Photos of birds (and the odd butterfly) seen on our USA trip in 2009 are on this page and in the ‘Gallery

           Our Goldfinch numbers have risen yet again.  There are now 14 juveniles feeding on niger and a smaller number of adults.  Juvenile Greenfinch numbers are also up with three on the sunflower hearts accompanied by the occasional adult..
         House Sparrow numbers too, are up, with around 30 in the garden at times. There are still a group of fledglings begging for food.
A Robin appeared recently and has been feeding from the sunflower feeder. Dunnock including juveniles have been on the ground in the back garden as usual. Blue Tit juvenile and adult are often on the feeders and we wonder if they are ‘ours’.
Blackbirds are quite active with at least one juvenile in and out of the garden.
       Up to 30 Woodpigeons have been appearing late in the afternoon to feed on the field, and a herd of Canada Geese have started to use the school field in the early mornings. About 60 geese were there this week.
Black-headed Gull numbers are rising with thirty or more on the field.
Butterflies in the garden: Small White only as there has been much rain this week.
Our camera is off-air as we have moved the feeders and until the plants die back in autumn it is impossible to move the power cable - unless we can utilize the socket in the greenhouse.
Watch this space . . . . .
                       Don’t miss the new pictures from Africa and Australia on the Gallery 2 page.
 

Three Robin chicks in the open fronted ‘box’ by our patio window.  The ‘box’ is made from a section of large diameter polythene waste pipe with two blanks of timber cut to shape and held in place by small wood screws.  I have made many of these as ‘boxes’, several with larger holes for Pied Flycatchers. We have put them on land in North Wales owned by a great friend of ours. Those boxes have been used successfully by Blue & Great Tits but it was great to see Pied Flycatchers nesting in several of them too.

Black Skimmers seen at a beach near Atlantic City, New Jersey USA: October 2009

Buckeye butterfly at Goshen nr Cape May, New Jersey

My photos are very amateurish, I know, but have a look at those by local photographer David Baker on this address:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/db-gd

Right: One of David’s recent pics taken at Upton Warren, Worcs

During our November trip to Lincolnshire we saw a large flock of Golden Plover - over 1,000 birds!
As usual there were a few Lapwing, here seen in the foreground.

Left: Our typical English garden in spring . . . . but only a few days later we had a snowfall.
We feel that the removal of hedges and replacing them with fencing is detrimental to sparrows: our flock spend long periods ‘chattering’ in our hedge and that is where they return when feeding.

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