We haven't seen any chaffinches for many weeks now & we usually have plenty around. Is there a problem with them again?
Ours live in nearby woods and scrub and we usually only see them comoing to our feeders in winter. I'm more concerned about the lack of greenfinches. We hardly saw any last winter and have had none all summer.
Meanwhile the sparrows and assorted tits who live in the garden and nest in the eaves are flourishing and the wren and robin and yellow wagtails are back.
My chaffinch has just come back in the last couple of days. Don't know where it has been.
It is in love with its own reflection in the wing mirrors of my car. Puts poo and peck marks all over the place. At least it will not pass this habit on to the next generation. But how long do they live? It is already four years old.
Roll on next summer for a few months of clean car. I tried covering the mirror but drove off with the covers on and nearly had an accident.
Greenfinches goldfinches, tits sparrows etc are plentiful here in Cheshire.
Haven't seen a sparrow here for years. But plenty of goldfinches, and in the winter get lots of long tailed tits. When we first moved here nearly 25 years ago I never saw one here at all. Starlings are starting to reappear.
We had a few parties in the garden over the summer, two gazebos errected. One over the bird feeder near to the back of the house (but that one only for two days). I think the last one about August time and we haven't seen a bird on the feeder to this day :(. Think they don't like change.
They'll be back when they are hungry though.
Ninny
We seem to be doing O/K with Chaffinches/Goldfinches/Siskins/Greenfinches and this year Housesparrows. All of the Tit,s seem to be here (except Bearded, it,s not local !!) and we have our resident group of Longtailed begining to visit the feeders now that autumn is upon us. We have at least a couple of pairs of Goldcrests living in the large conifers and our less regular visitors,Nuthatch,Greater Spotted woodpecker and this year, Treecreeper are still around.
I think that this year we,ve had 47 species visit on a regular basis ( and we have our cat who watches!!) so I think we,re doing something correct but we do feed them all year round (peanuts,mixed seed, sunflower seed,niger seed,fat balls and homemade suet blocks), so that might have something to do with it.
As you,ll have gathered we like to have them in the garden and do a lot to encougage them. The only problems are the Sparrow Hawk which ignores us ( it flies within inches of us ), when hunting through the garden and the Greenfinches where we had 2 strange deaths (one in my hands) but both in immature birds late in the season.One just dropped dead in the sunflower seed feeder,the other we picked up off the ground below. the second one was happy to be warmed in my hands but "fitted" and died 15 mins later as I was still warming it,most upseting.
Loads of Coal Tits and Chaffinches eating the same seed with no deaths so must have been a problem with the Greenfinches?
Last week a mixed flock of about 900/1200 Redwings and Fieldfares arrived in the woodland opposite our house and then dispersed in smaller groups but all seem to come back to roost at night.I always know it,s autumn when I see my first Fielfare, just as the first Swallows start my summer!!
Naff what a wonderful sight in & from your garden. I got very excited when I saw 1 fieldfare on my daughters holly tree. We put all the things out that you do & like you we feed all year round. Never a day goes by that we don't see the goldfinches & in the last few days we have sighted a chaffinch.
Today the weather was so bad that the Goldfinches came to the feeders by the house.The tree with the niger seed feeder was swinging so much nothing was going to stay on there for long!!The Coal Tits have been darting back and forward from the sunflower seed feeders all day, they must know something about the weather that we do,nt!