Tuesday 6 December 2011

Greenfinch

No patch visit was made today, i've come down with a cold virus, and didn't feel too good, so I stayed at home. At least I got to watch the garden feeders, and scan the sky from the house for a lot of the day. I even got some photo's early on when the sun was out  :-)

One of the first species of the 19 to visit the garden was the SPARROWHAWK, but it soon realised there was nothing about for breakfast, and went off elsewhere, thankfully it wasn't seen again for the remainder of the day.

Sparrowhawk

Gradually, the BLUE and GREAT TITS came in, up to 20 Blue Tits at one time whizzed to and fro, but just 5 Great Tits were seen at any one time. Finch's were a bit down on what I would expect at this time of year, with peak counts of 6 CHAFFINCH, 5 GOLDFINCH and also 5 GREENFINCH.

Greenfinch, Great Tit, Goldfinch and Blue Tit ( going anticlockwise from top left)

The COLLARED DOVES arrived in groups, the largest group was of 7 birds, the same could be said of the STARLINGS, with small groups visiting the fat blocks throughout the day, 5 was the most seen at one time.  Singles of  DUNNOCK and WREN scurried about under the shrubs, where a couple of BLACKBIRDS were also feeding, and 2 ROBINS dashed to and fro, from fat feeders to the sunflower hearts. Just two HOUSE SPARROWS visited, a sign of the times, as numbers continue to fall in my garden.

Two NUTHATCH, two COAL TITS, a JACKDAW, a WOODPIGEON and 3 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS came in, the latter having a peanut feeder each to themselves, but the birds of the day for me, were the two male BULLFINCH that came to the Sunflower hearts - beautiful birds! These represented the 22nd species to visit the feeders this month  :-)

One of the Bullfinch's, pity I had to take the shot through the double glazing!

In all, not a bad selection of garden birds, but the day was made even better when I spotted a COMMON BUZZARD (53) over the Wet Woods, one more for the months list!

Below are a few other photos I took, mainly of the Coal Tits  :-)

Coal Tit



Coal Tit

Coal Tit
Great Tit





8 comments:

Bob Bushell said...

My favourites is the Sparrowhawk and the Bullfinch, they are superb.

Millhouse Photography said...

20 blue tits - do you know? I've never actually seen that many at once. What a lovely sight.

Warren Baker said...

Bob,
Not so keen on the Sprawk, but I do love the Bullfinch's :-)

Warren Baker said...

Christian,
There are probably over 50 Blue Tits that visit the garden during the day, 20 at the same time was the most that I recorded today.

Alan Pavey said...

I hope you feel better soon, the Bullfinch is certainly my favourite but the Coal Tit pics are not far behind! Some good numbers there too.

Pete Woodruff said...

Sorry you're under the weather and hope this soon improves Warren, but you had a good 'garden day' with some excellent photographic and bird count results didn't you.

Anonymous said...

No patch visit for me either, Warren. By the time the rain had stopped, i`d lost the urge to go out.

Mike H said...

some nice shots of the Garden birds today Warren, if pressed the Bullfinch would get my vote but the coal tit shots are good too.