We put the bird feeders up on Sunday, ready for the winter. Although ideally we'd keep them up all year round, in practice we can't - the main garden feeders go where the hanging baskets hang, and the vegetable garden feeder must make way for actual vegetables during the spring and summer.
The first birds to find the feeders have been the collared doves (Streptopelia decaocto), not surprising given how many we have visiting the garden. It's hard to believe that the first ones only appeared in Britain in the 1950s and caused such excitement amongst the twitchers, they're so common now.
The doves take a lot of our seed mixture every winter, and I find them very entertaining to watch. They're not only very beautiful close up, but also quite comical when feeding because they're too big for the feeding station perches, so they perch on the side arms and keep sliding down and having to shuffle back up.
I'm now waiting to see who finds the feeders next. We've no very cold weather forecast for this week, and there's still plenty of insects and berries etc around, so it could take some time for feeder activity to get up to speed. In the meantime, keeping an eye on the feeders in the hope of bird sightings is almost more distracting than actually watching the birds!
They are lovely birds Penny. Its just a shame that their cousins the Turtle Dove arn't as common.
ReplyDeleteDelightful to watch Penny but greedy feeders. Looking forward to hearing what else you are able to attract. FAB
ReplyDeleteP.S. Your weather prediction for Norfolk was correct but we had a great time despite the high winds.