Stock garden feeders during cold weather
With the weather turning snowy, now is the time to ensure that garden bird feeders are well stocked and to keep a close eye on the species that are attracted to them.
The vast array of bird foods that are now available means that we are reaping the benefits of more species than ever before visiting our gardens, particularly finches.
Goldfinches are now increasingly visiting feeders to take sunflower heads and niger seeds, while siskins, once an unfamiliar sight for many birdwatchers, are also frequent visitors to many gardens, numbers of both reaching a peak in later winter and early spring as natural food supplies run low.
Some fortunate householders living near woodland might attract the splendid-looking bullfinch into their gardens.
Since the late 1990s small parties have been reported in gardens across much of the British Isles in winter feeding on black sunflower and other seeds. Pairs of bullfinches appear to stay together from one season to the next and do not stray far from their breeding territories throughout their lives.
So the bullfinches visiting your garden this winter might well be the same birds that were there last year.
Long-tailed tits are also being seen in many more gardens and in January this year made it into the 10th place of birdsmost frequently seen during the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.
The long-tailed tit population has soared due to the run of relatively mild winters and the snug domed and feather linednests which they build. These provide extra protection for young long-tailed tits against cold wet spring weatherwhich can prove fatal for many other chicks.
Long-tailed tits visit peanut feeders but have also been seen taking small seeds, bread, cheese crumbs and fat – last week I saw six in a vertical line down a tree trunk that had been smeared with fat all busily feeding.
It will be interesting to see if long-tailed tits maintain their top 10 status in the next Big Garden Birdwatch being held on the weekend of January 30-31. More information is available on www.rspb.org. uk/birdwatch or by ringing the hotline on 0300 456 8330.
A bird whose very evolution seems to be changing because of garden birdtables is the blackcap.
Blackcaps have been seen here during the wintersince the early 1960s and research confirmed that they arefrom southern Germany, arriving in September and October, feeding on natural food in woodland until late this month and then moving into gardens.
Colder weather has resulted in more bitterns being seen, with two at Pugneys Country Park, near Wakefield, where the drake ferruginous duck is still present, one at Rother Valley Country Park and two at Potteric Carr, near Doncaster. One was seen briefly at Blacktoft Sands.
Cetti's warblers continue to be heard and seen at Potteric while one was singing and giving good views at Fairburn Ings, near Castleford, a first for the reserve.
A female hen harrier spent most of Sunday hunting over the Blacktoft Sands reserve and there are good views ofbarn owls, merlins and marsh harriers coming in to roost.
A Siberian chiffchaff has been showing well at Lakeside, Doncaster, a firecrest at Rother Valley Country Park and mealy redpoll with lesser redpolls at Linthwaite, near Huddersfield.
Seawatchers on the Yorkshire coast saw a Balearic shearwater and two great skuas off Flamborough.
tealebill48@yahoo.co.uk
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Weather for Yorkshire
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
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Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
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