November 2009 - Starlings are back!

Tuesday 3rd: With the start of Autumn, the Starlings are visiting the garden again in increasing numbers. It must be some sort of inbuilt homing mechanism as they regularly alight onto the feeders and bath in the pond. The flock is getting larger, but it will never become as large as it was until a year ago. Then, huge numbers would roost in the large Conifers in my neighbours garden and use our garden as a canteen! Now that the Conifers are gone they must roost elsewhere...where, who knows. Often the flock is on the ground or on the feeders while one or two stand guard, scanning the sky for possible danger. And this danger is very real, in the form of a solitary Sparrowhawk that sees this garden as a good hunting ground, making a number of kills here, with three in the past month that we know about!

There's still a very healthy population of House Sparrows too. They out number the Starlings by 5 to 1 . A couple of weeks ago, we counted 108 House Sparrows in the garden. Many more are in the area. A Robin has taken up residence in the garden but we believe that it is either a youngster or possibly a foreign bird as it's very shy and only just starting to come down for mealworms. Not at all like the Robins that have made their homes here in recent years!

The male Blackbird that suffered a mauling back in early September has now fully grown his feathers back, but is unable to fly. He can flap his way up to the conifers to hide or roost and even flutter the length of the garden but his days of soaring across several gardens in search of food and providing for offspring are long gone. It is fairly safe here that's probably why he stays, the only hassle he gets is from another male Blackbird and its mate. In fact, the other week he flew upstairs and into the study...I say flew, more like fluttered according to Melanie who saw him do this. He didn't seem at all panicked as the other one did last month. In fact he spent a few minutes perched on the window ledge before fluttering over to the shelter of the Conifers!

This last weekend we have had visits from a Wren, which spent a lot of time poking about in the ivy and the undergrowth. A solitary Goldfinch, took a look at the feeders from a couple of vantage points and hopefully will pass the word onto his mates! A Great Tit spent some time flitting in and out of the garden along with a Blue Tit, who is more of a regular now.. Let's hope they come back soon!

Also we encountered a Harlequin Ladybird. A photo was duly taken and recorded with the
Harlequin Ladybird Survey.