Birdwatching

Over the years we've put a lot of effort into attracting birds into our garden and feeding them once they're there. The joys of watching the birds are tremendous, but there's also a considerable downside as well. We started feeding the birds seriously more than a decade ago. It began one cold winter with a red net bag of peanuts picked up at the supermarket. We watched with amazement as the blue tits demolished the peanuts and returned the next day to do the same to the one that I'd hurriedly picked up from the village shop. An apple hung in a tree attracted some fieldfares and by the spring we had more than twenty species of birds visiting the ...

At last count we counted over 20 different species of birds visiting our garden throughout the year. But it wasn't always like this. When we first moved into our house last September the only birds in the garden were a couple of magpies, two blackbirds and two dunnocks. Having been watching birds for around 10 years at our old house I knew that it would be easy to get more birds into the garden. I set up feeders and a birdtable and wondered what would come into the new garden. Like most people I began bird feeding by throwing out some bread. This seemed to attract mainly sparrows and starlings. Then I put up a bird feeder with some nuts from the local ...

I never thought of myself as a twitcher, probably because the birdwatching I do is just observing the ones that come into or near to my actual garden.That being said what was once just a helping hand to my little friends has become almost an obsession. I don't go out looking for rare species or anything like that and I don't hide myself away in the hope of perhaps getting some good photographs or film of them in action.Although I may well do once the foot and mouth restrictions allow access to the lovely walks we have in this area.I've also got to invest in a far better camera. Anyway back to my lovelies. The reason for my obsession is that ...