Topic: Where have all the birds gone?????

[Gardengirl]

Has anyone else experienced a lack of garden birds lately?  My feeders have hardly been touched for the past 2/3 weeks.  Just a couple of faithful old collared doves.  Maybe it is the time of year when there are plenty of insects etc around, but I really miss them :'(

[Mrs Ava]

I have a sense of deja vu reading this post Pat.  I am sure someone posted similar a year ago.........

[Gardengirl]

Sorry Emma, didn't mean to duplicate but my old memory is not as good as yours obviously ;) ;D  Have you still got the birds?

[supersprout]

Maybe you're right, and they are foraging somewhere else.
Last year the regulars 'had words' when the Council had roundupped the communal allotment path, on behalf of the bird population. This year, it's covered with a small creeping dark green weed and yes, a CLOUD of feeding birds that rise in front of the van bumping along the track in the early morning :)

[valmarg]

We find birds 'come and go'.

Earlier we had loads of starlings bringing their young in the garden to feed.  Very rarely see one nowadays.

The ones we have most of are blackbirds.  They are obviously nesting in the area, and we have loads of juveniles.  Blackbirds seem to stay all year round, and are one of the success stories of the bird world.

Earlier in the year had several thrushes visiting.  Haven't seen one for ages.

We seem to have done very well with dunnocks.  When they first emerge from the nest, they look like a tiny ball of fluff on two tiny little cocktail sticks.  They seem to be here all year.

I'm not sure whether they are house or tree, but we do have a lot of sparrows (supposedly bucking the trend for the UK).

The likes of chaffinches, greenfinches, siskins, goldfinches, seem to be around, but not in the numbers they are in autumn/winter/early spring.

Saw a nuthatch on the bird feeder today.  (Burglar Bill, as he (? she) is affectionately known, because of the dark stripe across the eyes.  Makes them look as if they are wearing a mask!!

We do also get a sparrohawk, using the garden like a fly-through McDonalds.

Standing at the kitchen sink, watching the birds, I can go into what OH calls mooch mode, ie  stand there fascinated watching the birds, not getting much work done!!

valmarg
 

[MrsKP]

i've got loads of baby sparras and have had for a couple of weeks now.  quite a few baby starlings last week although they've disappeared now.

i'm going through a seed feeder and 4 fat balls a day.

 ;D

[lorna]

I haven't seen greenfinches for a while. Blackbirds don't seem to be visiting so often although I put ground feed out every day. Like MRS KP  I have LOADS of sparrows visiting. They sit waiting in a queue for the feeders. I am filling one six perch and one four perch feeder daily. A few starlings but as soon as I put bread and fat balls out they come in their droves. Still no finches on the niger feeder. Also a few collared doves.

[Gardengirl]

It's really strange.  The lack of birds just doesn't seem to be in our garden but in the surrounding area.  Normally we see them flying to and fro when we are out with our dogs, but lately everywhere seems eriely quiet.  We live in a village with fields all around so surely we should see some :-\   

[Mrs Ava]

Sorry Pat, my message was cut short - children emergency!  Tut!!  Yup, few birds in our garden at the moment - bread going uneaten.  However, the sparrows and blue tits are still around nipping in and out of the shrubs, and there is a lady blackbird who is becoming very bold and has started sitting on the doorstep to our conservatory and chattering to us!  The starlings have all gone and I do miss their fighting on the lawn!  ;D  On the allotment there are still plenty of darn pigeons and jays, but that is it.  I expect to see a robin or 2 tomorrow when I start digging up my spuds....  Wonder if it is just that there babs are fending for themselves now, and there is such an abundance of natural good sources that they don't need to stock up on garden food.....

[Carol]

Yes Pat, the birds are on their holidays just now, out in the countryside.  I am back to having the regular Blackbird  male and female.  All the young uns have left.  At one time I must have had up to a dozen of them, maybe more feeding.  My success this year is the return of the House Sparrow.  I havent had such a big flock of them for about 10 years.  I counted over 30 this morning and do hope they stay around, cos I like them.  I have a young Robin and an adult Robin.  One Siskin, One Goldfinch, One Chaffinch and couple of Greenfinches.  One Starling and a few Collared Doves plus the Wood Pigeon.  Your birds will return once all the fruit has gone from the trees. 

p.s.  Hope yo had a good birthday.

 :D :D :D :D :D :D

[janet h 1948]

When I got up yesterday (6am). There were 12 baby blackbirds in the garden & loads of baby sparrows. They all line up on the greenhouse waiting for a spot on the bird table or a feeder. I've starded using the no grow bird mix from Kennedys & they love it. When the man delivered it he said someone down the road has 3 sacks a month delivered. All the breeds to enjoy it. It has chopped peanuts, sunflower hearts & pinhead oatmeal. I throw a lot on the lawn & it is gone in no time. I also put out nyger seeds for the goldfinches, black sunflowers, sunflower hearts & peanuts. I put fat balls out later in the year.
 :)

[Stork]

We were a bit short on birdlife when it was very hot but things are now better than ever.

Sitting in my conservatory this morning I saw on my feeders:

A great spotted woodpecker
A juvenile green woodpecker
Great tits
Blue tits
Dunnocks
Robins

Pecking up the crumbs below were the usual wood pigeons, blackbirds, magpies and a jay which pops up now and again.

I reckon that's not bad for inside the M25 but I am lucky enough to have a row of huge mature oaks running along the bottom of the gardens on my street.

Despite having seed feeders I hardly ever see any finches or wrens. Any tips from anybody?

I also think the bird-count has shot up since I shot the squirrel population down to size. I used to have at least 8 ripping the (squirrel-proof) bird feeders to shreds and eating everything in sight. They're now down to a more balanced 2 (which I will tolerate) and the birds are thriving. Apologies to any tree-rat lovers but they are causing mayhem with our indigenous bird population. We should probably off a few more - here's to the proposed cull that DEFRA are talking about.

PS: A few months ago I had a very rare American robin in my garden. I didn't know what it was until I saw a picture of it in all the papers the next day. It had prompted hundreds ot twitchers to rampage around Peckham trying to see it. (I'm not a twitcher by any stretch of the imagination).

Stork

[Gardengirl]

Well I must say I am green with envy of all you lucky ones that still have the birds.  Still no sign of any here.  It must vary depending what part of the country we live in.  I do hope my birdies come back to me soon :(

[valmarg]

Stork -  please go for zero tolerance with the american tree rat!!

The latin name for the wren is troglodytes troglodytes, which (I think) means it is a cave dweller.  We do have them in the garden, but you have to be quick to see them.  We have some rocks at the end of the pond, and they love to nip in and out of them.  You will never ever see them on a bird feeder.  They love to grub around in the undergrowth, as their diet is 100% insect based.

valmarg

[Rosa_Mundi]

Birds do decrease in our garden at this time every year; I've always assumed it's down to most youngsters moving out to new territories. Still a few bluetits, various finches, blackbirds and the like in evidence, Oh, and Stork - don't fancy a shooting holiday further north, do you?

[fluffygrue]

Nope, we have plenty at the moment. July was a bit sparse, but possibly because I didn't have much time to put food out for them. (Though there's plenty they could've been eating in the garden anyway..)

But the sparrows are back in full force now - sometimes I open the back door in the morning and a flock of about 30 takes off from the lawn. And the odd woodpigeon, etc. Not seen many bluetits recently tho.

We also have some bats, which I'm really chuffed about. :D

Melanie

[Gardengirl]

Lucky you Melanie :)  Our birds have still not returned, although I have seen one or two blackbirds, so I'm living in hope now  :)

[Busby]

Surely birds are disappearing because our world is being concreted and asphalted into oblivion, because there are only small 'manageable' trees in the fields, because we use poisons (fertilisers) on our grounds, because worms are burned to death by flame weeders, because there is too much noise in woods and forests (cars,motorbikes, mountain bikes etc.), because we feed them instead of letting them live naturally, and because the number of cats around is simply out of balance.
These are all among other things!

[saddad]

Dare I mention "Silent Spring" by R Carson(?) circa 1969...
 >:(

[grawrc]

My garden is full of little birds - sparrows wrens robins and a whole variety of tits and finches. also medium and large ones. They feed under the bushes and in the grass on insects I presume?  Up in the pergola tasty greenfly. The robin follows me about as I weed and picks up the tasty morsels I leave behind. ;)