Thrushes burst into song

It has been a fairly mild winter so far, we've had only half a dozen nights of mild frost and a dusting of light snow overnight at the beginning of this week.

The birds have started singing heartily each morning and, for the past week, there has been a new voice in the morning choir. I thought it was a songthrush and I spotted one in the garden, which confirmed my theory.

On Sunday morning, Max (who was over for the weekend with Inna) and I stood on the back and we spotted two thrushes singing loudly to each other (or to some unseen female thrushes). They were sitting at the tops of trees in our garden and the bungalow called Gayport on the Causeway.

Max is quite good at recognising birdsong and he says songthrushes are easy to identify by their complex and beautiful song, which is characterised by repeated phrases. Normally the bird repeats each phrase three times (sometimes two) and then goes on to the next. It's really obvious when it's pointed out.

I also know how to tell a collared dove from a woodpigeon by its call. Collared doves coo in three syllables (U-ni-ted like a football fan), while woodpigeons split their coos into five - who, who, who - who, who.

I have started doing the British Trust for Ornithology's garden birdwatch. Unlike the RSPB's survey, which is once a year, the BTO does it weekly and you record all the birds you see (with their maximum number at any one time) across a week.

Jays are now regular visitors to the garden. They are here most days - sometimes one, sometimes two - and they are beautiful birds. I've also got half a dozen jackdaws who arrive most mornings to raid the peanuts. This week, I also caught a glimpse of the sparrowhawk in the garden again. I think he'd pounced on something on the lawn. I don't know if he caught it, I saw him making his getaway, but not whether he had some poor blue tit in his talons.

One of the best things this year has been watching the birds in the bird-bath. I got this for Christmas and placed it along the big border, so it could be seen from both the kitchen window and the lounge. It's amazed me how much it is used and with such gusto.

There were five sparrows splashing in it one day, another day there was a mass of spray coming from a tiny blue tit and this morning a big fat female blackbird was in their doing her ablutions. I have to top it up every morning and on the few frosty mornings have made sure I thaw the ice with some warm water.

Dramatic end to my birdwatching session

Every year, I try to do the RSPB’s Great Garden Birdwatch and most years it provides a few surprises.

I was delighted when the Greater Spotted Woodpecker became a regular visitor to the garden to feed on peanuts and pleased to have him included in the survey some years back.

This year, two Jays have been regular (almost daily visitors) to the nut feeder, along with a couple of enterprising Jackdaws. They use similar tactics: they land in the tree, lunge at the feeder and hang on like grim death, bashing it with their beaks. Sometimes they extract a nut; other times, nuts fall onto the ground and they hop down to scoop those up. Often, they work as a pair, with one on the feeder and one on the ground.

I was hoping the Jays and Jackdaws would feature in my 2016 survey, but neither showed up. They are early birds and may have been and gone before I started the survey for an hour between 9am and 10am.

Something unexpected usually turns up. One year, we had a Tree Creeper (not seen him since) and another year, there was a flock of about 15 Long-Tailed Tits that arrived.

This year, things got off to a very slow start (I thought nothing was going to turn up). Then there was a Robin (which spent the whole hour foraging around the garden), a Wren and a couple of Blackbirds. The Blue Tits turned up in force after about 15 minutes, having realised the seed feeder had been replenished.

I spotted five House Sparrows sitting on the hedge near the acer. They were foraging in the hedge and sitting on the top sunbathing in between forays into the depths of the twigs. House Sparrows have been in decline in the UK, but they are still fairly common near us and always feature in my survey. Max bought me a sparrow box for Christmas, which I need to fit soon, and hopefully that will encourage a few more to take up residence.

Best part of the hour’s observation was spotting seven Greenfinches. I was pleased to see these because numbers have fallen this year. It is thought they have suffered from a disease and I haven’t seen as many around as before. This morning a flock of them arrived about 9.30am and kicked the assorted tits off the seed feeder. They dominated the feeder for 10 minutes. There were always four on the feeder and others flying from the corkscrew hazel to try to get their turn. It was quite a lively time and although I positively counted seven of them, I’m sure there were more. I never really think of them as aggressive birds, but nothing else was allowed on the feeder while they were there and they were scrapping with each other very vigorously. Normally, birds seem to get along quite politely on the feeder, a bird will fly onto a perch, grab a seed and be away, making space for the next one on line. These Greenfinches were a rough crowd, they took all four perches on the feeder and were keen to sit there for seconds or thirds. Other Greenfinches would try to usurp them and when a bird flies at a perched bird, the sitting one will normally move out of the way. These were not moving and the feeder was a buzz with flapping, scrapping finches. Those waiting to grab a place or forced off were hopping around the hazel very excitedly. You could imagine them saying: “How rude, I was on that perch and he just came and shoved me off. I could have lost a feather, he was so rough. Well, I’m not having that, I’m going back and give him some of his own medicine...”

There is normally a surprise during the session and all the Greenfinch scrapping maybe caught the eye of this fellow because my observation came to a dramatic ending at 9.50am when a Sparrowhawk appeared across my sister's garden and landed in the hazel.

Everything disappeared in a flash. The hawk sat there for a few seconds wondering where everything had gone and then flew away, just before I could get the binoculars on him for a good look. 

He certainly spoiled the party and the garden was bare for five minutes before the blackbirds and robin re-appeared and resumed their groundwork.

Birds (and numbers) seen this year were:

Greenfinch 7

Great tit 6

Blue tit 5

Chaffinch 5

Sparrow 5

Blackbird 3

Dunnock 3

Robin 1

Wren 1

Wood pigeon 1

Goldfinch 1

Sparrowhawk 1

Staring up at the sky

The weather has been beautiful this week, less like spring and more like summer. I’ve been working on the base for my greenhouse and, as usual, it’s turned into a bigger job than I thought.

The greenhouse was just too large to sit on the area where the conifers once were, so I’ve had to take down a retaining wall and expand the area, rebuilding the wall and taking it a brick higher than it was to get the level I need.

It didn’t take long to realise I needed more sand, so the job was put on hold while Travis Perkins delivered a tonne, deposited in a big bag on the drive. Tomorrow, I will hire a cement mixer and get cracking in earnest. It should be finished by Friday afternoon.

As well as a good bit of digging and pick axe work, there has been a fair bit of thinking time, drinking-tea time and staring-at-the-sky time. We really should spend more time staring at the sky, it’s surprising what you can see.

On Tuesday, I heard the tell-tale mew of a couple of buzzards circling effortlessly in the warm, rising air. They were circling and heading north to south, about 200ft high, looking for lunch. As they got over our house, the rookery on the high trees along the old A47 came alive with squawking as the rooks recognised a threat. They may have young chicks in the high nests and there’s nothing like a tasty young rook for dinner if you happen to be a buzzard.

Like the RAF spotting a Russian bomber, the rookery dispatched an interceptor – a rook which zoned in on the nearest buzzard and immediately attacked it. They didn’t bother with the second bird, which was lower and kept a wider mark, but the first one got a real roughing up.

The rook is a much more nimble flier, it can turn faster, out-climb and out-dive the bigger raptor. Despite the buzzard giving it some warning cries, the rook just kept diving in at it, biting at its tail and grabbing a feather. The buzzard didn't want to interrupt its free ride and was reluctant to join the scrap. It kept its wings outspread and let the thermal take it away from its attacker and over the rookery. The rook stayed with it for a good five minutes and then flew back to base. I wonder if they have a rota, whether they take it in turns to ward off potential threats or whether this one is the resident scrapper? I wonder if it's a male bird or a female?

I said they were like the RAF scrambling an interceptor and, a little later in the day, we had a close encounter with the RAF. There are fewer low flights across the village these days, but we get the occasional Tornado bomber flying low. They're not flying supersonic, but even so, you don't hear them until they are on top of you and you don't see them coming because they are flying so low. I was just having a lean on my spade, when I caught sight of this one coming over. It was very low - lower than the buzzard - there's a brilliant broadside view of the plane at a slight bank as it skirts the village, an explosion of noise and then it's across Bukehorn Road trailing a thin plume of exhaust smoke undulating behind it. Holly, meanwhile, has gone barking crazy; running up and down the garden - she loves loud noises!

The nights are drawing out and there was a wonderful sunset yesterday evening. I was able to watch the orb of the sun disappear over the horizon. Some time after sunset, it was still quite light - too light to see many stars - but Venus was brilliant, climbing higher in the western sky. It's really shining in the hour after sunset.

I'd watched it for a few moments, when I was aware of a flicker above. It was a pipistrelle bat, the first one I've seen this year. It would be enjoying the warm weather and the insects which have exploded into activity.

Today, I'd just finished digging out the line of the trench where my greenhouse base will go and was enjoying a beer on the patio. I was looking up at some gulls soaring high on a thermal when I spotted three familiar shapes. They were swallows - well house-martins, to be precise, but no-one talks of the first house-martin of the summer.

Like the bat, they were enjoying a meal of insects carried up in the warm air. Anyway that's a date to mark - April 15: the first swallow. I know one swallow doesn't make a summer, but there were three of them, so I guess it's officially here.

Footnote: I was sitting in the garden a couple of days later and saw another buzzard up in the air. Like the one buzzed by the rook, it was circling on thermals, heading north to south, soaring without beating its wings and gaining height quite quickly. As it got over our house, I expected a rook to be dispatched to head it off, but instead the buzzard folded its wings slightly and headed dead west in a shallow dive at great speed, aided by a brisk easterly breeze. How wonderful it would be to be able to fly like that. It didn't beat its wings once, just used air currents to get around at high speed.

Signs of spring and bijou bird-boxes

Birds have been helping themselves
to nest wadding.

There are some signs of spring - sunny days, lighter mornings and the first few singers in what will soon be a full-on dawn chorus.

The birds have also been quite busy with the timeless task of finding a mate and then nest-building.

I was walking in the park a couple of weeks ago; a day after there had been some strong winds and in the trees at the foot of the rookery by the churchyard, there was a rook’s nest which had blown down.

No eggs or chicks yet and this was certainly a nest from last year or even earlier. It was carefully woven from twigs, but the interesting thing was this it was lined with a sweet wrapper, one of those long, thin plastic bags that you get frozen lollies inside.

The birds had carefully slotted it around the sides of its nest. It must have thought: “this is just what I need, it’s the perfect shape.”

I’m always picking up litter in the park, perhaps I should leave some selected pieces as building blocks for the rooks’ nests?

A week ago, when I was cutting back the hawthorn hedge at the side of the garden, I found one of last year’s blackbird nests and, guess what, this bird had also utilised an old sweet wrapper as nest lining. Also, it must have fetched it from some way away because we wouldn’t have dropped litter in our own garden.

Bijou bird boxes - ready for occupancy.

Sam and Lucy bought me a couple of RSPB bird boxes and a hanger for nest wadding as my Christmas present and this week, I’ve put them up.

The bird boxes have gone on the north wall of the house, where it’s cooler in summer, and there’s one with a small hole (for a blue tit or wren) and another with a half-open front, which might suit a blackbird or wagtail. I hope that they get used. I was planning to put them up at the allotment, but thought I’d try them at home so I can enjoy seeing them occupied.

The wadding has proven very popular, within a couple of days big chunks were being pulled out.

Great Garden Birdwatch 2014

Greater Spotted Woodpecker (birdfinders.co.uk)

Another year, another Great Garden Birdwatch, organised by the RSPB. The idea of this is that it is an exercise in mass phenology and by thousands of people counting bird species in their gardens each year, it builds up a picture of what’s happening across time and across the UK.

The birdwatch surveys have illustrated the decline in songbirds and starlings and also threats to once-common birds such as house sparrows, which have reduced dramatically in number in the past decade.

I did my survey yesterday. It was a miserable wet morning, but the birds were very active and I saw 35 birds compared with 23 last year. The idea is that you count the maximum number of each species that are in your garden at any one time within the hour being monitored.

One bird, which we spotted last year, but was absent this time, was a tree creeper. Last year, it was a regular visitor on the conifers, but we haven’t seen it since spring. However, there were some new appearances – a greater spotted woodpecker, which has been a regular visitor to the garden to feed on peanuts – and a couple of goldfinches. The woodpecker  arrived after 15 minutes and spent a good five minutes pecking away before flying up into my sister’s pear tree where he clung on pecking in the ivy, obviously after dessert.

The goldfinches are the most colourful of garden birds and seem to love the winter mix that I’m buying from the pet shop in Whittlesey.

So these are the birds (and numbers) I saw this year. Last year’s figures are in brackets:

Greater Spotted Woodpecker 1 (0)

Blue Tit 4 (2)

Great Tit 3 (2)

Collared Dove 2 (1)

Blackbird 5 (3)

House Sparrow 8 (6)

Robin 1 (2)

Chaffinch 4 (4)

Greenfinch 5 (2)

Goldfinch 2 (0)

Tree Creeper 0 (1)

By the way, some of the house sparrows may be dunnocks or hedge sparrows. I struggle to tell the difference, except in the house sparrow males where their head markings are distinctive.

The Great Garden Birdwatch

I’ve spent an hour this morning doing the RSPB Great Garden Birdwatch - it’s a very pleasant way to spend some time on a sunny morning.

Garden Birdwatch day must be like Christmas day in the avian calendar (or it would be if birds had a calendar). There’s a lot of competition among spotters to get their numbers up, so all kinds of tasty treats go on the bird table.

Those not prepared to lavish mealworm and other delicacies on the local robin population risk being shunned in favour of more generous recorders.

Well, I’ve been caught out before, so this year my feeders were primed with the finest sunflower seed, the fattest peanuts I could find, some ground mix for those twitterers too full to hang from a feeder and - the champagne truffle of the bird world - a scattering of mealworms.

My hour got off to a good start when Margaret spotted an unusual bird on the trunks of the conifers by the patio. Normally, Margaret’s unusual birds turn out to be be wood pigeons, but this time she struck gold - she’d spotted a tree creeper from the kitchen window. He was working his way up the bare trunks, examining the cracks in the bark for insects and grubs. He spent a good few minutes searching the trees - tree creeper was a first for me in the Garden Birdwatch.

This year, it wasn’t very busy and the usual suspects turned up for a free feed. Everything went very quiet about halfway through the hour and I was wondering why when I spotted a large kestrel sitting in the top of the walnut tree at the bottom of the garden. He was looking for a tasty meal, but all the tasty meals had hidden themselves in the hawthorn hedge.

This year’s bird watch was notable for the appearance of the tree creeper, but it was also interesting for a number of absences. There was no wood pigeon anywhere, no starlings, no thrushes and no house sparrows (although their browner, duller cousins, the Dunnock were the most numerous).

This was my count:

Dunnock 6
Chaffinch 4
Blackbird 3
Robin 2
Blue tit 2
Greenfinch 2
Great tit 2
Collared dove 1
Tree creeper 1

Lapwings in the air

It has been the wettest April on record, the wettest June on record and July has carried on in much the same vein. Apparently, it's all down to global warming and is due to melting of Arctic ice and El Nino which are forcing the Jetstream (high-altitude winds) further south, causing it to suck in wet weather systems off the Atlantic. 


It's only a few years ago that the BBC was saying that climate change would result in warm, wet winters and hot dry summers and we were being told that we'd have to use drought-resistant plants in the garden. It was the end of the traditional English cottage garden and garden centres were offering more drought-tolerant plants. Well, heaven help anyone who planted up for a Mediterranean summer!


I've been on holiday this week and have been planning my days around the weather. Yesterday was a rare warm and sunny day, so I took advantage to catch up on some jobs in the garden and also to take the dogs on a decent walk. We set off across the fen towards Old Knarr Fen Road at about 10am and it was a lovely sunny morning. Many of the field roads are high with grasses and wild flowers and there were lots of butterflies and insects feeding on the flowers. Holly and Gravel's noses were working overtime and once off the lead they were gone! There's a large field of wheat between the cemetery and the fen, which is just starting to turn light green to yellow.

Ripening barley to the south east of Thorney - it's a
massive field and a magnet for the dogs.

Holly emerges from the barley field and runs back
towards me. I think she wonders why I'm so slow!

Along the hedge, a startled pheasant was put up and the pair of them went tearing after it. There was no sign of either dog when I got through the hedge and into the fen, but I saw Gravel away to the north and Holly was running through the field of ripening barley. I couldn't see her, but I could see the crop moving as she brushed the straws aside. She emerged around 100 yards down and ran back towards me. The barley field is massive and seems to stretch to the horizon. I guess it will be turned into beer, whisky or animal feed.


Just off the path, at the other side of the barley field pictured, there's another massive field of barley and there was a chap with a pigeon lure. The lure is a device with two narrow arms which swing round and round on a central pivot. At the end of each arm is tied a dead pigeon and the lure has some kind of contraption that makes the dead birds' wings flap. At this time of year, parts of the crop can be flattened by winds or rain and pigeons like to land in these areas to feed on the flattened crop. Because farmers can combine flattened wheat or barley, they don't want the pigeons eating it, so will often allow/encourage people to shoot them. The idea is that the lure attracts the attention of pigeons flying overhead who will come down to check what's happening (and get shot).


I gave the chap a wave and he waved back (it's always nice to know that someone with a gun knows you're there). We hadn't seen many pigeons, so I don't know how much luck he'd had, but there were worse days to be sitting in a field doing nothing.


I always like to keep an eye on the dogs. They always disappear, but at least I know which general direction they were heading in ... Holly was very good and never went very far, but this year on our fen walks, she's got much braver and now loves to follow scents and chase wildlife. Her nose isn't as good as Gravel's, but what she lacks in sniff power, she makes up for in the ground she covers. She put up a few hares. There seems to be a large number about this year and they will stay low and still until the last minute when they dash away. Often the dog will charge past and not even see them. They like to get on some open. level ground for maximum speed and a few times this year, the dogs have put up hares in front of me which have then run off down the farm track in my direction. If you stand to one side and keep very still, they will run right past you. A Springer Spaniel hasn't got a hope of catching a fit hare, but that doesn't stop them trying. It's quite funny seeing Holly chase them. She's faster than Gravel and really thinks she has a chance, but the hare is almost twice as fast. It's like Usain Bolt running in an English club meeting.


Since late spring, I've been avoiding parts of the walk or keeping the dogs on lead because there have been lapwings nesting on a couple of the fallow fields alongside the path. We saw the adult birds flying around at nesting time in late winter and counted up to a dozen of them. They are a very distinctive bird with wailing cry and black, paddle-shaped wings. In late winter, they were performing amazing aerobatics (presumably to impress the ladies) and there were a number nesting in a fallow field to the south of Park Farm and further out into the fen.


The young have fledged by July, so I felt happy to let the dogs run. The birds seem to have had a very successful breeding season. They are still about feeding and chilling while the young birds get stronger. Holly ran across their field and put up a massive flock which I estimated at around 70 birds. I didn't count more than 20 birds initially, so that's a good year for them. They make a lot of noise as they all take to the air, but don't seem too put out by the dogs charging across their field. They do a couple of circuits and then land again. I'm pleased to see them even if it has been a nuisance having to keep the dogs leashed.