It was the ring doves’ complicated social life that caused all the stir today; there was a deal of strutting and puffing up and pouncing, all of which scattered the little birds again and again. A group of jackdaws thought to take advantage of the kerfuffle and it is difficult to spot them amongst the leaves now, but they eventually stopped returning and something like normality returned to the garden…except that it’s not normal this year.
The house martins that nest in the angles of our neighbours’ top windows are nowhere to be seen. In fact the whole village is almost bereft of its swallow and house martins, which used to congregate on the telephone wires that cross the main street chattering to one another. We understand that a particularly bad storm over Greece has killed thousands of the birds on their migration. The sole survivors seem to be the pair that arrived early to take over their usual nest in the gentleman’s toilets. My neighbour misses them dearly – their nest was afixed to the stonework and glass of her bedroom window and she misses their cheerful banter. It would be very sad to think that the same birds that had returned for close to thirty years were gone now. Hopefully, a few stragglers will reach us or the toilet crew will have a choice of new homes for their youngsters next year.
It was almost lunchtime before the chunky blackbird fledgling emerged from the foliage where he’d been hiding – actually emerged might be something of an exaggeration since he almost fell off the edge of the rosebed wall. He seems barely to have mastered walking, let alone flying. I can’t see him tonight, but given where the adults are delivering food to, I suspect that he’s settled down into the base of the honeysuckle.
One other wonder today, was that whilst the ring doves and a solitary jackdaw and half a dozen sparrows, chaffinches and a siskin or two were rummaging on the lawn, the female woodpecker came down to join them, her brilliant plumage standing out amongst the others. I’ve never seen one of them down on the grass before. She was quartering the little patch of grass beneath the cone peanut feeder, possibly concious that she’d been dropping more than she was eating. It looks as though she might become a regular visitor, which would be lovely.
I haven’t seen Spikey, and don’t expect to, but his dish is polished clean every morning and I put it out late enough that the blackbirds don’t help themselves to the hedgehog biscuit layer ontop of the meat.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 