New Feeders in the Garden - more variety!

Well...we've now got the new bird feeders planted in the lawn, in the hope of attracting different types to the usual Starlings, Sparrows, etc. Don't get me wrong, Starlings and Sparrows are just as important to the to the ecological well-being of nature as are more colourful and less gregarious birds. It's just that the former tend to dominate our garden!

As you can see from the picture, we have really "gone to town" on this and tried to include as many different varieties of bird food as possible. Our main target is to attract the evasive Goldfinches to the feeders. We know that a friend who lives nearby get several Goldfinches in her garden most days of the week...we have even seen them flying over, twittering as they fly to her feeders!!

This is the first full week of having the feeder in the garden and the new types of bird attracted to the garden are; Goldfinch and Chaffinch. For the past couple of weeks both the Blue Tits and Coal Tits have become regulars to the garden.

The Blue Tits and Coal Tit seem to be very active and are non-stop in their endeavours to get food. Currently there are 3 Blue Tits that visit the garden on a regular basis, but only one Coal Tit (see above). The later has been looking around for some nesting material and may even nest in the garden if we're lucky!

Robin in the House

For the last three weeks or so, an adult Robin has been hopping into the kitchen for a snack of tasty morsels. Robins are well known as the "gardeners friend", in that they will wait patiently close by for worms and insects etc that are unearthed as you dig your garden. Well my wife started feeding this adult Robin tidbits such as crushed peanuts, mealworms etc. It was a pleasure to watch him....or her, for the species looks very much the same that it's difficult to distinguish between the sexes! And now he...or she has got so friendly that whenever the back door is open, the Robin will magically appear on the door step looking for food. We've got so used to this occurrence that we automatically place a small tub of suet pellets on the floor just inside the back door. Our friendly Robin needs no more encouragement! In he/she hops and onto the rim of the tub where he/she helps themselves to the food.