The weather has been cooler this week and the birds have been tending to return to their normal routines although the feral pigeons still disappear from the roof at the hottest part of the day. I am seeing a small group of starlings and they seem to favour either the suet logs or the mealworms put in the tray of the feeder, as well as a dash across the lawn to have a drink from the birdbath saucer. The other day a feral pigeon landed between two starlings in the feeder tray and one of the starlings started jumping up and down, reminding me of a toddler having a tantrum, squawking, flapping its wings and literally leaping up and down from the feeder tray as much to say, ‘Get off. That is mine!’.
A similar incident happens with the feral pigeon with the one I call that I call white wing. He visits the garden most days even if for a brief while and he is one of the few pigeons who has worked out how to flip open the lid on the peanut feeder and more easily eat peanuts. The other afternoon he arrived in the garden and I knew what was going to happen straight away as another pigeon was poking its beak through the mesh on the peanut feeder. He just flew down and shoved the other bird out of the way, ‘That is mine’, popped the lid up and started eating the peanuts himself. There seems to be a fourth predominantly white pigeon now in the group as there is white wing who has a party black tail and a few small black splodges on his back, a second I call son of white wing who has a completely black tail and large black splodges on one wing, one that is almost completely white apart from a couple of black tail feathers and the latest arrival who is white apart from a half black tail.
The greater spotted woodpeckers are still coming although I haven’t seen them as much in the past week and they are still using either the peanut feeder or the suet logs. If they are on the peanut feeder they then move onto the dead tree stump itself, where I hang the feeders and play hide and seek with the other birds round the trunk. I have seen a blue tit and a great blue tit in the garden this week but I haven’t as yet seen any more youngsters. The sparrows also of course have their youngsters, although I think a lot of the them are now finding other things to eat in the countryside and are using my feeders as a supplement for their food. I guess that’s how it should be in the summer months.
Other birds to visit this week include a couple of jackdaws, three crows who also say , ‘That is mine’ and clear the other birds out of the way, a magpie, a pair of wood pigeons and a couple of collared doves. I also saw one of the robins hopping about the other day and coming for some mealworms and of course the blackbirds are still here including their youngster.
At least one squirrel has been arriving in the garden and eating peanuts and I think there are also now starting to harvest the green cobnuts, either that or a lot of them are falling out of the tree due to high winds and heavy rain. I saw a couple of younger foxes one evening having a look round and following one another round the garden.
There have been plenty of bees of various sorts on my flowers and in the main just cabbage white butterflies. I’ve yet to see any dragonflies this summer as I usually say one or two flying around between my garden and neighbouring ones. While tidying some of my patio containers yesterday I took a picture of a long, thin yellow and black caterpillar which I have included with the blog this week. I imagine it had been responsible for stripping all the leaves off a couple of plants but had not eaten the dog violets.
Written by Margaret Emerson
