There were two visitors to the lawn today, previously regulars, but missing of late – or I haven’t been at the sink/kettle at the right time. A couple of goldfinches, hoovering up the small seeds and digging out the occasional peanut, are flashing their smart tailcoats and brilliant heads on the lawn. When their wings… Continue reading Gentlemen’s Buttons
Tag: birdwatching
Spring is sprung
In barely a couple of days, the character of the garden seems to have changed, as though the birds had been watching the calendar for the clocks moving forward. There are fewer coming to the feeders and suddenly the spug motel is become a house of ill repute. There are undignified skirmishes between males that… Continue reading Spring is sprung
King of the castle
The woodpecker doesn’t share. He will see off even the jackdaws with a well-aimed jab. Mid-afternoon and he is monopolising the cone-shaped peanut feeder, clinging to the wire half-way up, thin black beak hammering into the packed nuts. He’s a great spotted woodpecker, a mixture of intense focus and suspicious caution, so that he often… Continue reading King of the castle
The vandal in the flourish
There is a thief in the garden who refuses to take the smallest precaution at concealment, brazenly flaunting his black and red plumage that sings out amongst the dark and mostly bare branches and the branches will be even more naked after his attentions. A bullfinch is come to strip the leaf buds from the… Continue reading The vandal in the flourish
Everyone’s a critic
Today there is a chaffinch perched on the edge of one of the suet feeders. He’s a handsome chap, with richly coloured plumage around his head and chest that fades softly into a rust-coloured belly. However, I have to admit that I’m less focused on his plumage and more interested in what he’s eating. Over… Continue reading Everyone’s a critic
Two’s company
It was snowing when I went to put down the birdseed – a fine spray of small white ice particles that whirled on the wind and stung your face. The sparrows had retreated to the motel and if sparrows could look glum, there were half-a-dozen glum faces peering out of the greenery. The snow didn’t… Continue reading Two’s company
The colours of the Tweed
Most of the small birds who scour the grass for seed and flit amongst the feeders blend into a soft tweed of feathers; threads of browns and blacks, blocks of red and blue from the male chaffinches and flashes of yellow from the yellowhammers. One or two individuals stand out – our robin, hovering at… Continue reading The colours of the Tweed
A gallus pigeon
This morning the grass was crowded with the usual flock of birds large and small. This seed mix, with a variety of seed sizes and some larger suet pieces, attracts different species at different times. The bigger birds, the ring doves, often called collared doves in the books, and wood pigeons are amongst the first… Continue reading A gallus pigeon
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 