Birding the easy way - feeder-watching
By Charlie • September 7, 2009 • 9 commentsSo what does a normally very active birder do when he’s not able to be so active (darn this creaky back of mine) and having to take things far more easy than usual? Watch birds closer to home and turn his attention to the cunningly well-paced bird-table and assorted feeders outside his window(s) of course.
I must admit I’ve never been much a ‘feeder-watcher’. In fact I’d all but given up on them to be honest. Where we lived before we moved out to the beautiful Great Chalfield getting birds into our tiny garden was all but impossible - and when they did fly down to the lovingly supplied nuts and seeds I put out for them I always worried that every darn cat in the neighbourhood would be waiting for them to lose concentration just for a moment…In the end the only birds robust enough to feel safe were the local Wood Pigeons who would descend in a whirr of wings and hoover up gutfuls of seed in a few minutes.
Wood Pigeon: too fat to fit on the bird table this turkey-sized bag of seed shuffled around my garden in Chippenham unfazed by the local cats pouncing and bouncing right off him…(I may be exaggerating a little)
Much as I like Wood Pigeons (they’re beautiful close-up) it doesn’t take too long before you begin to wonder whether spending money to feed already curvaceous columbids is a worthwhile exercise. Was I in danger of re-living the famous “Mr Creosote” Monty Python sketch, offering just one more “wafer-thin” sunflower seed before the garden became drowned in exploding pigeon?
Yes, I need to fill up the empty ’suet-block’ feeder,
but otherwise just about right…
Fortunately though my faith in feeders has been restored! Whilst the good health of the landscape here must mean a plentiful supply of seasonal food for wild birds, they have come flocking in satisfying numbers anyway (perhaps I’m living in an avian over-abundance where there are simply so many birds that they’ll take whatever’s offered).
Little family gangs of Blue and Great Tits are everywhere. Robins try to bully them off but are overwhelmed by a blue and yellow tide that sweeps all before it! There must be more Marsh Tits in this part of Wiltshire than the rest of the UK in total. Coal Tits appear every so often too, preferring to dip their tiny heads into the seed dispenser rather than duke it out on the table itself. The local Greenfinches have just discovered the free food and are getting braver with every passing day. An occasional flash of orange and blue signals the arrival of a Nuthatch. The only House Sparrows I’ve seen in Great Chalfield so far suddenly appeared a few days ago, fed up quickly, and disappeared: I’ve no idea where they came from as they don’t appear to breed here and I’ve not seen them since.
What else? Long-tailed Tits turn up every so often, look around, and fly off again. Magpies and Jackdaws hop around the base of the bird table every so often, along with a sporadic Blackbird and a pair of Dunnocks. I even had a juvenile Green Woodpecker bang down in front of the window once: I’m not sure which of us was more startled to see the other, but so far it hasn’t been back so perhaps I have my answer.
Adult Great Tit Parus major
Moulting juvenile Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus
Marsh Tit Poecile palustris: a bit like a Black-capped Chickadee, but despite looking nothing very special quite a scarce bird and one I rarely saw before moving to Great Chalfield
Coal Tit Periparus ater
Nuthatch Sitta europea
(European) Robins Erithacus rubecula
Dunnock (aka Hedge Sparrow) Prunella modularis: this is the reason us Brit birders
get so excited seeing White-throated Sparrows!
House Sparrow Passer domesticus: see comment above…
Okay, okay, it’s hardly Gilbert White and Selborne, but after the frustrating lack of birds in Chippenham I really do feel immensely excited with all the activity in front of me now. It’s a little selfish of me, but roll on the winter I say, when the natural food supply will run low and the birds will actually need all this high energy fat to stay alive rather than just remain well-fed. Not only will every bird within miles be practically living in my garden but I’m certain I’ll be swamped with high-quality rarities too - a long-staying Dusky Thrush perhaps, or an overwintering Blackpoll Warbler? How will I cram so many birders into my tiny house when they come to see my virtually tame Siberian Jay?
Siberian Jay in Wiltshire? One day, my friends, one day…
Oh well, maybe not, but what the heck. After so many years of rushing round the world looking at birds before rushing home again, I’m genuinely enjoying having so many birds come to me for a change, noting the juveniles moulting into pugnacious adults, appreciating just how stunning a Great Tit really is. Worth suffering through a little back pain I can tell you…
It may not be the most ‘hardcore’ birding any of us will ever do, but when you think how much mutual benefit accrues when a birder attracts a pile of birds just by keeping a feeder well-stocked with food that most supermarkets even stock nowadays - well, there’s really no excuse not to be giving to the birds in your locality too, is there?
All photographs copyright Charlie Moores
Have you seen the cool 10,000 Birds t-shirts? Get yours today!
That is a very sharp picture of a wood pigeon, Charlie. I mean, this is seriously good.
You weren’t entirely honest though about not being a bird feeder watcher. Remember Panama?
I do, and it wasn’t even me who was there.
Wait, wasn’t it YOU?!
And if I was a member of a records committee, that Sibe Jay would go through the process of acceptance like a warm knife goes through butter (as we say in German - if ever a Sibe Jay was to turn up in our country).
Hope you back will be okay soon and that all’s well.
Now this sounds like birding to me…when are you opening up a Bed, Breakfast, and Birds?
5 Chickadee species at your feeders? The absurdity!
Jochen:
I’ll phone you as soon as I see one!
Corey: soon - and 50% discount for you and Mike
Nick: Chickawhatnow???
Now a chickadee REALLY would be a good record
You know it was only when I was writing down the scientific names that I fully appreciated that every single one of my five ‘tits’ is now in a different genus! When did that sneak up on me - I mean Periparus? Why???
Chickadee is such a better name for them: it sounds cuter, is onomatopoetic, and doesn’t invoke giggles and dirty jokes.
You now have five chickadees in five different genera in two different families. That’s actually pretty interesting from a phylogenetic community structure perspective.
Oh, and if you want the phylogenetic reasoning behind splitting up all the Parids, I can explain or send you the paper behind it.
Cheers,
Nick
Nick, you’re right but they were originally called ‘titmouse’ remember which is even cuter than chickadee IMHO…
phylogenetic community structure perspective?? Umm, yes, it is [note to self, look up what on earth Nick is talking about]
Paper? Yes, definitely send me the paper. Cheers!
Just don’t garble the names and blurt out something like “Chick Tit” somewhere in public.
Phylogenetic community structure might not be the exact term I’m looking for - that field of study is not my niche (ha!) - but I refer to the phenomenon where closely related (congeneric) species tend not to occur together, but more distantly related species can occupy the same niche (in this case, your neighborhood).
Charlie I was really pleased to see that such a dedicated birder as yourself has been lucky enough to move to such a lovely place. I think it is a just reward for the pleasure you bring to others with your blog and work you do for birds not least the Sharpe’s Longclaw.
Don’t dismiss the garden bird feeder. Watch what happens over the year. Not just the winter. Wet spells and dry also are crisis points.
Siskins will appear in February. Then go where or why???
Hopefully greater spotted woodpecker will find you in the winter their attendance will then tail off a bit and then they will return when feeding young running a conveyor belt of peanuts then the exhausted parents will bring the young “look mate this it where its at.”
We once had a lesser spotted woodpecker following the same attendance pattern.
Green woodpeckers don’t use our feeder but a visitor told me that at Clumber Park they came to apple pieces. They don’t here we have masses of ants on dry sandy land and they come on the lawn after them. They also batter hazel nuts open, wedging them in cracks.
Long tailed tits “found” the feeder in the last few years (and feeders nationally apparently) and come en mass through the winter. Now they continue for all that nest building and building up strength to lay the eggs. This spring there were always there with a short commute from the nests they built in the garden. They are nuts about the fat/breadcrumbs we blend and pick small bits off the ground. They also develop a very bent tail.
Which reminds you will have to watch for rats they come in from the country side.
The bigger problem is squirrels, cute, but they get used coming to the house looking for food. They scamper round the walls which lead to the demise of our last spotted flycatcher nestlings just as they were about to fledge. The long tailed tits abandoned a nest two years ago after I saw the sq going through the holly bush they had the nest in.
We also have swallows in garages and pied wagtails under tiles so we are responsible for a lot of nests and as a result I have a bit of a thing about this.
It may be worth looking to start with Sq proof feeders before they learn to come.
marsh tit or coal tit, I cannot remember which, tend to take seed away and store them.
Your visiting sparrow is interesting.. If you want to find where they are locally you can start by looking where a farmer keeps cattle in winter and anyone who keeps chickens. Their decline is a bit of a conundrum. They are not meant to move far to feed but the tidying up of farms grain storage etc and decline in keeping chickens I think contributed to their decline. Farm feeding trials in Norfolk increased their numbers, and other species.
I envy you the nuthatch I think its one of our prettiest birds.
Niger seed is great for Goldfinches.
There is a whole world of natural history as they used to call it in my day. Its not just a case of watching birds coming and going.
Ps think of trying a massager for the muscles of your back I was told they often spasm up trying to protect your back and cause most of the pain.
Good luck
Andy: Wow what a comment - more informative than the text I wrote by a country mile! Thanks so much. I will definitely be keeping the feeder well-stocked over the winter and in any adverse weather conditions - there are some huge Beech and berry-laden Yew trees right by the house and I’m hoping they alone will bring some interesting species in (eg Bramblings and winter thrushes perhaps) and they’ll arrive at the feeder once they find it. Rats may well become an issue - they’re all around us of course, so I may need to rat-proof the table itself: what I can do about spillage onto the ground while I’m away is another issue to think about. I’ll post an update later in the year, but in the meantime thanks again (and in particular for your very kind words about my involvement with the Sharpe’s Longclaw project - talking of which did you read the interview with David Fox I just posted?). All the best. Charlie