WHAT'S BUZZING OR FLYING NEAR YOU 2020

Now that the harvesting is done and the weather has closed in our three crows are back. They're at least 14 years old and still seem as lively as ever. They don't bother the other birds and just clean up what the birds drop from the feeders. When they're around we can also throw out meat scraps and bones as they take everything away - including the bone from a leg of lamb.

 

Thanks @strongylodon I'm expecting them to last longer than that as they have had a good diet for all that time. They're just working their way through some leftover rice after a sunflower starter.

 

Boasting again!

 

@strongylodon Our birds have changed somewhat but we still have 4 wood pigeons, 4 collared doves, 9 robins, 2 wrens, lots of chaffinches coal tits, great tits and blue tits, long tail tits come and go, greenfinches are returning after a couple of years of not seeing many (used to get hundreds), 6 woodpeckers, only a couple of pheasants for about a week at a time whereas we used to have a dozen or more all the time, sparrows are becoming more numerous but very few starlings. Only two Magpies seen recently and, very rarely, some goldfinches.

We, now, regularly have four buzzards circling very high above and a couple of red kites have appeared and we haven't seen them in the 48 years we've been here.

 

Not very good shots I needed to fill up the bird feeders.

 

@strongylodon is scaly foot a common problem with birds? Even you having mentioned it I can't see it properly. Is the whitish sort of bulge on the foot?

Is there anything I can do? Do I need to clean the feeders more frequently? I also used to use a disinfectant spray (probably still got some in the cupboard) after I washed and cleaned the feeders. Should I start that again?

It takes me about two hours of very fiddly work to clean the feeders. Taking them apart is easy but putting them back together is quite awkward as I really need three hands for it . The big feeding station is the most awkward as it has about a dozen feeding perches that need to be screwed back together. It's quite a wide cylinder (and 3ft high) and getting my hand round it to hold it whilst trying to keep the nut in place for me to get the screw in isn't easy with arthritis in my thumbs . I may need to start looking for a different type of feeder.