The honeysuckle is in flower.
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Chiffchaff or willow warbler?
DKG has sent in beautiful pictures of a tiny green-brown warbler; does anybody know if it is a chaffchaff or a willow warbler? Neither is a rarity and both are known to nest in the park but we really have trouble telling them apart.
Continue readingFive facts about blue tits
ONE: Though their typical nest site is a hole in a tree, blue tits have been recorded nesting in all sorts of places: letterboxes and street lamps, inside a crack in a wall or a drainpipe, under a cast iron drain cover and, of course, in garden nest boxes.
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Common swallow
Common swallows (Hirundo rustica), returned from their long migrations, come hawking over our fields and ponds in search of insects at this time of year.
Continue readingBird table
Feeding birds in the spring.
Birds time their breeding period to coincide with the maximum availability of their natural foods: for example, winter moth caterpillars in the case of blue tits and earthworms for blackbirds and song thrushes. But cold or wet weather during the spring can cause severe shortages of insect food, and if the weather is exceptionally dry and the soil hardened, as it was last year, earthworms will be unavailable to ground feeding birds.
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Rüppell’s griffon vulture
No, of course we haven’t seen vultures circling over the park; that would be silly. But…..
Continue readingRecord holders
The record breaking swifts are back from their winter feeding grounds.
Continue reading “Record holders”Garden Birdwatch
British Trust for Ornithology
Since 1995 the British Trust for Ornithology has collected important research data from citizen scientists via their Garden Birdwatch survey.
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