Archived Bird Table Notes for 2008
31st December 2008: What better way to round off the year than to have a new visitor to our table - a Long-tailed Tit. Also a return visit from a Goldcrest.
30th December 2008: We assume that next door's cat got the tail feathers! This male Blackbird seems to be coping well despite his handicap.
29th December 2008: A male Reed Bunting visited us today.
14th December 2008: NEW VISITOR - 1 Female Reed Bunting.
Other visitors on a busy day: 8 Blue tit, 2 Great Tit, 2 Greenfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 1 Robin, 1 Dunnock, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Wren, 6 Siskin, 3 Blackbird, 4 Starling and 2 Feral Pigeon.
7th December 2008: NEW VISITORS - 1 Goldcrest and 1 House Sparrow.
Other visitors: 5 Blue Tit, 1 Great Tit, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Greenfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 1 Robin, 1 Dunnock, 3 Magpie, 1 Wren, 4 Siskin, 7 Blackbird and 5 Feral Pigeon
5th December 2008: Siskin numbers up to 4.
4th December 2008: The cold weather has brought more than our usual number of birds including a first time visit of a pair of Siskin.
Other visitors today: 7+ Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit, 2 Coal Tit, 2 Greenfinch, 2 Robin, 1 Dunnock, 5 Blackbird, 12+ Starling.
23rd November 2008: 2 Blue Tit, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Robin, 1 Dunnock, 1 Coal Tit. A quiet day - made up for by the Sparrowhawk that flew past.
22nd November 2008: 4 Blue Tit, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Robin, 1 Dunnock, 1 Magpie, 2 Coal Tit.
21st November 2008: 6+ Blue Tit, 1 Great Tit, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Robin, 1 Dunnock, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Wren.
20th November 2008: 6+ Blue Tit, 3 Great Tit, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Dunnock, 1 Magpie.
19th November 2008: 6+ Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Dunnock.
11th September 2008: The Coal Tit has been a regular visitor since its first appearance. Great Tit and Dunnock numbers have both increased to 2.
2nd September 2008: A new species to our table this morning:- Coal Tit.
31st August 2008: Wow! A flying visit (literally) by a female Sparrowhawk!
28th August 2008: Our bird table visitors appear to have settled into a routine.
Our regular table visitors include:
Up to 20 Blue Tit
1 Great Tit
Up to 7 Greenfinch
Up to 3 Chaffinch
1 Dunnock
1 Robin
Occasional visitors:
Up to 5 Magpie
Garden visitors:
1 warbler (as yet not positively identified - see photo below - any help here would be appreciated!)
Pied Wagtail
Blackbird
Starling
A Wren put in appearance this morning
Overhead, we get:
Lesser Black-Backed Gull
Black-Headed Gull
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
Feral Pigeon
Buzzard
Sparrowhawk
Swift (last one of the year seen on 18th August)
Swallow
18th August 2008: One solitary swift overhead - the last of the summer?
16th August 2008: Increasing amount of activity on the table today: 20+ Blue Tit, 7 Greenfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 1 Dunnock, 1 Robin, 1 Great Tit.
Swifts heard overhead.
13th August 2008: Judging from the remaining levels of nuts, fat balls and seed, there has been a good deal of activity on the table during our absence.
New visitors this morning: Dunnock and Starling
6+ Blue Tits, 1 Great Tit, 1 Dunnock, a pair of Greenfinch, a pair of Chaffinch, a Robin and 3 Starling.
Only 1 Swift seen overhead. A beautiful and newly emerged Red Admiral feeding in our purpose planted wild flower bed.
PS I now have several species of Butterflies represented on my Insect page.
7th August 2008: Our complete family of Magpies (2 adults and 3 juveniles) filled the garden this morning.
6th August 2008: New visitor today. ?Willow Warbler? Couldn't he/she have appeared when the sun was shining and the monsoon was not in full force?
09.50 Bird numbers increase as the morning wears on. A minimum of 14 Blue Tit, 1 Great Tit and a male Greenfinch.
08.20 Despite the heavy rain and gusting wind, up to 9 Blue Tit and a Great Tit have been busy around the table this morning.
4th/5th August 2008: Little time to stare out of my window for two days, but Blue Tits are now never far away. The sunflower seeds are obviously a favourite from the wild bird mix (? Greenfinch).
Up to 20 Swift seen overhead, along with 2 Swallow.
3rd August 2008: Blue Tits (First to use the new nut feeders)
Great Tit, male Greenfinch, three female Chaffinch (one feeding a young bird),
and one of our young Magpies!.
Swift numbers slowly increasing.
Lesser Black-backed Gull stole food which Magpie had removed from table to eat on shed roof.
2nd August 2008: A flurry of activity at breakfast. The two young Magpies were back, with one taking nuts from the table. Then the Blue Tits descended, from around twenty birds seen beyond the fence they took it in turns to visit the table, take a peanut and then flip over the fence to eat it in the silver birch trees. I shall invest in a nut hanger in the hope of encouraging them to stick around a while.
A Great Tit spent longer on the table, as did a male Greenfinch.
Two of the warblers (possibly Garden? - there is no sign of an obvious eye stripe) landed in our wild flower patch below the bird table. A Wren put in an appearance on one of the fence posts.
All this activity, and the day is not yet bright enough for me to consider opening the shutter on my camera.
The Swifts (that I haven't mentioned yet) are very active this morning, filling the air with their wonderful screams as they hunt overhead (usually six to ten birds).
pm: The addition of two hanging nut containers brought out both sets of next-door neighbours. What with copious amounts of trampolining on one side and flying expletives, beer cans and chewing gum on the other, it is no wonder that no more birds were seen.
1st August 2008: Success! Six Blue Tits took turns in visiting the table from the silver birch trees behind our back fence. One also sampled the fat ball. A female Chaffinch, two female Blackbirds and a Great Tit also showed interest this morning. Throughout the afternoon the Blue Tits were joined at the table by the Great Tit, a Greenfinch and by a young Magpie.
31st July 2008: A female chaffinch visited the table (briefly) and the (still unidentified) warbler sat on the fence and looked at it. My camera was not within reach!!!
30th July 2008 - Time to take this bird table seriously!
Removing it from its hanging hook on the shed, I have now screwed it securely to our back fence where, I reckon, birds will feel more secure in the knowledge that next door's cat cannot approach unseen.
Generous quantities of wild bird seed and peanuts have been provided along with two 'fat balls'.
1 adult and 1 juvenile Blue Tit helped themselves to a peanut apiece and immediately flew off.
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