Tit Triumph in my Garden!

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:39 am

I've been trying to make my small suburban garden as much as a wildlife haven as I can, and have a variety of feeders up for the birds.

To my delight I've had all four species if Tit we get round here in the garden: Blue, Great, Coal and Long Tailed.

I'm not sure about the copyright of pics of the birds, so below is a link to a site with pictures of Tits. And other birds

Blue Tit-Photos - Digital-Nature-Photography - Photo Blue Tit images image Pics

Other highlights include Goldfinches, which are gorgeous, and Green Ring-necked Parakeets which I've rather sadly had to discourage. They are not native and becoming a pest, but they are pretty, sociable and intelligent. At present the Jackdaws have taken over and I can hear them chack-chacking to eachother, a couple eating and at least a couple of others keeping watch. It's been a pleasant surprise, the variety and numbers I've been getting.

Post by **jones jones** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 7:52 am

Although its your winter now, it must be awesome to hear them on an early summer morning!

tabby · Post by **tabby** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 8:23 am

That's good to hear and I imagine you're enjoying the birds as much as they're enjoying the extra chow! Are the parakeets escapee pets? How do you go about discouraging them from visiting the feeders?

halfway · Post by **halfway** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 9:51 am

Awesome!

So much wildlife needing a sip of water and some food.

Nicely done!

Saint_ · Post by **Saint_** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 4:21 pm

We love to feed the birds and have both a large flock (40+) of English sparrows and black headed finches, and a small flock (10) of wild Doves that winter with us. (New Mexico has especially mild winters.)

They are a blast to watch, but they sure eat a lot in the winter!

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Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:36 pm

jones jones;1413597 wrote: Although its your winter now, it must be awesome to hear them on an early summer morning!

Actually I'm inclined to curse them on a Summer morning at 5:00 am...

Usually I sleep through.

That's good to hear and I imagine you're enjoying the birds as much as they're enjoying the extra chow! Are the parakeets escapee pets? How do you go about discouraging them from visiting the feeders?

It is believed that soft hearted stage hands working at Shepperton Studios released some after the making of Carry on up the Khyber (which was set in India) perhaps 40 years ago now. The parakeets are native to the Himalayan foothills so the British climate is ideal and there are now thousands of them. They have started culling, I think. Sad, but probably necessary.

There are a number of successful recent animal colonists - grey squirrels from Canada and wallabies from Australia are a couple of examples.

The feeder that the parakeets have worked out can be fitted with a cage which allows small birds in but keeps out anything larger than a sparrow. Handy.

Nicely done

Thanks. Having Richmond Park 5 mins walk away means the garden is sort of like a service station just out of town from the bird point of view, as far as I can make out.

We love to feed the birds and have both a large flock (40+) of English sparrows and black headed finches, and a small flock (10) of wild Doves that winter with us. (New Mexico has especially mild winters.)

They are a blast to watch, but they sure eat a lot in the winter!

Yes, the money is a bit of a concern, but it's not been too bad so far. I don't have your number though. At least not yet. I know a very little about American ornithology - aren't you on the path of a huge migration route somewhere down near you? We get winter visitors from the Arctic and Siberia, which gives us one of the world's great wildlife spectacles on the East coast - millions of overwintering wildfowl. If I have a bit of money left after Xmas I'm hoping to go up and see it this year.

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 3:10 am

Both ma and my wife love to encourage as many birds into the garden as we can. We have a large flock of sparrows that roost in our hedges and use our garden to argue and bicker and chase each other about. Some big lumpy collar doves stroll round the garden,, blue tits, long tailed tits, a bull finch, the obligatory robins and blackbirds, a woodpecker a pair of little owls that we here every evening but only see the silhouette of and my wife has seen a sparrow hawk perched on our fence, though I cant imagine what attracted him. Lots of screeching green parakeets but they dont visit our garden. A heron pops by next doors garden occasionally showing a passing interest in their gold fish.

We get regular visits from the local pheasants, especially during the shooting season and a distant neighbour has a couple of peacocks that get out about once a year and perch upon our front garden wall.

My youngest grandaughter loves the local ducks because she thinks they are laughing

We've stocked up on fat balls, nuts and seeds for the winter and our bird identification book is at the ready for any suprises

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 5:34 am

Little owls - lucky you.

I do see kestrel and sparrowhawk in the sky over our streets. They must be based in Richmond Park. Also heron looking unbelievably huge going between the Thames and the Pen Ponds in the Park. Always feel the urge to point and yell "Pterodactyl!" but have not yet succumbed.

I am in complete agreement with your grandaughter about duck