at about 4.5″. You can see the mud on the feeder that the Rooks put there with their dirty feet and beaks!

Male House Sparrow

The usual rear view of a Moorhen as it runs off down the garden

A male Blackbird at dusk

 

 

 

Birds in my Garden This Week.

Tags

Garden birds, greylag geese, Mild winter, reed bunting, stock dove

I have noticed an increase in the amount of birds coming in to the garden this week. I should think that there is now very little food left in the hedgerows and the birds are needing to build up their strength for the breeding season ahead. A local farmer wrote in the community news that he hadn’t noticed the enormous flocks of woodpigeons this winter that we have had the past few years. He thought that perhaps we hadn’t had birds from further north escaping severe weather there. He is probably right. The regular winter visitors to my garden are house sparrows, blackbirds, woodpigeons, collared doves, stock doves, robins, chaffinches, greenfinches, goldfinches, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long-tailed tits, dunnocks, wrens, rooks, jays, starlings, great spotted woodpeckers, green woodpeckers, moorhens, pheasants, mallards. We have a pair of barn owls who regularly patrol the garden, the fields around us and the lane and we hear tawny owls at night but rarely ever see them. Kestrels and sparrowhawks hunt for prey in our garden. During the severe winters of past years we had much larger numbers of birds than we have seen so far this winter. I admit that for some time in the autumn I didn’t put feeders out but I could see that there was plenty of food for birds in the fields and hedges. I have not seen the large flocks of fieldfares this winter flying over the house, moving from field to field. I haven’t seen the heron in our pond this winter yet either. Only now have the blackbirds started to come in to the garden and I haven’t seen any thrushes yet though I have heard them. I was listening to a song thrush starting to sing his spring song a couple of days ago. I haven’t seen any starlings in the garden this year yet though while I was in Halesworth on Thursday I was listening to a vey loud starling singing from the top of a street light.
I like stock doves – they are chunky, bustling birds with warm grey plumage and the most beautiful iridescent patch of purple and green on their necks. They have a strange monotonous hooting call – a loud hoot and then a couple of quieter ones almost like an echo. They are becoming more obvious in the garden – always in pairs. I have started to hear the chaffinch singing his song too. This is quite early, no doubt because of the mild weather. Jackdaws and crows are about but hardly ever visit the garden. We also hardly ever see a magpie maybe because we have a number of beautiful, raucous jays.
I have seen reed buntings in the garden again this week – I saw them for the first time here last year.
The greylag geese have also arrived this week. Every year they come to nest on the island in the pond. They take over the end of the garden and hiss at us if we dare to invade their space. I think they will have a hard time this year though. We are due to have some work done to remove large amounts of willow growing on the banks and on the island and this will no doubt upset them very much.