Our garden birds
H. viridis,
H. hybridus,
There are plenty of a ractions here for all manner of birds and it’s not just Neil’s constantly replenished bird feeders that a ract such a varied crowd. Within the garden there are so many diverse habitats and masses of places where ground-feeding birds, robins, hedge sparrows, thrushes and blackbirds, can dig and delve for grubs and worms.
Our gigantic ash tree provides an ideal roost for cha ering starlings and a stopping off post for flocks of redwings and fieldfares, who gather until they reach critical numbers, then take off almost as one.
Titmice love the feeders full of peanuts, seeds and sunflower hearts. The majority are blue tits, that most chirpy of li le birds, plus their bigger cousins, great tits, and occasional visits from coal tits. I’m excited to see either marsh tits or willow tits flying in for a quick meal; they’re intelligent birds, smaller than great tits but brainier. They sometimes bury some of their food, anticipating hungry times ahead. Handsome Jays also bury food – usually acorns – and it’s probably them we have to thank for the baby oak trees that pop up here and there in unexpected places.