Final week I wrote concerning the birds that fly over my Suffolk backyard (in jap England), this time it’s the flip of the true backyard birds, people who not solely land within the backyard, but in addition feed in it. I’ve solely lived in my present home for 5 years: the earlier homeowners weren’t all for both birds or gardening, so I’ve to work arduous to make the half-acre property extra enticing to birds. I’ve planted a local hedge with elder, hawthorn, yew and wild roses, created a small orchard and dug a pond. As well as I present loads of feeders, stocked with combined seed and husked sunflowers, plus fats balls. I used to supply each peanuts and niger seed, however intriguingly the birds now not appear all for both.
A Woodpigeon contemplates a shower on a moist day
Most conspicuous of the every-day birds are the Woodpigeons (above). Not a day goes by with out woodies within the backyard for this is without doubt one of the most plentiful of native birds. Curiously, although these pigeons are quite a few on the native farmland, my observations recommend that my backyard birds not often enterprise far into the encompassing countryside. They clearly know the place they’re properly off.
Inventory Doves not often land within the backyard. This fowl did so on 21 June this yr
Collared Doves are additionally day by day guests, although not fairly so frequent as their bigger cousins. These doves are comparatively latest colonists, as the primary pair recorded nesting within the county in 1959. Although Inventory Doves can typically be seen flying over, they not often land within the backyard. They do sometimes: my {photograph} was taken within the backyard this yr, on 21 June.
This Inexperienced Woodpecker ignored the metallic Nice Noticed Woodpecker
It’s all the time a deal with when a Inexperienced Woodpecker arrives within the backyard: they normally spend time hoping round on the garden, feasting on ants. Nice Noticed Woodpeckers are solely occasional guests, which is stunning as these good-looking birds are readily drawn to fowl tables. At my final backyard they had been day by day guests.
Blackbirds (above) are conspicuous residents and could be seen all yr, although there are occasions within the autumn after they turn out to be much less apparent. Certainly one of my favorite indications of the altering yr is after I hear a cock blackbird uttering his first tentative notes of tune at nightfall on a light February day. It’s the younger birds that sing first, with the older males not becoming a member of in till March. I can then sit up for listening to these melodious songsters day by day till mid July.
Tune Thrushes are keen on ivy berries rising in my hedge
A Redwing feeding on ivy berries in March
Whereas Mistle Thrushes fly over recurrently, they not often land. Tune Thrushes seem way more regularly, and from late winter there’s normally one singing at daybreak and nightfall. These thrushes had been as soon as way more widespread that they’re as we speak, so I’m all the time delighted after I both see or hear one. It takes chilly climate to push Redwings into the backyard. These migratory thrushes are shy birds, however they’re drawn to the ivy berries in my hedge. Fieldfares, the Redwing’s bigger cousin, additionally come into the backyard sometimes, however are extra typically seen flying over. I took the {photograph} (beneath) on 24 January 2023, my birthday.
Robins are acquainted year-round residents, and one which sometimes nests within the backyard – I present a few appropriate open-fronted nest bins. Wrens additionally happen all year long, however they’re unbiased birds, not all for my feeders. That is in distinction to the Dunnocks (beneath), although they arrive low within the pecking order, so typically scavenge for crumbs below the feeders. They’ve a fairly and slightly under-rated tune that may be heard from early spring proper by way of to the tip of the breeding season. It’s all the time a delight to discover a Dunnock’s nest, for they lay probably the most lovely sky-blue eggs, easy and shiny with no markings.
Dunnock: a typical however unobtrusive resident
Starlings having fun with a communal bathtub on a December day
Starlings are periodic guests. Within the spring they’re day by day guests, raiding my feeders for fats to feed to their rising children. In late Could, when the younger birds depart the nest, there could be as many as 40 or 50 within the backyard directly. Starlings are superb at synchronising their hatching, so all of the birds within the space fledge inside a number of days of one another. This, little doubt, helps general survival. They’re very dapper birds and clearly wish to look sensible, for they bathe regularly, typically in firm. The {photograph} above was taken from my research window on 29 December 2021.
A wintering Blackcap, photographed in December 2023
There’s a tall, thick hedge bordering the jap facet of the backyard, and each spring this holds a singing Blackcap. These warblers have a refined however enticing tune which is all the time a delight to take heed to. Blackcaps are largely summer season customer to this a part of England, however rising numbers of people now over-winter. Final winter I noticed a male Blackcap on a number of events in December, however solely as soon as in January. Ringing data present that our nesting Blackcaps go south within the winter to the Mediterranean, whereas the wintering birds come from Germany and jap Europe.
A Blue Tit in early spring
4 species of tits are common guests – Nice, Blue (above), Coal and Lengthy-tailed. The latter all the time seem in roving flocks, and by no means keep for lengthy, however in passing they are going to cluster onto one of many feeders, with as many as 9 or ten birds competing for a perch. Goldcrests (beneath), the smallest of my backyard birds, are periodic guests: they will typically be heard singing in late winter and early spring, however recognizing the singer generally is a problem.
The smallest of my backyard guests: a Goldcrest
Goldfinches add a contact of color all year long
A misplaced backyard fowl? No Bullfinches have been seen for 3 years: I’m nonetheless hoping to enhance on this image, taken quickly after transferring to my present home
Whereas Greenfinches are day by day guests in various numbers all year long, Chaffinches have turn out to be fairly scarce. In my first winter right here I used to be delighted to see Bullfinches on various events. The {photograph} (above) was taken on 6 January 2020, a month after I had moved right here. The next winter I had one sighting, however none since. Hopefully they could re-appear sooner or later. Goldfinches happen all year long, whereas Siskins are day by day winter guests to gardens only a brief flight away, however they’re uncommon birds right here, although I anticipate to see a number of every winter. Up to now I’ve solely recorded a Brambling as soon as, a cock (beneath) on 21 April 2021. He will need to have been heading again to Scandinavia.
This cock Brambling paused within the backyard briefly one April
Amongst my favorite common guests are Reed Buntings (beneath). They invariably seem in late winter and thru into the spring – my earliest dates are at the beginning of February, the most recent on the finish of April. My most depend is six, however it’s extra typically one or two, and virtually all the time cocks. They’re attracted by the feeders full of husked sunflowers.
A February Reed Bunting feeding in certainly one of my raised beds
Two cock Reed Buntings photographed on the finish of April
A cock Home Sparrow
Home Sparrows (above) deserve a point out, for at my final home these had been rarities, however right here, dwelling in a village, they’re much extra frequent guests. They normally come to feed in small flocks, normally not more than a dozen birds, however in winter there could be 30 or extra. My most depend is 49 – I couldn’t discover a fiftieth.
A cock Gray Partridge on a mole hill in my orchard. The mole is an unwelcome customer
Certainly one of my finest backyard data is a Quail, heard from the kitchen, however calling from a barley area simply over my hedge. I recurrently see Gray Partridges on the fields past the backyard, and infrequently they enterprise into the backyard. The sumptuous cock (above) was one other fowl photographed from my research window, this time on a boring January day.
On one other event a covey of six spent a while foraging within the backyard (above). Pheasants are widespread regionally, however solely sometimes come into the backyard. The fowl in my {photograph} (beneath) was an everyday customer for a number of weeks earlier this yr. Curiously, I’ve by no means seen a hen Pheasant within the backyard.
Backyard birding is enjoyable, as you by no means know what may flip up. I file my birds for the British Belief for Ornithology’s Backyard BirdWatch, a long-running research with a number of thousand individuals submitting weekly counts of the birds they file. It’s a basic instance of citizen science, as the information it produces permits the BTO to observe how our backyard birds are faring.
(Photographer’s notice: all the images illustrating this piece had been taken in my backyard. Most had been taken by way of double-glazed home windows, which does detract from their high quality.)
