What's buzzing or flying near you 2025 ?

We occasionally get swooped on by a sparrowhawk but they're mostly after the stupid wood pigeons. A pair of those insists on nsesting in the south facing wisteria along our annex but it has ahuge, woody trunk and thick branches and is no 1 huntress cat's route up to the annex roof so they've never hatched an egg yet. Too much disturbance.

As I went down to lock up the chooks yesterday evening I heard some unfamilar birdsong - not expert by any means but learning slowly - and Merlin identified dunnocks and wrens which I never see but know are about but a lovely surprise too. We have sedge and Sardinian warblers in our pond area. It's a large, deep unlined pond originally dug for water for cows when the house was a farm and has 2 mature ash trees plus 2 young ones, a weeping and a corkscrew willow I planted, a couple of young hawthorns and lots of bullrushes. Redstarts, chaffinches, blackbirds and barn swallows all singing along too.

 

Got in today and looked out of kitchen window and saw one of the bluetits hanging from the nesting box snagged on something. Dashed out but ut had freed itself but saw it flying off with something trailing behind it. Since then only seen one bluetit. Really hope it hasn't got snagged up on a tree somewhere but fear the worst.

 

Regards the above do you think a mail bluetit would be able to rear the chics on his own .I feel really depressed thinking about it.

 

I think it depends on how many young are in there, they can have up to 10 so it would almost be impossible for one bird to feed 4 or 5.

 

A surprise brief visit by a Nuthatch, only the second time in over ten years!

 

@strongylodon how lucky you are to have a nuthatch. What do we have at the moment? Magpies attacking the feeders and chucking them down on the ground to get the peanuts. Never happened before. So after many weeks of this we thought stop feeding but we do like seeing the other birds. So have now strapped the feeders (doesn't look nice) to the main poles so the other birds can still feed but hopefully the magpies wont win this time.

 

I spotted a crow doing that the other day; it was sitting on top of the feeder pole and lifting up the mealworm feeder by the wire hanger. I rapped on the window and it flew off; I realised then that I hadn't put out my usual spread of mealworms on the ground so maybe it was a protest! I get a lot of magpies too, but I do find them useful when I've got something I want to get rid of like stale bread. Cooked rice too is very popular with all the birds.

I expect the birds are finding it difficult to get enough to eat with the ground being so hard, hence more determined attacks on the feeders.

 

Nuthatches are regular visitors to our feeders. There is often a pair of them. But at the moment the feeders are quiet except for the parakeets. They have learnt that hanging on the wire cage makes it hang closer to the seed holes. So I am going to fix it so it's rigid. I'll teach them the greedy so and sos. And they make a lot of mess on the squirrel baffle - hardly getting any squirrels so I could take it down.

There still seems to be babies in the bird box on the fence. Not sure if it's tom tits or great tits. The box is well hidden by an acer tree, but when we sit nearby the parents buzz past and the babies scream for food. Our main bird box seems empty - we often have bees in there, but this year it's quiet.

 

Marmalade Hoverfly approaching an allium flower. They are intriguing to watch: they kind of "bounce" off the flower multiple times before finally settling. Maybe they are testing the nectar at various spots.


I think I caught a ladybird emerging from the "crocodile" stage

 

Pesky Jackdaws are stripping my pear tree of all it's young fruit.

 

The Nuthatch made several visits today and hopefully will have found a regular place to feed.




First young Goldfinch seen today.

 

No pics folks we are holidaying near Bude just caught a Linnet and skylark on my Merlin app !

 

@Valleysgirl I often hear skylarks in the meadows around here but it's very hard to actually see them!

Spotted some Great Tit fledglings waiting to be fed this morning.

 

Fantastic, beautiful pics, @strongylodon and @Escarpment. Really good to see, thanks from me!

I found a dead bird in the garden last week. I think it was a juvenile. It was lying on its back, it happened between evening and morning, near a tree.

It was a sort of pale grey, possibly a bit vaguely striped. It's beak reminded me a bit of a seagull's. I have heard groups of starlings - I think they were nesting nearby, but this dead bird was quite big (sort of dove-sized) but without the spotted starling look. I have no idea what it was.

Does it ring any bells with anyone? I was wondering if it could be a seabird or a migrant bird to the UK. I searched but can't find any bird that looked like this.