Feeding Patterns

We know how to throw a party

Before sunrise at 7 a.m. the garden looks lifeless but, as soon as there's a glimmer of light, blackbirds (today there are 5 of them) start to appear, trotting around the lawn and over the pation.

They seem to be hanging around in a loose kind of group but there's an undercurrent of intolerance, with one taking a run at another every minute or so. It doesn't come to blows but you feel there's some sorting out of the pecking order going on.

Goldfinches and tits are the regulars at the bird feeders. A starling that I see briefly perched by the fat block at lunchtime is an infrequent visitor these days: ten or fifteen years ago, starlings would descend on the bird table, one or two at first, then ten, twelve or more, waddling and pecking. They'd soon clear away every scrap of food.

We have seen nuthatches more frequently than starlings in recent weeks.

Squirrels go back and forth across the lawn with the regularity of the carriage of a typewriter going to and fro.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk