Long-tailed Tit

The results are in for my portion of the Big Garden Birdwatch. By the parameters used in the count (you enter the largest number of birds of a species seen at a time) I recorded 24 birds against a national average of 28. I probably undercounted the tits, because they will only visit the feeders in ones and twos, though there are others lurking in the bushes. However, I always feel it’s better to err on the conservative side.

Wood Pigeon

 

Here are the numbers.

Great Tit – 4
Wood Pigeon – 4
Long-tailed Tit – 3
Blackbird – 2
Robin – 2
Jackdaw – 2
Blue Tit – 2
Dunnock – 2
Magpie – 2
Blackcap – 1

Blackcap

The Blackcap is an “Unusual Bird Spot” as they ranked 31 out of 80 last year. It’s not a bad selection.  We have no House Sparrows, which are the Number One bird at the moment, and we have no Starlings, but I’m not complaining.  Sparrows tend to take over and Starlings just descend in large groups and force everything else away, so I’m not particularly bothered. I do, however, miss the goldfinches we used to get in profusion..

As it was, we had squirrel trouble for most of the last twenty minutes of the hour and they drove most of the birds away. My anti-squirrel campaign has been so successful that we now have two who visit together. They are interesting and acrobatic and this pair don’t do a lot of damage (as some of my previous squirrel adversaries have done), but they do need a lot of food compared to a bird and they do stop birds visiting.

Dunnock

We now have our peppermint oil, which we will be spraying round to deter rats, and will have to see if it deters squirrels too. If not, it looks like we will have to move on to chilli and more robust measures. Knocking on windows, sending Julia out and rearranging the feeders has, so far, failed to achieve any lasting deterrence.

Squirrels, Squirrels and more Squirrels . . .

Pictures are all from the Garden Birdwatch hour. The light wasn’t very good – the garden is much shadier than I realised and apart from that, my bird photography skills have deteriorated and they aren’t very good.

Great Tit