Tag Archives: Robin

Garden visitors – February 2019

"The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then, poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm
and hide his head under his wing, poor thing" 

traditional nursery rhyme
Robin in the snow

In this month’s blog I want to continue looking more closely at the bird visitors to my Dorset garden. February brought snow, many daily visitors including ‘Billy’ and ‘Rose’ and the Long tailed tits (see January’s blog). This month we’ll take a look at the Dunnock, a female Blackcap and a male Bullfinch. Also we’ll catch up on the bathing antics of the Robin and Blue tit.

Snow

The end of January brought yellow and amber weather warnings. The snow arrived on Friday, 1st February. News feeds were full of stories of disruption and shut down of services.

The garden was more active, it seemed to me, than usual and was transformed for a day or two into a beautiful white, winter backdrop.

  • Blue tit
  • Long tailed tit
  • siskin
  • “Billy”

Then the snow disappeared as quickly as it arrived and signs of a new season began to appear.

Primrose – the promise of spring and new life

As a child I would visit my grandparents home, Hill Cottage, just north of Hereford. We would explore the woods behind the cottage and I remember being captivated by clumps of primroses and seas of bluebells. It’s too early for bluebells, but the snowdrops and primroses have arrived. The ground still has the signs of death, the brown, dead leaves from the deciduous trees, But the new season and new life is there too, and is beginning to push through.

The quintessential LBJ – the Dunnock

Dunnock

The Dunnock is also known as the hedge sparrow, but it is not actually a sparrow. It’s part of the same family as the european Robin and Wren. It is the quintessential LBJ (little brown job).

The Dunnock blends into the background and is easily overlooked, e.g. they didn’t make it into Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to British Birds. However in my quest to look more closely at the birds that visit my garden, I cannot ignore this regular.

Dunnock – eating on the ground

My RSPB Handbook of British Birds tells me that a Dunnock ‘is an unusual visitor to a raised bird table, and more likely to feed underneath.’

My Dunnocks can’t read and tend to prefer the more ‘unusual’ habit of taking food from the raised bird table and seed feeder.

This close up of the Dunnock reveals some of the intricate, detailed beauty of this common, unremarkable bird. There are some 2.5 million in the UK and its song particularly at this time of the year rivals that of its cousin, the european Robin.

Ms Blackcap takes to the stage

Female Blackcap

At last! This month, the Female Blackcap turned up for a photo shoot. She’s been a regular visitor, but up to now has been quite shy. This time she was in no hurry to move on. There has been no sign of a male, which does actually have a blackcap, but I’ll keep looking.

Female Blackcap
Female Blackcap at the bird table

I’ve noticed that Ms Blackcap is actually a regular visitor to the bird table, but she tends to be very discreet about it. Her colouring means that she falls into the LBJ category. I may have seen her without realising what I was actually looking at.

Bullfinch – a splash of colour

Male Bullfinch

This finch most definitely is not an LBJ! His colour is striking for a British bird and cannot be confused with any other bird.

Male Bullfinch

Strictly speaking he didn’t visit my garden, rather he sat in my neighbour’s tree long enough for me to get a couple of pictures, which I’ve then cropped. There are only 220,000 pairs in the UK and the population is declining. The Bullfinch is not a regular visitor – I have only seen him once or twice. He definitely falls into the “Ooh, look!” category for me.

Bath times

Robin and Blue Tit

The bird bath continues to attract visitors. The day after the snow, the water was totally frozen, so I took out a jug of warm water and poured it in. Later that day I was gratified to see it in use. These two are regulars, but I have also caught ‘Billy’ the blackbird using it surreptitiously.

Blue tit enjoying a bath and a shower

Garden visitors – January 2019

Robin
Please, mister, please,
Take my picture, if you will,
I'll just stand here on this post,
And keep very still.

I have a busy day ahead,
Lots of food to find,
But maybe just one photograph,
if you'd be so kind

In January 2019 at least 20 different bird species visited our Dorset garden. Virtually all would be instantly recogniseable, and will have been visiting for sometime. But this year I have taken a closer look at the birds and their behaviour – camera in hand.

Blackbird territorial fight

“Billy” the blackbird

“Billy” is an adolescent male blackbird. He is very possessive about his garden. One morning he attacked a trespasser. He was quite ferocious and didn’t care that “Miggi”, my cat, and I were within a few feet. The altercation lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, before both birds flew off.

  • The altercation

The trespasser has not returned. “Billy” permits other species, but only allows one other blackbird in the garden; a female who we’ve given the name “Rose”. Who knows? Later in the spring we may have the flutter of tiny wings!

“Rose” female blackbird

“Rose” has a misplaced tail feather. It doesn’t seem to affect her flying ability or cause discomfort, but it does make her instantly recogniseable.

Long tailed tits – feeding and acrobatics

Long tailed tit

Long tailed tits have been referred to, by Bill Bailey in his Remarkable Guide to British Birds, as ‘flying teaspoons’ and ‘cute fluffballs’. They are constantly moving in groups and I found them tricky to photograph until I was able to anticipate their movement.

They arrive in the garden, normally in groups of 3 or 4 – sometimes more, sometimes less. They head straight for the tree in the corner that overhangs the feeding station. One by one they drop down to the meal worm feeder, where they stay only long enough to pick up a meal worm with their beak. Then they head back to the tree, or other bush, where they hang upside down, clutching a branch with one claw and holding the meal worm in the other until they have eaten. This position looks uncomfortable, but gives them the ability to survey the skies for predators whilst they eat.

Feeding and bathing

Robin’s prefer seed or meal worm; blue tits prefer peanuts and both are daily visitors. They also both enjoy an occasional bath.

They don’t seem to mind what the temperature, but they do prefer sunshine so they can preen themselves afterwards.

Blue tit – drying off after a bird bath

Some less common visitors

One of the exciting things about maintaining a more watchful eye over the comings and goings of ‘visitors’ to the garden is when a new behaviour or new species is spotted in the garden.

I was delighted on Friday, 11th January, when this Siskin showed up. Although they are not that uncommon, I can’t remember seeing one before and certainly not in the garden in the 13 or 14 years we’ve been in this house. It was a beautiful sunny day and he came and plonked himself right in front of my camera, giving me enough time to take a few shots.

Goldcrest

On a cold 22nd January I was fiddling with my camera facing the feeding station when I became aware of something moving 90 degrees to my right. I turned and snapped and this is what I got: a goldcrest. I have only seen one of these once before at Longham Lakes a few years ago. I was going to take another, but he’d gone. It made my day.

There have been a couple of other newcomers: a female blackcap and chaffinch, but I haven’t been able to catch them yet on film. Work in progress.