Male House Sparrow and his mate on our hedge. A small colony nest in the eaves of our house and those of our neighbours. One or
Grey Heron: Not a rare bird in this area but this one landed on our hedge to eye-up our fish in the pond! They are regularly seen in the early morning flying over. A heronry is located near the Staffs & Worcs canal
Song Thrush: (above) Although we occasionally hear one in the distance and have seen them fly over-head, sadly, we have not observed one in the garden since our records began! They do appear to be more numerous in recent months (2008).
two pairs nest in a ‘terrace’ type nesting box on the rear wall of the house. The middle section obviously has no attraction - do they ever nest in the middle one?
*Best Birds*: Although we get a lot of pleasure just watching the antics of the resident birds and our seasonal visitors, we are always on the lookout for that ‘special’ bird passing through. Best so far . . . . Grey Wagtail* although the flock of Siskin (below) from Winter 2005 come a close second. Also, we awoke one morning that winter to find Waxwings in the London Plane trees that line the road at the front of our house. Rarest Bird: The Yellow Legged Gull (a species we had previously seen in Majorca) is probably the rarest. Nearby a pair of Peregrine Falcons have attempted to breed locally but had their eggs smashed and attempts were made to kill the adults. Use this link for details: http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1342
We also have a really unique species . . . . . . . . . . . .Rose-colouredMagpie! There are a handful of these special magpies amongst the local group and their colouring is most likely caused by their bathing habit. These birds bathe in pools at the local quarry where clay is extracted for brick making.
List of Species from Feb 2000: we use an alphabetical system similar to BTO and Bird Track recording lists:
Blackbird Blackcap Blue Tit Brambling Bullfinch Carrion Crow Chaffinch Coal Tit Collared Dove Dunnock Goldcrest Goldfinch Gt Sp. Woodpecker
Great Tit Green Woodpecker Greenfinch Grey Heron *Grey Wagtail * House Sparrow Jackdaw Jay Linnet Long-tailed Tit Magpie Mistle Thrush
Fly-over species: Black-headed Gull Buzzard Canada Goose Cormorant Herring Gull House Martin Kestrel Lesser Black-backed Gull Mallard Mute Swan Rook Song Thrush Swallow Swift *Yellow Legged Gull*
Left: January 2008; Two of the 26 Goldfinch that have been spending the morning either feeding in the Plane trees at the front of the house or on our nijer feeders. They have been getting more adventurous lately, using the other feeders and taking sunflower hearts alongside the Greenfinches (just visible) and the House Sparrows.
April 2008; Even the Goldfinches are eclipsed by the arrival of a pair of Brambling. Unfortunately they were not helpful in being in the right place to photograph them.
Back in March 2008 - Gigrin Farm, Rhayader, Powys One of nearly 200 Red Kite that came to feed at 2pm. More of these in ‘Gallery 2’ I saw a Red Kite over Stourton (Kinver, South Staffs) in Spring 2009, and had a report of one over Woolescote a couple of weeks before.
