Sunday, January 10, 2010

I'm Back online

I'm sure we are all feeding the birds something at the moment and it can be an expensive if very rewarding job. Well save some pounds as Co-op in Hebden bridge are doing bags of value apples for only £1 each, the bags contain approx 7/8 apples in each.

Already since putting them out (though had put apples out before today) had a Fieldfare giving it's seal of approval.

My walk down to Hebden produced

A Dipper on Hebden water near Hardcastle Crags car park
2 Nuthatches and all our local tit species feeding over the bridge towards the blue pig wmc.
Grey Heron flew over near Hebden bowling club.
At least 1 Kestrel
And some Goldcrests along with another Nuthatch and a GSW were all heard on the walk from Gibson Mill.

If I can work out how to get pictures from my phone onto the pc then I'll put some photo's of the garden birds on next time.

So far this year in the Garden

Upto 4 Reed Bunting
Pair Bullfinch
Upto 7 Fieldfare
Upto 9 Blackbirds
Pair Pheasant
Greenfinch (only 1!!)
House Sparrow
Great Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
2 Collard Dove
Jackdaw
Rook
Chaffinch
Dunnock
Robin
Starling (Rare garden visitor to these parts)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (female)
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4 comments:

David Sutcliffe said...

Welcome back Andy!

4:32 pm
Goldon Gordon said...

Hi Andy
Lidl do 1 kilo bags of Coxs apples for £1.00 also. I am currently putting out 6 bags a week as well as my normal birdfood.

Two Fieldfares have taken up residence near the feeding station and drive away any other bird that comes near the apples on the floor. I have had to resort to putting some of the apples on the shed roof and spreading them over a wider area to give the thrushes and blackbirds a chance at some. I even has one of the Fieldfares sitting on top on of a block of Lard which is impaled on a nail in a tree scoffing the lard which I put there for the tits and wrens.

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of Snipe and Woodcock in all the fields around the coast here as we have no snow here and the fields get full sun and thaw very quickly each morning. Sue and I counted over 70 Snipe today that flew up from the boggy edges of the short lane (around 1 mile) we walked this morning. I had no idea that Snipe and Woodcock could be so abundant in one area.

4:56 pm
Nick Carter said...

Hi Paul, hope you and Sue had a great Xmas and New Year, we have been spending quite a bit of time at Flamborough lately which has been a fraction milder than inland with lots of birds taking refuge there, recently over 700 Skylarks were counted by one observer on the stubbles. We've got food out at home and also at various locations on the edge of Midgley Moor, not much doing though, think everything has moved out!

6:55 pm
Goldon Gordon said...

Hi Nick
Thanks for the best wishes and yes we had a great Xmas with a couple of mates down from Halifax. They live at Mount Tabor so arriving here to sunshine and no snow was like going abroad at Xmas for them :-))

The feeding station here is busy as ever but a most surprising shortage of Goldfinches this year with hardly any seen. The other slightly worrying absence is Greenfinch which appear very scarce (see my post). Last year from late spring onwards we had a few ill looking young greenfinches at the feeders which I found dead around the garden from summer right through to Autumn. Probably around 10 or so birds in all. I just assumed these were weakling youngsters who came to the feeders as they could not manage out in the wild. But in late Autumn my mother who moved to Essex said she had had several Greenfinches dying in her garden has had my sister who lives a few miles away from her.

10:38 am

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