RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch 2016

2nd year doing the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch here in the Big Orange Hoose. It snuck up on me this year & I nearly missed it. Maybe I should tick 'yes' to emails... nah, they'll only send begging spam & piss me off.

It was baltic outside so I stayed in, loitering by an upstairs window overlooking the South West corner of the garden - that's where the bird feeders are, so it's a hot spot for flighty visitors.

I spy...

The hour zipped past. Hardest bit was trying to count the same species at the same time in 2 different locations - the bird table at the end of the garden, & the extra feeder by the back door we put up late last year. It was worth the effort though cos not all species hit both sites.

For example, if I'd skipped the back door feeder, I'd've missed this year's highlight: 2 Bullfinches. They took the top 2 perches for about 5 mins. They just sat & troughed, pausing occasionally to 'come & have a go' at any chancing Great Tit.

Nice of the Bullfinches to match their outfits to the house

Also new this year was several visits from a mid-sized Tit with a black cap & pale buff chest. Apparently this could be either a Willow or Marsh Tit - they're almost identical in appearance. The names don't help either as they're both found in soggy woodland, & we've got plenty of that over the fence. These guys are best distinguished by their song... & I had no hope of catching that through the double glazing.

Nice to see lots of regulars too, & some great behaviour - the Robins & Blackbirds enforcing territory; the jittery Jay hoovering the crumbs - such a nervous soul for such a big bird. There was a great stand off between a Tree Sparrow on a feeder perch & a Nutthatch who was hanging on underneath, pecking at the Sparrow's feet. The Sparrow did not budge.

Scores on the doors

As submitted to the RSPB:

Bird	Count
Blackbird	4
Blue tit	3
Bullfinch	2
Chaffinch	3
Coal tit	2
Dunnock	1
Great tit	4
Jackdaw	10
Jay	1
Magpie	1
Marsh/Willow tit	1
Nuthatch	1
Robin	2
Tree sparrow	5
Woodpidgeon	2

It'll be nice to do some year-on-year stats in the future. Yes, I did just say that.

No Woodpecker this year, which is a bit of a shame. We've seen less of them in 2015 in general. But they do still visit occasionally to have a go at the peanuts. So cool :)

Feed the birds

I'm sat in bed typing this (int tech brilliant). Out of the North window, I can see next door's pine tree. Up the top is a Great Spotted Woodpecker. This happens a lot. I love this house.

Back at the old house, we tended not to feed the birds. It sounds heartless or irresponsible, but I'd heard they can become dependant on food sources & starve if their main supply dries up. I couldn't cope with the pressure - the risk of birdie blood on my hands just cos we had the audacity to go on holiday.

That's not to say our old garden lacked birdlife. The blackbirds were more than happy to scrabble through the compost & puncture the lawn. & then there was that time I was serenaded by a robin. We once had a sparrowhawk swoop all the small birds that were hanging out on the red hot poker one morning. We were one of the few gardens on the street with mature trees & shrubs, so we offered plenty of accommodation.

But that was the old house. The new place overlooks a wood & is hopping with birds most of the time. There's no point trying to hold a conversation with me if we're overlooking the South Lawn cos I've developed a bad case of Twitcher's Tourette's:

Oh really, that's fascinat... NUTHATCH!!!

Table for 4?

To get a better look at all those feathery critters, Hubby bought a seats-4 seed feeder. I was surprised by this move - he'd hitherto been firmly from the 'If it's black & it's a bird, it's a blackbird' school of ornithology. But he says that the quantity & variety of birds at the new place has piqued his interest.


The new feeder was instantly mobbed - they emptied it in 2 days flat! What does that mean? Surely there's not a food lack situation on the fringe of the woods. Was it a bumper Spring for chicks?

Fortunately, I've been able to dismiss the starvation theory completely - the neighbours have 9(!) feeding stations, so no one's going hungry. This gives us the leaway to be a bit more sporadic in our provision without getting all fretful about it.

After the success of the seed feeder, I buckled & bought a peanut feeder too. Both hung in the Laburnum all Summer & Autumn & proved very popular. But last week we removed the tree, so the feeders needed a new home. Some friends made us a bird table as a house warming pressie - time to press it into serious action.

Bird table house-warming pressie

As well as the 2 shop-bought feeders, I've had a go at an old school, half coconut shell affair. I've been a bit wary about the whole feeding-cow-fat-to-birds thing, but the RSPB reckon it's ok (with caveats). Their recipe is 1 part fat to 2 parts seeds - looks alright, doesn't it? Like a health food bar. But with hidden lard... hmm... starting to feel bad again... This bird feeding thing is a minefield.

The old coconut shell came with the house...

The coconut shell appears to be a bit challenging for the small birds - some have worked it out but the shop-bought tube is still most popular.

A visiting Coal Tit, captured in incredible blur-o-vision.
The only little fella brave/hungry enough to hit the seed feeder while I was sat next it.

I'm going to stop agonising now, & just enjoy our visitors.

Appendix: Rollcall

Since moving in, we have seen in or from the garden - if they haven't landed in our garden, they are marked with a star (*):

• Blackbird
• Blue tit
• Bullfinch *
• Buzzard *
• Chaffinch
• Coal tit
• Dunnock
• Goldfinch
• Great spotted woodpecker
• Great tit
• Gulls (assorted)
• Heron *
• Jackdaw
• Jay
• Kestrel *
• Magpie
• Nuthatch
• Pied wagtail
• Robin
• Starling
• Woodpidgeon
• Thrush (can't remember which one)
• Tree sparrow
• Wren

Honoured guests & unwanted pests

The plan on Sunday was to plant a tree. That was the plan. But that's the thing with plans - they change.

While grubbing around in the bottom left corner of the garden where I want to plant the tree, I spotted this in the top of the boundary wall:

Signs of burrowing

Look closely between the stones & you'll spot 2 holes. Too big for mouse holes. This is rats again, & alive this time, not dead in a bag.

I imagine the wall is a dandy ratty abode. Stone on the outside, soil on the inside, plenty of room, shelter, & rarely disturbed... a veritable des rodent res.

I can't let this stand, I have to do something to deter the rats from remaining in residence. So this revelation scuppers another plan - not only am I not planting the tree, but I am now removing my attempted honeysuckle screen.

Best laid plans

Down that end of the garden, over the other side of the wall, the neighbours have their dog cage. And it stinks. It's not hosed down much, so the smell is rank most of the time, proper gopping on a sunny day. It's a shame cos that corner of our garden would be an ideal location for a water feature, or a bench on which to sit & catch the last of the evening sun. But such whimsy is just not an option because of the overriding stench.

I had hoped to create a sweet smelling, long flowering screen, by training the vigorous honeysuckle we already have over a trellis. A trial trellis went up last year & the honeysuckle has romped away. So this year I had intended to replace the trellis with something more sturdy & keep weaving the tendrils in.

But now... it's got to come down. I need to keep an eye on the wall to see how much rat action there is. Time for a Plan B (or is that C...?).

Everybody out

The soil in the wall supports many plants: a nice blue trailing thing; the occasional mountaineering foxglove; a whole host of nettles; 2 tree saplings.... yeah, these guys should've been out well before now...

I quite like nettles. If you can tolerate them in the garden, they're great for the wildlife (caterpillars & pollinators), good in the kitchen & you can even make textile dyes from them: green from the tops & yellow from the roots. And the yellow roots I think are my favourite bit of the plant, cos it means that when I'm yanking them out I know exactly what they are :)

Yellow nettle roots

Deter & observe

With the top of the wall cleared, I want to keep it that way so I can see what level of ratty activity we're dealing with. So I took the soil level down a bit & lined the top of the wall with polythene. The garden waste recycling bin is already full from the purge the other week, so I'm having to bag up offcuts at the mo. I'd just nipped up the shop for a new roll of garden sacks & figured they'd make a great (& cheap, & to hand, & just the right width straight off the roll) alternative to some of that barrier membrane stuff we've got under the gravel.

Plastic down, & covered with 2 bags of gravel, it now looks a lot tidier:

Gravel dressing over a double layer of polythene

Given how eager things like thyme, rocket, foxgloves, poppies are to seed themselves into gravel in other areas, I'm sure this won't be bare for long. And any incomers will be more manageable than the previous thick mat of nettles & grass.

Finish on a song

All the hacked honeysuckle took a little time to clear, & while tidying up I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye:

My clean-up companion

This little laddie/lassie was hopping in & out of the gooseberry's bare branches, picking up bits I'd disturbed. It was remarkably bold, not more than a meter away - I've never been this close to a Robin in our garden before. I thought it would scarper as soon as I moved, but no. It kept hopping in & out of the bushes to have a peck around. It appeared so tame I wondered if someone had been feeding it by hand.

Then, as I sat stuffing garden sacks, it sat & sang. It was just lovely.

I reckon there's a nest in them there shrubs.