What's buzzing or flying near you 2025 ?

Something else to worry about…

Pet fur found in songbird nests contains high levels of pesticides, study finds

 

A green woodpecker in the long grass areas in the orchard for a long time. Male great spotted on one of the feeders. They are so nervous and fly away if we move in the kitchen.

 

Lucky you. Since all the ash tress round here died of ash dieback I haven’t seen a single woodpecker of any kind. We used to have both the green and the greater spotted.

 

Thanks for posting this @Tidemark. We've been collecting fur from our cat and hanging it outside during nest-building time. Looks like we'll have to go back to using fluff from the tumble-drier.

I'm guessing there might also be potential dangers with the birds using sheep's wool. There's plenty of that lying around up here.

 

Yes, I’ve been a cat brush fluff collector too. The things you don’t think about.

 

Last year the great tits had a nest in one of my boxes and were busy bringing in food. Then it suddenly all stopped, much too soon. I'm pretty sure nothing fledged.
When I cleaned out the box in the autumn I found the bottom half of the nest was moss and the top half dog hair. I don't have any cats or dogs so I have no control over this.

 

Oh dear, how sad.

 

Coal Tit, more visible than the Goldcrest, nice to see both in the garden again.

 

Never seen a goldcrest on a feeder before! I get them but they dart around at the tops of the trees. I get plenty of coal tits, they are obsessed with black sunflower seeds and stash them all over the place. Here's a result of this - making a valiant attempt for life on the 15th Jan!

 

While in the garden this morning the house sparrows were very vocal. I think they were really shouting at me to move on away from their area. The blue and great tits were also in abundance around the feeders. Robins being aggressive, dunnocks doing what they do quietly, pigeons stomping about and jackdaws making a fuss as they do.

 

Our Robins are very aggressive still, chasing off the Siskins, Goldfinches and even the Dunnocks as soon as they appear.

 

Didn't manage to get photos, but we had 4 Geai de chênes (Oak Jays?) fossicking about in the tree and shrub bed on the drive, yesterday. Very pretty birds, like outsize bullfinches but with sharp, pointed beaks Logical, really, as there's an oak wood about 300m from the drive... Apart from those, it's the usual finches, tits and robins emptying the feeders on a daily basis.

 

Coal tit in the garden this morning. The ground in the back garden has yet to be touched by a sunbeam, but the tops of the trees were getting the benefit and the tits were enjoying it.

 

While in the garden this morning we stopped to take in the lovely fragrance of the winter box. Saw a movement in the magnolia grandifolia and were delighted to see a gold crest flitting about. Lovely.