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Report for 2nd week of January 2012 :
The first real winter bird was a Blackcap on Tuesday 10th January followed by a Redwing on the 19th. The Blackcap was here again on the 21st and was attacking apples still hanging on a neighbour’s tree. The single Redwing was eating berries on our holly. The mild weather has meant that these are the only winter visitors so far and the highlight was a white -tailed bumblebee in the garden on New Year’s Day.
So, the quiet times continue with: House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Goldfinch and the occasional Greenfinch have been visiting the feeders together. The House Sparrow numbers are up and they spend time together chattering away at full volume in the hedge. Starling invade spasmodically and can bring in other birds too - safety in numbers, which is essential when the Sparrowhawk flies through - one today after lunch on the 21st.
A Robin is still on territory and occasionally flits to the feeds for sunflower hearts.
The single Blue Tit that appears to think of the garden as ‘his’, can be seen pursuing not only it’s own species that pass through but others birds that happen to get too near the nesting box.
On the field we have a range of gull species with the numbers growing by the week. Black-headed are common with Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gull too. Care has to be taken identifying Herring Gull from Lesser Black-backed as there are several sub-species of LBB and we see some of these lighter coloured birds during the winter.
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