Spare a thought for our feathered friends.

[Terminator]

In the area where I live we have been lucky enough to see the amazing aerial ballet of 100,000's of Starlings, over the fields around our home in previous years. Like this clip from

 

Sadly the starling is now an endangered species. We have always feed birds from late autumn to late spring. Despite being endangered we still had more Starlings than any other birds coming into the garden to feed, until this year, the most we have seen is four at one time and then only very infrequently. During this very cold weather, finding food is much harder for all our feathered friends so we keep our many feeders topped up. Last year they needing topping up at most every two days. This winter the food is staying for almost a week, this can only mean on thing, the number of birds in the area has dropped dramatically. We have a variety of feeding stations with a number of different foods for different bird species all are staying full much longer. Gold finches eat mainly thistle seeds, last year the thistle feeder as always busy, for most daylight hours so needed filling every two days, this winter it is taking two weeks to empty.

 

Is this a common pattern or a local phenomenon? I am particularly concerned because for the past four years the local gravel pits have been landscaped, hedges planted and allowed to fill with water. Shortly the whole area is to become the largest wetland bird sanctuary in Europe. So we should be seeing an increase in birds due to the rapidly increasing area of natural habitat for all bird species in the area. In the past four years, during every cold snap, we get birds coming to feeders because they can not access enough food in the natural environment. The lack of numbers off all species this year is worrying.

[Chris Wilson]

Not noticed any particular decline in species generally round here. Robins are in abundance and having their usual nasty territorial scraps. Buzzards are aplenty, which means food sources are abundant. Tree creepers, woodcocks, and thrushes have done well, too.

[TopgunTT]

I saw a tree creeper today for the first time, Funny little thing, I never knew what it was until the wife told me and we watched it climb it's tree.

 

We have plenty of birds in our garden, All kinds of tits, Robins, and even woodpeckers, I am filling up my feeders nearly every other day.

 

Also dice up the nuts for the smaller birds and squirrels.

[Dave]

do your thoughts include turkeys

[Josh]

Maybe the kids in the local area all got air rifles for Christmas last year.

[Charlotte]

We try to put out as much as we can for the birds at this time of year. The pumpkins served as a good vessel for food, although the lids have now gone.

[RedM]

do your thoughts include turkeys

 

I didn't put him up to that. Honest.

[Chris Wilson]

I saw a tree creeper today for the first time, Funny little thing, I never knew what it was until the wife told me and we watched it climb it's tree.

 

We have plenty of birds in our garden, All kinds of tits, Robins, and even woodpeckers, I am filling up my feeders nearly every other day.

 

Also dice up the nuts for the smaller birds and squirrels.

 

We had a pair of woodpeckers nesting in a rotted tree last summer, and the parents used to bring the chick over the field to the house to teach it to feed. I got some photos of them out of the kitchen window. It's quite rare to see this, apparently.

 

http://www.gatesgarth.com/woodpeckers/woodpeckers.html

 

They are still about.

[BOB B]

The big thing that kills a lot of birds during these really cold spells is lack of water, so try to put some teppid water out most days or melt existing stuff as well as a good spread of foods.