What's going on in YOUR garden?!
This is one of those times of year when feeding garden birds becomes absolutely crucial. As the nights draw in, and the weather gets colder, it's important to make sure your feeders are topped up and that your bird bath is filled with fresh, clean water. To help you, There are hints and tips about feeding garden birds here on the Breathing Places website.
Here on Autumnwatch we'd also like to know if you have seen any really unusual behaviour at your feeding station - and even better, if you;ve managed to video it or take any still photos. As always, you can upload these onto our Video Uploader and Flickr sites - or just tell me what you've seen...
Look forward to hearing from you - Stephen
Comments
Coal Tit behaviour.
Not sure if this is unusual behaviour or not, but I have not seen it before. Whilst watching the birds feeding from one of our feeders, saw a Coal Tit taking Sunflower hearts from the feeder and then bury them in the garden. One seed went in a pot plant, a couple directly into the lawn and some more into the mud of our recently turned over vegetable plot. Only one bird was engaged in this behaviour the other Coal Tits took the food and either flew off or sat on the fence and ate.
Is this usual/unusual?
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Hello Bill and Kate my son and I were walking along the cliffs at St.Margarets Bay near Dover Kent,and there were so many beautiful birds from green woodpeckers to Jays, long tail tits to gold finches. But to my absolute joy we had the amazing pleasure of seeing a Gold crest!!!! I didnt know they came down this far could you comment on this amazing sight as my little boy (5) is crazy about your program and all things to do with nature.
Regards
Ramon and Xavier
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Unusual behaviour and crows. I live near Newborough forest and often see crows and ravens not to mention starlings but I watched a crow on a windy day pick up something ( couldn't quite mak out what ) in its beak , throw it into the wind then swoop and catch it in its claws . Then it transfered the " object " back to its beak . It did this several times until it missed and it lost its toy
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We had a goldcrest bathing in our Huddersfield garden stream this morning at about 1030am. We had a pair in the garden about 6 weeks ago.
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In all the houses me and my family have lived in we have always have a had some animal com into our garden.
In our first house we had goats from our neighbours garden.
In the 2nd house we had cows and a visit from a fox family.
In the 3rd house we had ducks just male ones sadly.
In our recent house e are living in now we have had our neighbours dog and a builders dog, a swan, a goose, moles, resident rabbits and a fawn roe deer.
and Iam the only one who has an otto in the river at the back of our garden
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Today in a tree close to my property I saw a Red Kite resting.. I often see them flying in the sky and swooping but have never seen one just resting..
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spooky !!!!!-Bill has just said(mon.3rd Nov. prog.)-"Better Red than dead "-these are some of the exact words used by me in my animated filmscript 'Red and Ginger' about 2 twin red squirrels who go off from Brownsea on a life or death journey across Grey Britain to try and link up with the Scottish squirrels,helped by a couple of plucky kingfishers and various other animals.
All is revealed (except the ending!!) at redand ginger.com.Autumnwatchers\scouts and guides\free runners and martial artists and anybody else please have a look and post a comment.I promise u-It's a ripping good yarn-original and fresh with an 8 song pop-rocking soundtrack too.
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Hi my favourite Goodie.
I live just outside Peterborough and go to Spalding to shop. On the way there we regularily see a weird sight.
There is a field with a ditch running through it and we often see a number of Herons at reular intervals along it. They seem to be fairly evenly spaced out along the field and I was wondering if this is common as we I have never witnessed this before?
Interested in comments.
Louise
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It is not my garden, but I have just set up a feeding station at my College (an agricultural/countryside orientated college). We have a small table, 3 niger feeders, 1 large peanut feeder, 1 small feeder, 3 larger seed feeders, fat ball feeders and we scatter food on the ground.
It has been in operation for 2 weeks and I have to re-fill it every day!!! We get Goldfinches, Yellowhammers, Linnets as well as the usual Blue Tit, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Robins, Dunnocks, Blackbirds, Magpies, Wrens, Chaffinches and recently we have had Reed Buntings, a GS Woodpecker and a Wood Mouse that has learnt how to open the peanut basket!
They are keeping me busy!
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Hello all,
Taking my usual daily walk on North Beach, Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk on Saturday 1st November, I was standing by the rocks, looking out over the North Sea when suddenly from nowhere, this little Goldcrest flew straight onto my coat and just sat on my shoulder. I said "hello beautiful" and it flew down on to the sand and then flew back up to my shoulder again. Then, another Goldcrest turned up and landed at my feet. They stayed there for a few seconds chatting to each other and then they both flew off into the dunes.
It was a lovely experience, I just wish it had been caught on camera !!
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the unusual thing this year is the change in birds. we have goldfinches for the first time ever and lots of them, no blue tits where as there are usually at least a family of them but instead i have seen 1 coal tit and 1 chaffinch! sparrows are still on the scene.
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Hi there Stephen :-)
Not in my Perthshire garden but at Loch of the Lowes Nature Reserve I caught not only a sighting of a juvenile Pine Marten but some video too. I was thrilled!
I posted it on my gardenwatch blog if you or anyone else is interested in seeing it - see http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2008/10/pine-marten-evening.html
Shirl
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Hi Stephen,
a couple of weeks ago, I did see a Dunnock on one of my actual tube feeders, which shocked me, it was a bit apprehensive when it flew towards it but managed to get on fine and was there for a few seconds.
Embarrassingly enough...I never got footage of it, but I will be there watching my feeders with my camera ready for anything unusual or interesting.
Wildlife Filmer Adam
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I was delighted to see the footage of the goldcrest, one of my favourite birds. We often see these while in some woods at Westacre in Norfolk. They don't take any notice of us, just keep on busying themselves in the trees and bushes, nearly always moving around with longtailed tits or bluetits. Delightful!
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I began to take an interest in birds about 5 years ago. Nowadays I keep a varied menu going in the garden and have observed a fair variety of birds. Goldfinches, bullfinches, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, nut hatches, spotted woodpeckers, dunnocks, robins, blackbirds and wagtails have all visited my restaurant!
The other day I was watching from an upstairs window when a bird flew up and sat on the window sill about 12 inches away from me with the glass between us! He almost looked me in the eye. I found out it was a goldcrest.
Are they usually visitors to gardens? I live in North Devon and have never seen one before.
Thanks for the programme. It's like a breath of fresh air.
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I was wondering if you can tell me why we haven't seen any bats in our garden this year? We used to see a lot of them and put up a bat box, but this year - nothing! We live in Norfolk.
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Ravens in Newborough forest.
I was living on the edge of the forest in
1967-69 and cannot remember ravens.
A few months ago I remember a short video
(10 mins.) on the ravens of Newborough,
and I think it was said they arrived in the early 70s.
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Hello All, Is this unusual?
I recently had some help with putting up a new feeding station and 2 nestboxes - 1 with a very small round hole (which I believe is preferred by Tits), the other with a much larger opening, almost half the box area (which I believe is used by many other small birds like our favourite the Robin.
My theory was that putting them up now would allow time for them to 'weather' a bit and I also plan on moving a climber to allow some coverage on the wall as it's south-facing and I'm in a very exposed area on the South Cheshire/North Staffs border, at the start of the Penines. I'm rather hoping that by the spring after next the birds may just adopt them.
However, on Friday whilst watching my very hungry daily mob of visitors, one of the Coal Tits left the others feeding on the old table and hopped onto the ledge opening of the larger-holed nesting boxes. He then turned around, surveyed the area as if checking to see if any of the others were watching him. Presumably satisfied they they weren't, he hopped inside for a good minute before coming out again and sitting on the opening before going back to the table to feed!
Is this common behaviour for Tits? And at this time of year? I'm really curious to know the answer.
Thanks to all the team on both Spring and Autumn watch for the lovely programmes, I do my best never to miss any! I have to say, Bill, I love your comments about the birds, and Kate your diving antics are always both interesting and fun to watch, especially tonight's on the seahorses - have loved them since I was a small child in South Africa.
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In my garden i feed all the birds. This year we have a lot of blue tits robins sparrows goldfinches starlings ( they are so many of them and really chace the other birds away so i yell at them).We have a lot of crows blackbirds and ravens as there is a lot of trees nearby.They come sit down on my fence and watch nd wait for food i pud bread out and its like a field of screeching as if to call the others in for food.Chaffinch and coal tits. A coal tit came down and danced out my window i put food in my hand and coal tit has come down many times and fed from my hand.Is this nomal for a coal tit?
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yesterday i filled up my bird feeders and watched who came to feed, about 6 long tailed tits, blue tits, great tits, magpies, black birds, and the local gang of starlings. rushden northants.
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I live near Ipswich and for 2 years I have noticed several sick greenfinches in the garden. They sit, fluffed up and sad, on the bird table, trying to eat the seeds, but just seem to drool on them and spit them out. I have scrubbed the bird table and feeders whenever it happens, so they don't spread the disease. My father-in-law who lives 20 miles away near Colchester has seen a few too, and I wondered how widespread this is? Has anyone else seen sad finches this year?
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On 03/10/08, I was in my house and heard an unusual 'thump' somewhat like a car door (but different) !!! I was unable to identify the noise, however, a short time later from my kitchen window, I watched a predator bird in my garden enjoying his lunch of a local wood pigeon. I managed to take several photographs, however, I am unable to identify the bird. Can you help? How can I forward photographs to you? I am in Darlington (north east England), is this bird unusual for my area? Regards ... Frances.
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Hi again Stephen :-)
I have already mentioned my pine marten sighting at a reserve last week, above, but reading through your posts again I too have lots similar going on in my garden too.
Yes, I am also seeing coal tits hiding sunflower hearts in moss growing on stones, in gravel and in borders. It is funny to watch – I wonder if they will remember where they have put them? I also have dunnocks regularly using my bird table.
I am also seeing activity at my nestboxes with blue tits. I have a rooster in the one without the camera - typical. However, this blue tit did have a look in the Nestbox with the camera too – rather too a close inspection of the new camera. You can see this on my diary/blog posting here http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2008/10/what-are-birds-doing-when.html
I am now watching out for the return of Blackcaps who have visited my garden the last two winters. They usually arrive Dec/Jan but I am keeping a look out for them now just in case they just pass through.
Shirl
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Hi - I put food out for the birds twice a day with a variety of p nuts, seed and fat balls plus raisins for the robin and blackbird. Starlings love the dried mealworms I put out and my grey squirrel even has his own supply so he leaves the birds alone.
He arrives at my patio doors and sits up in a begging position, after pacing up and down the length of the doors he taps on the glass to attract our attention, which is usually heard by our cat first after teasing her behind glass she gives up and goes back to sleep (old cat stays in) I open the door and he sits there waiting for me to open my hand full of peanuts, this week he surprised me by running up my arm to my shoulder taking a glancing look into my eyes and then back down my arm for his peanuts. I was so shocked by this behaviour but it was truly a lovely experience.
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Unusual Fox behaviour?
Recently upon return from holiday I found a Grey Squirrel buried in a large garden ceramic pot! It was actually fairly amusing as only its feet were visible above the soil. The wife however was not amused and was worried on the effect of said burial on her plants, so I get the disposal job. I noticed what appeared to be a puncture mark on the Squirrels neck.
I could only put this occurrence down to a Fox, several visit our garden to drink at the bird bath. Last week I spotted a fox (14.30 hrs) pick up the scent, jump up on to the pot and start digging.
Do Fox’s normally hunt Squirrel? And if so is storing food by burying it normal?
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Hi Autumn Watch Team, My freind and I are thouroughly enjoying your show!
I thought you may be interested to know I live in an elevated position in christchurch and have just spotted a flock of 20 geese in formation fling east to west!
There were eight birds in the arrow formation with the remaining twelve creating the tail!
They reminded me of that crazy frenchman and his flying geese!
Keep up the good work
D and A
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We live near a farm, about 5 miles outside of Bath, and have a nice variety of birds come to feed on our tables etc. The great tits are the bullies of the table, but we also have a family of blue tits and at least 4 long-tailed tits. We also get dunnocks, wrens, robins, a little goldcrest, goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, and even a spotted woodpecker. My favourite this season has been the return of our coal tit - he disappeared after looking a bit rugged last year and he's come back a little more feisty and daring - a regular visitor - and I think he even has a mate which is encouraging.
We saw a treecreeper outside our landing window a couple of times too, which was very exciting.
One strange thing I have witnessed - We have draughty old windows and I noticed the other day that we have ladybirds living in between the cracks and I have noticed the birds, particularly the blue tits, perching on the window, picking out the ladybirds from the cracks.
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IS IT POSSIBLE? In my back garden i have an apple tree very close to the house and yesterday about 5 or 6 small birds landed in the tree, at first i thought they were blue tits but looking closer i realised they were strangers to my garden. I looked through my bird reference book and could only identify them as yellow-browed warblers, Have there been any sightings of these in the UK before? I live 2 miles from the coast near Skegness
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I had a Goldcrest in my garden, first time i have seen one here. Deal Kent.
He was a joy to watch.
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While walking my dog on Saturday last there were literally masses of Fieldfares flying through the treetops just ahead of me. It's hard to say but I think there must have been between 1 and 2 hundred. I have never seen them this early and I have never seen so many in one place is this unusual. I live in east Hertfordshire.
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Monday night we saw a goldcrest at Portland. This morning I was standing in the garden about to get into the car when a tiny bird landed in the old apple tree not two feet from my face.
Smooth coated, a sort of "taupe" colour - as my wife would insist - with a bright yellow stripe on top of its head. Smaller and slimmer than our resident wrens, I have never seen one before.
We had that Northeast wind for several days. It's an ill wind.....!
Locate us on PE28 4TD
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For the past three days a pair of blue tits have been in and out of our tit box most of the day. Possibly the same pair that have successfully brought up their family over the past 2 years.
We are very concerned that they appear to be nest building! They are so industrious, far more than just a reconnoitre!
We live on the Nth Norfolk coast, although bird box is in a sheltered position. Just a little worried for them.
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Whats in the garden???
I have a question for Bill on Puffins and how far inland have they been found.
The reason I ask is that I was going to work early in the morning some years ago and a bit bleary eyed went out the front door only to see a Puffin sitting in the garden very tired. This would not be of any concern but I live near the BBONT reserve at Chinnor Oxfordshire about as far inland as you can be in the UK.
I phoned up St Tiggywinkles that is about four miles from the house and they thought is was a wind up when I said that I had a Puffin in Chinnor.
Les Stocker sent one of his team to pick up the bird and confirmed to their amazement it was a Puffin!!
It apparently came from the Isle of Wight and was a bit lost. This made a great story on the front page of the local paper and a bit of fame for the Puffin to tell his mates when he got back to the Isle of Wight.
Cheers for a great programme.
Mal
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Hi there, I just wanted to tell everyone, despite the very cold weather we've been having, I spotted what I thought was a honeybee in my garden on sunday 2nd November at about 2.30pm.
It caught my eye as it went past my window and was flying around the climber plant on my shed. It seemed very active. I thought this was VERY unusual for this time of year. Has anyone else seen something similar?????
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PS. I am in the Northwest of England by the way (I missed that bit out, sorry)
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Here in South Queensferry near Edinburgh our regular garden visitors are a wren, great and coal tits and a couple of blue tits. The usual sparrow gang, chaffinches, robin, woodpidgeon, magpie, goldcrest, great spotted woodpecker(not recently though) and long tailed tits every Christmas.
Over the summer we also had greenfinches and a cock pheasant looking at its reflection in the patio door, also a fox nosing about.
We also get a regular visit from collared doves. Havent seen blackbirds or thrushes for a couple of months now.
We also have two resident grey squirrels who hide nuts in the lawn and two rabbits who keep the grass short. Finally a wee mouse under a plant pot tidies up all the seed which falls from the feeders.
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I had a crow in the garden lifting the feeder off the hook and dropping it to the ground so it could get at the nuts. We have also had great fun watching green parakeets feeding on the nuts and the seed feeder.
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I have a Robin of all Robins, It is very pugnatious toward all other birds, It has chased the blue tits the coal tits great tis and even dunicks out of the garden It even went fot a blackbird but he seen him of right away, What can I do to make him less aggresive, I know they are territorial birds but he is something else again, Pleas ask Bill if he can throw any light on this for me,
Thanking you , Len.
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Not really unsual but we have munjac deer between newbury and newbury bypass. They are frequently vistors to the gardens on the west side of newbury..Thanks harry Bateman
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A pheasant pecks around the feeding station. However one day when my husband was mowing the lawn on the tractor he followed the tractor so closely that it was difficult to avoid running him over. Perhaps he had been fed from a vehicle on a farm? He rushes up to visiting cars and chases them down the drive . More bizarrely he followed my grandson and a friend and tried to peck their ankles. I offered him some corn in a saucer.He came up to me and ignored the corn even when sprinkled on the ground. However when I turned to go in he chased after me and seemed intent on pecking my ankles! He hung around the back door for some time before stalking away.Any idea why?
Another strange occurrance happened a few years ago. A muntjak deer was eating bird seed. My young cat stalked it and chased it across the large lawn ,then all the way back again until it disappeared. The next day the same thing happened until the deer suddenly turned lowering its head menacingly ,the cat sat back and tried to swipe it then they ran behind some bushes. It was the last time she chased a deer! Another day we witnessed a muntjak dive through some pig fencing when chased by the dog.It was incredible that such a large animal could fit thoough!
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Do we have a rarity in the garden or just a 'mutant'?
Today it's all been kicking off - redwings, a jay, a woodpecker, long-tailed tits, magpies, low-flying pheasants and a host of the more usual garden birds.
However, we have a sparrow of sorts living in a hawthorn (with loads of other sparrows) but this one has a bold white forehad and cap.
I got the binoculars to check he hadn't just been pooped on and for sure he has white feathers from the point his beak joins his face, up between his eyes and just to the point where the crest of his head starts. It's really prominent and shows up at quite a distance.
Is this just one of those things that happens and he's still a normal sparrow underneath, or is he special in some way?
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Belgian birdwatchers are very rare species in “Autumnwatch” and “Springwatch”, but really they exist ... and on the continent we follow Kate, Bill and Simon very close!
A question for Simon concerning “Raven”.
A few years ago, in summer, we were on holiday in the French Pyrenees (Esnazu).
In the late afternoonwe were witness of a fantastic event.
Near the hotel we saw a couple raven on a hill (there were no trees). Afterwards more and more raven met at the same place, until the complete hill coloured black of raven. There must have been hundreds. It was very impressive.
After a couple of hours and before dark, the “meeting” came to an end and all raven disappeared.
We never found an explanation for that phenomenon and since the raven in “Autumnwatch” are in the picture, perhaps we can learn more concerning that particular behaviour of this particular bird.
Could it have been a “Raven Congress”???
Best regards
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One for Simon - (my wife's a fan) - has anyone else spotted the bat which flew past the trailer with the satellite dish behind you during your piece to camera last evening (Monday 3rd)? It was at the beginning of your introduction where you were saying about "came across to Anglesea, North Wales where we are now…" It looks quite large - possibly a Serotine at that height and size? Don't get too many bats on the programme so nice to see one fly by.
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I place ground-mix food along the top of the brick wall around my garden. We usually have half a dozen wood pigeons hoovering it up in no time. This year one very aggressive collared dove has decided that this resource belongs to him and chases them all away without mercy. So the food lasts most of the day.
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For the last two months a young sparrowhawk has been resident and learning his trade. He now regularly comes in along the wall of the houses in our terrace, through the branches of next door's apple tree and straight to the hanging feeders. If he's lucky he grabs a goldfinch and heads back up to the trees. More often he misses. The little birds all scatter but are back in five minutes.
This is in central Liverpool near Sefton park.
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Yep we have hedgehogs, field mice, grass snakes (only in summer), foxes and badgers. oh and bats, we get LOADS of bats flying round.
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I work in the Reception of a pastry manufacturer which benefits from a wall of windows, and in the last few months I have become aware of a number of chaffinches and bluetits which had ventured into the trees which border our car park. I decided to ask my bosses if we could put a peanut feeder in the trees on the other side of the fence. I was surprised to find the birds had moved in within TWO days. Which beggars the question: How do birds find their food? Is it sight, smell, or merely good luck, when one stumbles over the feeder and spreads the word? Now we have up to six different species on it every day. I've checked the RSPB and BTO websites, but I can't find any information on it. CAN YOU HELP ME, AUTUMNWATCH????
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i feed the foxes every night at 10.30 they are sitting waiting for me under a bench, i feed them all my cat and dog food scraps, great to watch them and they are starting to trust me more.
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Hi Bill and Kate
We saw waxwings in next doors rowan tree this morning. Apparently Edinburgh has been invaded by them.
Jan & Julia
Edinburgh
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I was in Lindisfarne, Northumberland, with my family at the end of August and was out on a walk with my dad. A dog had jumped over a wall into a field of sheep and was causing havoc. While we were watching, a very large bird took off from the other end of the field. We are familiar with seeing buzzards, and the bird seemed to be larger, and flapping its wings more slowly, than a buzzard. It was difficult to tell exactly what colour it was but we thought it was dark brown/grey. When we got back to the post office, my dad had a look in a bird book (on his own) to see if he could determine what it had been. Without any prompting, he asked me if I'd noticed what colour the bird's tail was, and I said I thought it was white. The only bird in the book that looked like the bird my dad thought he'd seen was the white-tailed sea eagle, but he hadn't noticed the tail, so my saying it was white was interesting because it meant we might have seen a white-tailed sea eagle in Lindisfarne, even though it isn't meant to be there. We would be surprised if no-one else noticed it (whether it was an eagle or another very large bird) during that week. If anyone knows any more, it would be good to confirm one way or another.
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We saw waxwings in next doors rowan trees this morning eating the berries.
Apparently Edinburgh has been invaded by them. That's a first time sighting for us.
Jan and Julia Dobie
Edinburgh
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Over the last couple of weeks I have had a Kestral on my bird table. We live in a town but actually on the edge of it near fields. The kestrel seems to fly around the srubs to try to get the little birds out. Do you know if the Kestral will keep coming back and is this common for a Kestral to be in our garden as we live in a town.
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Our house is named after the smallest bird - the Goldcrest. We often wondered why. After 8 years here last year I at last saw my first Goldcrest (male) in the garden. That was a year ago. Then last Thursday I happened to see another male Goldcrest by the bird table accompanied by a small flock of long tailed tits. Then amazingly that night Bill showed a Goldcrest and announced he was featuring them on Monday night. I was very disappointed that it only lasted for about 30 seconds - please, please, please show it again.
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Last year and this year we've had an unusual bluetit visiting our feeder (amongst many perfectly normal ones). This odd bird has a beak that is 20 to 25mm long, thin like a piece of wire, and curved to the shape of about a quarter of a circle. It still manages to feed on sunflower hearts, despite its deformity. I've read of at least one other such bluetit on the internet, going by the name of Freaky Beaky. I'd like to know how common this abnormality is and what causes it.
One other observation: the tits throw out roughly a quarter of my expensive sunflower hearts. Why?
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Hi Kate & Bill,
I live in a rural part of Wales. At this time of year the Starlings come in great flocks. But disappear in spring. Two questions - where do they go in the summer, and why do they come here in the winter, when I would have thought that it would have been better for them to get more food from bird feeders in the city?
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Yesterday morning my husband and I were surprised by two bits of birdie behaviour. The first was a swan actually knocking at our narrowboat's window, clearly asking to be fed. The second surprise was seeing a small flotilla composed of a female duck, 15 very young looking ducklings and one Canada Goose who seemed to think that he/she was a member of the duck family. Has anyone else seen ducklings this late in the year?
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There is a walnut tree across the fields from our garden and the jackdaws, that are often to be found on our chimney pots, drop the nuts on our patio to break them open. We have a scattering of broken walnut shells, and a bit further down the patio a pile of broken snail shells left by the songthrushes.
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Why nothing on Hedgehogs? This year there have been a huge number of late births and many babies are having a really tough time of it. People are constantly finding them out during the day and doing the wrong things with them.
Carers and centres are innundated with sick babies.
Please put something out to tell people to grab any small ones or any found out during the day, put them in a box with a towel, some cat food, water and contact a local vet, carer or wildlife centre.
Losses are up on last year by a large number and we need to help these little guys as much as we can.
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We usually have a good selection of birds visiting our garden but this year we seem to have had far fewer than in other years. I know that at certain times of the year specific birds go elsewhere and then reappear later in the year but this year there seems to be a distinct lack of them coming back. Is this due to the bad weather or has there been a problem with some birds does anyone know.
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We have four bird feeding places in our small garden, so usually have quite a variety of birds. However, when we looked out a few weeks ago, there was one that I'd never seen before on the peanuts. I got my camera and when I zoomed in, I realised that it was a mouse using the feeder. Has anyone else had this happen?
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For the last three seasons I have out witted the squirrels in our garden.
Our pea nut feeder is susspended from a line of heavy duty black cotton.
The line in free space is about 5 metre long at a height of 3-metre. At this height any deflection due to the weight of yhe feeder is copensated in that it is not too close to the ground.
As the line is of black cotton the squirrels seem to think that the feeder is on a sky hook.
They visit each always going away with only any nuts dropped to the floor by the birds.
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We're currently feeding a young hedgehog, which has been visiting our garden for a while now. He/she eats catfood quite happily from a saucer, but will also eat it off a spoon!! And will quite happily trundle around our feet while we watch him/her patrolling the lawn too.
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I can hardly walk and spend most of my time sitting at the downstairs window, watching the animals in the garden. Up to now we have got 6 grey squirrels, and even though they are vermin, I cannot hurt them. Also in the garden every day, are 6 ring necked dove, umpteen tits, but they are too fast for an old fogey like me to see which ones they are. 6 magpie also come daily, my wife knows more than me and says we have goldfinch, and we have had him twice now, and umpteen starlings and sparrows by the flock. My wife goes to Farm Barn and buys a £26 sack of peanuts and fills feeders and even wall fastened hanging baskets then she goes down town shopping and getrs nuts in their shells and they go out as well. It is wonderful to watch them all feeding and playing. How can I get to know the birds please. Thank you so much, Jetson893
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I havea Himalayan honysuckle (Formosa) in my garden full of berries at the moment. Usually the small tis feed off of the berries on this, but yesterday I could not believe it a thrush was on the bush eating the berries is this unusual?
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With reference to Coal tit burying seeds
I have noticed Great Tits in my garden taking sunflower hearts and burying them in pots and under plants, this is the first year I have seen this , they are very busy
I am not sure if its one or more
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We have lots of blue tits, robins, magpies, wood pigeons and crows. Also a few wrens, blackbirds and thrushes. Sometimes on the fat block on the feeding station there can be up to 5 long tailed tits at one time. Never on long enough to photo though! The robins also manage to balance on the fat block and occasionally a blackbird has also managed it.
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Hi, I live in Stenhousemuir,central Scotland.We have a wild type of garden so it tends to attract the birds.This morning I saw about 8 goldfinch on one of our tallish trees and as I tried to take a photo I noticed that on our garden wall there was a sparrowhawk eyeing them up.Didn't get any decent photos but it was great to watch.
Elizabeth
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Nuthatch.
Can anyone tell me how to stop greedy nuthaches emptying seed feeders.
We use nut and seed feeders and enjoy a large variety of birds from families of woodpeckers to many goldfinches.
We are now visited by 2 nuthatches who empty 2 feeders within 2 hours, eating very little but throwing seed in all directions. Don't want to get rid of them but mess from their antics encourages mice and probably rats.
Any ideas
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A few days ago I was hanging out my washing when a Jay landed on a gutter about 6 feet away from me.It sat and watched me,bending its head down now and then for a closer look.My dog came out and barked and jumped in the air near it but it just bent down its head and looked at him.I went indoors and got my camera and took photos of it.I held the camera about 2 feet from it but it didn't move.In all it stayed for about 10 minutes before flying away.I thought Jays were shy of humans.
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ref crows and mussels etc. as a worker on an airfield in fife the corvids up here have been using the taxiways and runways to smash the shells since before 1995, so its nothing new. they also never clean up after themselves and somebody has to keep the airfield clear.
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sea eagles..... lovely birds but having seen the damage done to jets that have hit pigeons, gulls and geese I dread the day a jet hits a sea eagle. I fear there will be deaths on both sides. why release them near airfields, which did happen and will probably continue to happen
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In our fairly rural garden on the I.o.W. we obviously see many birds from time to time. Recently we have had a lull though. Last weekend we added three more (different) feeders to our peanut and fatball feeders, all spaced well apart.
We waited - amd waited, and no birds appeared for days. Then yesterday, as a one-off, we saw more birds at once than we normally see in a day, all frantically feeding as though they had not easten for weeks. There were several blue tits, all at once, long-tailed and coal tits (we think), a chaffinch or tweo, plus robins and starlings. There were also some medium sized brown birds which we didn't recognise. It lasted for an hour or two, then all the birds disappeared. The seed feeder was left nearly empty!
Then tody, nothing that we have seen. Why is this, and where were all the birds from and where have they now gone?
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Dear Bill and Kate,
I live near Cambridge and I am really concerned at the deverstation of all our Horse chestnut trees.
Last year I noticed big black spots on the leaves and then they witherered early. This year the leaves withered and fell by early summer, also they produced hardly any conkers. They look dreadful, is it the bleeding cancer and will they recover?
Also I have noticed the Sycamore leaves have the black spot this year.
I am really concerned that whatever this disease is, that it is spreading and could be irriversable. Please do you have any information about this.
Yours extremely concerned,
Sally London
Histon, Cambridge
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In my Bournemouth garden I have two foxes.
The birdfeeders are enjoyed by Coal Tits, Blue Tits and occasional Longtailed tits. There are Goldfinches, Dunnocks, Siskins and Robins. I have also seen a mouse in the feeder on a couple of occasions.
In the last fortnight we have had regular sightings of a Jay.
We regularly have Blackbirds and Crows in the garden.
In my nearby allotment there are Pheasants and formations of hooping swans flying over head.
There is plenty of wildlife locally.
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For the first time ever I noticed a Coal tit burying a sunflower seed under some old leaves near my kitchen window. Is this normal behaviour or a sign of a long cold winter to come. I have never seen this behaviour before.
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I have had coal tits in my garden all summer. They take sunflower seeds out of the feeders and plant them in hanging baskets and tubs and as a result I have had sunflower plants sprouting up all over the place.
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I have recently started bird watching again and have already seen some great birds at my feeding station in the garden including a Gold Crest.
This morning I was watching the birds feeding when a Hawk of some kind , I think maybe a Sparrow Hawk , flashed through the feeding area chasing a Blue Tit through the hedge. It was a truly awesome sight.
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Yesterday I saw around 30 Waxwings at the top of a sycamore tree at the end of my road (in Edinburgh). There are lots of rowan trees laden with berries so I suppose they were en route. Certainly by the time I got my camera out, they had moved on.
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I live near Paisley in Scotland. I have a small garden recently converted to be of more benefit to wildlife.
Having previously only seen Bullfinches fleetingly as they dive in and out of hedges, I was amazed to watch a male and a female jumping around together in the garden this morning gobbling up sycamore seeds. Brilliant views - and with recent sightings of a Goldcrest and a Redwing to add to the usual visitors including a huge flock of Great, Coal and Blue Tits taking turns at the feeders - my first Autumnwatch here has been great so far!
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I live just across the harbour on Blue Lagoon. At this present time there is a huge gathering of cormorants attaching small fish that have come into the lagoon.
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Hi Bill and Kate,
Really enjoying the show.....
Question --
I have various bird feeders in my garden but I am being over run with the greedy Starlings. I do have a small quantity of blue tits and sparows which visit but are bullied off the feeders. iwould like to attract different birds. Is there a way of doing this or am I stuck with the starlings?
Many thanks
Carol
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I live on the Isle of Wight....not far from Brownsea and I've left my old sunflower stalks in to let the finches feed on the seeds, however this morning much to my kid's amusement a red squirrel was seen climbing up the sunflower stalk to eat the seeds. The greedy devil is also biting the whole head off and running off. Sorry birdies, what can I do?
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hope the man breeding ravens is not allowed to do so unless they are released back into the wild . but as he feeds such stupid food in bowls i dont think his aim is to do this . why is he allowed to keep 25 in such a small cage . it is heart breaking to see such inteligent birds kept this way . after all simeon said i find it hard to see why we then went to this vurtual prison
have loved all the rest of the prog, thanks .
twinklegreyelephants.
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Hello Kate and Bill, Two days ago we had at least 20 Goldfinches in our garden all together! They were on the feeder and on the grass underneath. Only ever having seen one before we were thrilled.
We did put niger seed up in a feeder in the early summer to attract them but until now nothing. They've visited yesterday and again this morning, although not quite so many.
We have Greenfinches, Siskins, Chaffinches, Bluetits and and now Goldfinches all at once!
I live on the Isle of Wight
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Where we live is close to Kingsbury Waterpark and surrounded by water. In twelve years we have sighted the resident kingfisher(s) only twice. Over the past few weeks we have acquired a visiting kingfisher who sits regularly on the garden furniture and also a branch of a tree which hangs directly in front of the kitchen window, he appears interested and at ease with the goings on in our household which are many and noisy! I'm sure this is unusual behaviour and we would love to encourage him to keep visiting but we're not sure how.
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I have today seen an amazing sight and thought my eyes were deceiving me until I 'googled' what I had seen. It confirmed what I thought I had was in fact an albino squirrell! I didn't realise these even existed, let alone in the wild (round the corner from my Mum and Dad's house in Bromley, Kent, to be precise!). What an amazing sight!
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Earlier this week in my back garden which is largely shaded by trees, saw a kestrel on the lawn, having evidently caught one of the small birds low down in the pecking order for seeds and nuts. How close to our houses do kestrels normally come? How much of a risk is it that my bird feeders will become kestrel feeders?
Later that morning, my wife found a dead stoat - in pretty good condition, apart from being dead! - on our back patio. Have never seen any stoat or weasel near our house before in nearly 20 years of living here (next to a railway line in rural W Sussex)
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after viewing the piece on coal tit behavior, we started to take more notice of what they were up to on our own feeders, and yes! one individual paid several visits to the feeder, then hid a sunflower hearts in different parts of the garden, in the lawn, the flower bed behind an ornament on the wall, amoungst some knotted rope, then best of all landing on the handlebars of my bicycle and finding a nice slot in the brake lever to hold it.
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It has been another fantastic Autumnwatch.Thank you to everyone of you who brings such joy (and sometimes heartbreak) into our homes. I hope you all have a great winter and look forward to Springwatch. Just to say, also, that today I saw the first Long Tailed Tit of the winter. Surprisingly it was alone, because they are usually in groups, but perhaps it was sussing out the food source for the rest of the gang! Will have the tissues ready for tonight's final show!
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Love the programme and we watch all the time, Autumn and Spring.
I have numerous bird feeders on the garden which are very busy (when we can keep the squirrels off them!) but today I saw a new bird and having searched the internet I now know is a Nuthatch. I am wondering if these are common in Hampshire or if this is unusual?
I am hoping there will be more than just the one.
Is there anything I should put in the feeders to attract them?
Will try to get a picture to send you.
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We have a sparrowhawk which visits our garden to watch the actvity at the bird feeders. There are often little clouds of feathers scattered on the lawn but yesterday we saw him tucking into a big rat. I didn't think they went for vermin. Has anyone else seen this? Perhaps they should be renamed "sparrow-and-every-now-and-again-rat-hawk"
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I live near Chasewater in Staffordshire. I am used to seeing skeins of geese flying in v-formations to and from Chasewater, where they are fed daily. We also have lots of seagulls from time to time, feeding on nearby farm fields. In the last few weeks I have seen on 3 occasions, a large number of seagulls flying towards Chasewater in the late afternoons, with the bulk of the group also flying in v-formations. i have never seen this behaviour from seagulls before. Is this unusual behaviour?
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i have 4 grey squirrels come into my back garden and have taken photos of them.
one has got in to a birdfeeder cage and when a family member bought it, it said that it was squirrel proof but it is not.
i have put nuts out for them as they love coming in the garden and my children love to watch them.
but then they go away because i get cats in the garden and i do not like cats.
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my bird table was being visited by a large brown rat!! can you tell me should i follow my first instinct to want to KILL the brown rat and all its family who must be living nearby or can someone help me to see it as another form of lovely cuddly wildlife that i should learn to love and be proud to have visit my cornish garden. help !!!!! why do rats make me shudder with horror yet a squirrel would be welcome and give delight which instinct should i follow yours alygogs
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I love your programmes. It was great having yesterday's episode at the earlier time of 7pm so I could let my six year old daughter stay up to watch some out it. Bit tricky trying to explain what was happening with the seals though!
My garden is overrun by grey squirrels - how can I put them off to attract more birds?
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I was putting out food for birds in the spring but it was hi-jacked by rats, huge ones, several at a time, right by the back door.
I tried to adopt an "all God's creatures" approach but ceasing to feed birds. Unfortunately, they use the door post to "scent mark" territory and, being an old wooden cottage door, it came in through the gaps. Not much fun washing away rat pee from the kitchen floor. Now they're using the door and frame to sharpen their teeth. I will have to act soon or risk losing door frame all together.
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stockton is a small rural village set in the heart of warwickshire and is surrounded by open countryside. my bird table is fully operational now, with peanuts, fresh water etc and the balls containing fat are in place. the bird table is regularly invaded by a "gang" of starlings. however, due to their greedy messy eating habits a Robin waits patiently for the bits of food to fall to the ground and to satisfy his hungry needs I suspect other Birds do the same. The other main visitors to our garden are - the blackbirds, blue tits, green finches and the occasional wren. another regular visitor overhead that can be heard & seen gliding past are a small group of local buzzards.
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Dear Bill and Kate, I live on the edge of the new forest and was in my garden filling up the bird feeders when my husband saw what we thought was an unusual bird hidden under the branches it turned out to be a sparrowhawk waiting for us to go in so as the blue tits came it could pick them off easily, I was so surprised how clever to work that out, we have now trimmed the branches back a bit to give the birds a fighting chance. We see so many different birds in my garden and im going to get a book to reconise them, we have sparrows by the dozens blackbirds jackdaws magpies dunnocks woodpeckers all the tits including longtailed, but no squirrels dont know why, thanks so much to you all for you programmes they fantastic and funny. Dee and Pete wilson
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Hi All, this was filmed in our garden yesterday, can someone give a definitive answer on what it is. We think either female Sparrowhawk, or Goshawk?
many thanks, sorry its at this link www.tvor.tv/bird.html thanks again
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Dont forget the Isle of Wight when viewing red squirrels. We have no greys over here.
Where I live we have a barn owl hunting in the field behind us throughtout the summer and a couple of years ago a young hare took up residence in our front garden, sleeping under our bedroom window. He/she stayed with us for over a month before slowly going back to the wild.
How unusual is this? browneypk.
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Saturday morning 22/11/08 -
Today we were visited by the usual gang of Starlings ( now appears down to three gang members ) argueing over the fat balls as usual, followed by a beautiful Song Thrush, the Robin, a pair of Blackbirds, a lone Sparrow and a pair of Collared Doves.
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All this past two weeks we have been watching 2 Magpies in our back garden exhibiting some unusual behaviour for this time of year. They are quite obviously nesting even though its minus 3 or 4 at night now! They have been collecting twigs and other bits and pieces and knocking all the moss off the roof again, like they do in the spring. I don't know if anyone else has seen this but I think its very unusual for a Sheffield garden in December! Does anyone know if this is normal for Magpies and are they actually nesting or just practising for Spring?
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Visitors to the bird table in our small back garden on Thursday 11th December have been - Three Long-Tailed Tits, A Wren, The Robin, Great Tits, Black Birds, Sparrows, a pair of Collared Doves & the Gang of three Starlings.
The most exciting arrivals in the garden was the very first sighting of the three Long Tailed Tits which attracted our attention by their continuous calling .
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Just seen a solitary bee feeding on winter jasmine flowering on the west facing facade of our home.
Yes, definately a bee, in Solihull
Any one else seen nature out of kilter.
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We have a blue tit with a long beak who regularly visits our garden in Buckingham. I have read the report about Freaky Beaky and remember Bill Oddie on Spring or Autumn watch talking about a blue tit with a long beak (could be the same one) and now I see that drjumbowman also has a long beaked blue tit visitor.
Our blue tit seems very happy to feed on the fat ball as he can dig his beak into the middle.
Our blue tits also throw out most of the sunflower hearts,although it is the great tits who mostly do this. The pigeons and doves love it as they sit underneath.
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Hi! Above the burglar alarm on my house are three House Martin nests (known to us at 'the flats'!). In the past I,ve noticed a few Wrens using them to roost but over these last few afternoons I've been trying to count them. Today I counted at least 30 going in for the night. I'm amazed that a) there are that many Wrens in my garden and b) that they all know what time to come - today it was 4.15pm - 4.30pm. It's an amazing sight - they zoom in from all directions but it obviously keeps them alive as it was -8 C here last night.
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We have had a hawfinch visit our garden for the first time this year.this is made more suppriosing as we live on the A47 trunk road.Also on sunday11/1/09 we saw a honey buzzard cross the B1093 between Wimblington & Manea in cambridgeshire.It would be interesting to hear of other sightings of these two birds in this area.
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Hi there, can anyone help please.
I am in the Algarve and have an unidentified bird in the garden. I have tralled through hundreds of websites and books and cannot find it. Is there anyway i can send it to anyone to be identified? It is a beautiful finch with red colourings. I have lots of photos. So please can anyone help??
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This autumn we have an enormous problem with fox poo - as never before, loads of it every day. Any suggestions for what to do?
We like the foxes, but not what they leave behind
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i had a look out of the window last week & my cat was playing with a fox.has anybody seen this type of thing before.the fox is there every other night now we put food out for it. the cat is a maincoon hes a big bhoy could the fox mistake him for one of its own kind. ?.sid
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