Birdwatching in My Garden: A Summer Slide Show.

I have written before about how much I enjoy observing the birds that visit the feeders in my garden. This slide show is of some of these birds mainly from January to August last year. The summer was very dry and hot here in the UK. The birds visited the bird bath almost as much as the feeders due to the shortage of natural water supplies. It was very difficult to catch this on camera due to the distance from the dinning room window where all the other pictures were taken from.

I have not seen as many young blue tits in one season as this year when along with the young goldfinches and sparrows the feeders became very busy. This attracted another regular visitor the sparrow hawk. I have included a picture below of one, this was taken in a previous year after he made a catch in the garden.

A regular visitor to the garden all year is the Robin always appearing whenever I start to work in the garden, looking for any grubs that may be disturbed. They also regularly nest in the garden.

The Blackcaps visit the feeders every winter so I assumed they were winter visitors. This year I started using the excellent BTO bird song recognition app and to my surprise, it showed the Blackcap as singing throughout the summer. I could then see the male at the top of a tree in full song. I did some research and apparently during the breeding season they only feed on insects converting to seed eaters in the Autumn/Winter time. A great survival tactic.

I feed the birds all year with sunflower hearts, fat balls, peanuts and dried mealworms, the robin and black birds’ favourite food. These I soak when they are feeding young making it easier for them to digest.
Do you see many birds in your garden?