We’ve had several days of wet and windy weather and the temperature is now cold.
The winds blew quite fiercely for almost two days without let and the lawn is covered in hard, green cherries. Miraculously, the tiny greengages have clung on, although whether they will swell and ripen over the next couple of months is anyone’s guess. The birds kept hidden in shelter for the majority of the time. The smaller birds found it very difficult to get down to the grass to feed and some resorted to the peanut feeders. What did surprise me a little was that the sparrows clung to the wildly swinging wire cone, whereas fewer birds used the larger feeder where the outer wire cage provided something to brace against. One ring dove almost hit the kitchen windows when it lifted off from the lawn got to the top of the sunken level and was caught by the gale, drifting sideways towards the house.
Now the wind has largely died away and the birds are returned more-or-less in their previous numbers, but with a new cast of parents and fledglings and a cluster of deliquent, independent fledglings. A starling with one very new fledgling worked frantically to stuff the beak of the little bird – a beak that it didn’t bother to close between one beakful and another. Another adult starling has been busy at the coconut feeder, monopolising it for minutes at a time. I know that this is the same bird, and a newcomer, because it has one pure white feather in the middle of its tail. Unfortunately, this has become something of a landing strip for the sparrows which want to eject it from its place. After two or three assaults from the rear it retreats for a while, but regularly returns.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 