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Garden Birds - Part 1

6/2/2014

1 Comment

 
By Robin Noble

The house here is quite well organised for watching the birds in the garden. I have mentioned that there is a view from the kitchen sink ( vital in any house for me!), but the living room has french windows on to the upper terrace ( sounds very grand, but it isn't very big!), while my bedroom looks into the orchard ( ditto!). What this means is that we get a pretty good view of what is happening on three sides of the house, and now being in my second year here, I have a rough idea of what to watch for.

In the "winter" ( which has actually only just begun), I think quite a few birds come down from the woods above the valley floor. We have two large pine trees, which are much used by the tits. Some- especially the great and blue- use the feeder on the terrace regularly, but I see a coal tit only rarely. The long-tailed tits, which I love and have enjoyed in so many places in the Scottish Highlands) have not got wise to the feeder yet, and it is also ignored by the occasional crested tit- so special a sighting in Scotland, that I still get excited about having them in the garden! And there is an occasional marsh tit- it likes the same bit of hedge and garden as the blackcaps I mentioned last time, but skulks, very quietly, in the foliage.

These join with the resident sparrows, which are quite fun to have around, a couple of robins, the occasional chaffinch and a few visiting starlings. Then a few birds about which I have mixed feelings: you might think blackbirds are fairly innocuous but they actually make quite a mess of the garden, flinging leaves and gravel all around the place- protecting seeds from them is not easy! We have two collared doves, but they seem very mild, quite tame with us and disinclined to bully the other birds, so I am happy to have them. Then there are the magpies, noisy and vigilant- but I did hope they might go for the neighbourhood cats more than they do!

We have once - Christmas Day, 2012!- seen a treecreeper, but there may be more visits; they can be very tricky to see. Last year, there were more wagtails around- I think they are white wagtails, rather than pied, here- but I still hear the occasional one. And just lately I have been delighted by good views of a nuthatch. Being in the far North of Scotland, I never saw them, and for me they were, like kingfishers, legendary birds of the South! They are smaller than I always expect, and dart about in the trees. My bird book says that they have " a sinister, devilish look " when seen close to, but to me that seems a bit much- something to do with the dark eye-stripe, I guess! The one I have been watching in the last few days is very colourful underneath, a really warm, deep orange.

Stop Press! No - there are two! ( nuthatches!)- I was on the ' phone, glancing out of the window, and there was one at the feeder, and another, at the most incredible angle, on the trunk of the tree which holds the feeder-brilliant!

( to be continued).

1 Comment
Lesley McLaren
9/2/2014 10:15:24 am

I love nuthatches! Nothing devilish about them as far as I'm concerned. As well as looking so dapper they have quite a range of calls too. They're all over the woods in the Alberes. Often I think I can hear a woodpecker tapping away at the bark to get at the insects and grubs beneath - only to find it's a nuthatch. Only ever noticed one brief visit to our garden, however.

And white wagtails seem to do very well here too. One or two come to our garden regularly but more seem to enjoy living dangerously - running across the roads around the villages!

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