Where have all the wee birds gone?

Maybe someone else in the neighbourhood has just started feeding and their offerings are fancier?
My next door neighbour has never fed before this year, now she has two feeding stations up.

The only thing really in demand from my feeders in the black sunflower seed; the tits prefer it to anything else, presumably because it can be stashed.

This little coal tit was being really fussy, pulling out seed after seed and chucking it on the ground. Luckily the wood pigeons were available to clean up!

 

Yes, I saw the first robin since spring 2024, yesterday. There were two in my garden last winter, which was great. They were very friendly and fearless around me, unlike the other woodland birds ( apart from the resident blackbirds who are friendly butvalways on high alert for predators).

 

@Escarpment , none of our neighbours feed the birds. Even our resident robin has deserted us and the little Jenny wren. She’s always flitting about usually but haven’t seen her in weeks.

I did notice 5 magpies flying around above the house( babies included?) this morning , maybe they’re keeping the smaller birds away? They made a right racket too.

 

I've had a big influx of magpies too but I'm still getting plenty of assorted tits, wren, robin, dunnocks, blackbirds and chiffchaffs. They've only returned in the last few weeks though and they tend to all turn up in a mob and then disappear again - right now the garden is quiet. And most of them are more interested in the rowan berries or hunting bugs on the silver birches than using the feeders.

I put up a new nesting box last week and within an hour a great tit was checking it out. It then headed straight to the existing box (identical box on another tree) as if to compare!

Robin has decided to sing on the fence instead of the usual singing post high in the rowan tree.

 

Magpies don't prevent smaller birds being around. We have loads of magpies here, and they're a ruddy nuisance a lot of the time because they've had a very good breeding season this year, and have nested in my garden too, but I probably have far more small birds than ever.

 

we don’t see that many magpies as a rule and with seeing so many suddenly, I just wondered if they could be the reason why the smaller birds have hopped it. will keep the food going for a while longer and see if they can be enticed back. We have no berries left on the roman tree…they’ve all dropped off or rotted off already. Think it’s gone into a state of dormancy before the due time.

 

Was sitting by the pond the other day when a blur flew past at head height . Heard a Whoosh of wings as the hawk tried to take out a blackbird behind us.

Never a dull moment as the garden seems to be home to sparrows,blackbirds,thrush,rbins,wrens,woodpigeons,owls,jackdaws and more at the moment.

Must be the hedges and especially the small wooded glen that attracts them in.
No better sight than seeing the thrush tucking into yet another slug.

 

Could be a local hawk keeps them nervous,safety in numbers etc. Ours keep dashing into the beach hedging when spooked.

 

It could be @WeeTam , but we have dozens of other little birds in the back garden every day. Occasionally we do get a Sparrowhawk and less often a Kestrel , but the former we have also seen in the street where the Sparrows nest. But to be honest we see buzzards more often than the other 2 birds of prey and they seem more interested in the squirrels (or tree rats as @fairygirl said).

 

The Finches and Tits come down early morning ,they also feed the Pigeons down below.
I just love watching them.

 

Nice wee youngsters there @roders
They're messy aren't they! Always a benefit for the ground feeding birds though.

 

We have loads of varied habitat here too, which sometimes works against us as many birds don't really need to come in the garden. Woodpeckers are a prime example.
I have a ground feeding tray, complete with green roof [now that's posh @shiney ! ] and it's ideal for any of the bigger birds, although the sparrows, dunnocks and robins use it too. Blackbirds and thrushes tend to come in more in winter.
We have loads of crows/jackdaws etc in the area, but they're quite rare visitors. When the ground's frozen long term, or we have snow lying for a while, they sometimes come in though.

 

I regularly hear woodpeckers @shiney , and we have a huge array of very mature trees of all kinds round here, and lots of little pockets of woodland, but we're also a stone's throw from a small NT garden, so they'll have plenty of room there to nest.
One came in the garden recently, but he couldn't get to the feeders because I have purpose built cages for them to keep squirrels out, and I felt a bit guilty! I made a new feeder which has just one small access port, and it could reach that, but it's not reappeared. The idea was to make it seem a little bit like a hole in a tree, and once the shrub it's in has grown over it a bit more, it'll be quite nicely camouflaged.
The great, blue and coal tits, and robins have been using it plenty though. The sparrows have had a go at it too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it might appear again, but it was a nice little project to keep me busy.