What species visit your garden feeders.

Since I have been feeding in my garden I have had the following;

House Sparrow upto 40 regularly
Starling
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Chaffinch
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Robin
Dunnock
Grey Wagtail
Wren
Blackbird
Magpie
Crow
I live close to farmland and a brook runs around perimeter of estate. Very sparse on trees due to estate being pedestian footpaths with a perimeter road.

Hi Paul
A lot of mine are on this link in the Forum,
https://wildaboutanimals.forumotion.net/t621-meet-ws-s-birds
plus some of our members did the Big Garden Bird Watch, I will put the link on here

This was our Big Garden Count

https://wildaboutanimals.forumotion.net/t683p15-the-big-garden-bird-watch
WS

I live on the outskirts of Liverpool. I am only 50 metres from arable farmland and pasture land .I have set up a second feeding station which I use for my photography.This produces a even larger array of species .Now that the winter passerines are starting to arrive in large flocks they will boost my sightings even futher. Due to the abundance of food this also makes the prey species arrive on a regular basis.

That sounds a wonderful array of species you have visiting your feeder Paul. A lot of us on here feed the birds and really enjoy seeing them visiting our gardens and taking photo's of them. We are all from different parts of the country so there is a variety of birds. Some have had regular feeders like PPH and Lai has regulars and a wide variety and WS has a feeder thats like a constant cafe and he has posted some lovely videos as well, he will give you the links i'm sure.
Sounds as though photography is your thing so hopefully you will share some of your photo's with us.

littlewid-x-

Nice list Paul!

This is my list from the Bird Watch thread:

2 Blackbirds
2 Blue Tits
4 Dunnocks
4 Great Tits
4 House Sparrows
1 Robin
21 Starlings
1 Woodpigeon
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker

SM

My feeders are less than a metre from the window,hiding behind the porch out of the wind.Living at the coast the feeders can get blown off in the winter storms.What I'm leading up to is my visitors to the garden are great,but actually on the feeder,not so great.Siskin and Tree Sparrow are two that stick out from last winter.
In the garden,we've had Merlin,Sparrowhawk and Buzzard after the birds on the feeder I guess,though the Buzzard was probably looking for some food scraps or a worm.
Gulls also visit along with Crows,Rooks,Jackdaws and winter migrants like Fieldfare.

We've a regular selection of visitors to our feeders as Littlewid said. Most unusual was yesterday morning, the buzzard was sitting in the apple tree where one of the feeders is - okay so he wasn't visiting the feeder but he's never been that close before!

Mostly we have
Great tits
Blue tits
Coal tits
Long tailed tits
Gold finch
Green finch
Greater spotted woodpecker
Chaffinch
Collared dove

and the usual jackdaw, jay, crow, magpie

Lai Pai

I often get Buzzards at my Hedgerow feeding station. Because I study my target species to photograph I put a lot of time in without the camera. I have noticed that a group of three Buzzards have been visiting the site. To my surprise they have been hunting prey in a variety of ways.
Two of the group have been running a long a dried out drainage ditch while the third as been atacking Wood Pigeon and Corvids from above.I have discussed these tactics with other photographers as this tactic is usually associated with Harris Hawks. I often see the Buzzards doing this when the flocks of Wood Pigeon are on stubble fields. I know that Buzzards are normally quite a lazy bird and are often seen becoming so fat on worms that they cannot fly. But during cold spells they would need to build up fat reserves with a plump pigeon or corvid. They do attack Grey Squirrels but the success rate does not appear bto be good.

Mostly our buzzards are quite lazy, often to be found eating worms etc when the grass has been cut. I'll watch them more closely now. Earlier this year we also had a juvenile Sparrowhawk who used to sit in the apple tree doing nothing. We always thought he'd try for some of the small birds on the feeder but he just sat in the tree doing nothing.

Thanks for the tip about the buzzards Paul.

Lai

Although I live in a fairly semi rural area I have yet to see a Buzzard, it may be that I am not looking hard enough so it would be nice to see a photo if you have any Paul.
Interesting how they hunt out their prey though. We have a Harris Hawk at the hospital I work at, he is flown early in the mornings to keep the seagulls away and to stop them nesting in the roof of the hospital. We are on the coast so get an awful lot of them. He is a wonderful bird and I had the pleasure of meeting him, he was so soft to the touch.

littlewid-x-

We have quite a few Buzzards near us, we have often had them flying in front of us in the lanes round here. Once Mrs S on her way home had one fly for about 1/2 a Mile just in front of the car. But sadly no photos.
I did get one of a Male Sparrow Hawke just outside the kitchen window though that had just taken a bird from the feeders



WS

I will post some after the seven day rule as elapsed.

Paul says when he try's to upload a Pic. A notice comes up saying you cant untill 7 Days after joing anyone else experienced that

WS

In response to Paul and the 7 day rule for posting pictures, it will be wonderful to see your pictures when you are able to post them, I for one am really looking forward to seeing them.

The 7 day rule was put in place when we had so many people joining that had no intention of taking part in the forum, it was being used as a means to leave external links to other sites. Members are asked on joining to post a hello and to also join in the forum discussions and if this is not respected then members will be deleted.
Along with this, we can set a rule that external links and emails will not be accepted by new members until 7 days have elapsed. I can only presume that when the host site was set up, the hosts saw posting pictures as external links and therefore as we have the 7 day rule for external links, pictures also fall into that category, as the host sees them as external links.
For the time being we are not going to change our 7 day rule as we do have to protect WAA and it's members as Admins, we do however apologise for the inconvenience it causes new members that are genuine members and wish to share their photo's with the other members.

I hope this explains why Paul hasn't been able to post his photo's, but we do look forward to seeing them and enjoying more chat from Paul.

littlewid-x-

[b]
Captured Blue tit earlier today at feeders.National Grid have coppiced a Oak Tree down to virtually the trunk on one side.

This is one of the Buzzards that regularly visits the Oak.

Brilliant photos Paul. Love that Buzzard shot. We have Buzzards here in North Wales, but I've never been able to get close enough to get a shot of one. The Oak seems a great natural place to photograph Birds
WS

Blue Tits are gorgeous little birds and thats a lovely photograph. I also really like the buzzard photo. Is that just as you took it or has it been tweeked? I only ask as it's such a lovely capture.

If you have a passion for birds of prey, you should check out the Birds of Prey thread and look at SM's " My Shuttlleworth Day", it's on page 2 of that thread, she has also taken some wonderful photo's of birds of prey.

Thanks for posting them Paul, if you have more we would love to see them.

littlewid-x-

This is exactly how it is in camera. It is to close for 500mm Lens and the dappled light is the leaves changing colour.
Thanks for your comments always appreciated.

Paul

Thanks Paul. I think the leaves in the background set a wonderful backdrop for showing off the colour of the Buzzards feathers. it's a stunning photo.

littlewid-x-

beautiful photos Paul

Lai Pai

Paul the photos are stunning. The golden light on the buzzard is amazing.

SM