31 Thursday Jan 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, flowers, nature, weather, wildflowers, winter
It was frosty white this morning but, as I write this at 4pm, the forecast snow hasn’t arrived. If I sound disappointed, it’s because I am – as an Antipodean who’s not seen much snow, I love it when it does happen. Still, I enjoyed crunching around the fields at Cosmeston this morning and made sure I took plenty of bird seed for all my hungry feathered friends.
05 Thursday Jul 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, blackbird, British birds, bullfinch, Carrion crow, Collared dove, garden birds, Goldfinch, Great spotted woodpecker, Woodpigeon
My friend Sharon has a lovely garden: an area of lawn bordered by flowers, shrubs and hedge; a separate area for growing vegies, the glasshouse and the beehives; and a lovely little bit of wild woodland at the end. It’s a paradise for birds, particularly because Sharon also has lots of feeders that she keeps stocked up with seeds of various kinds and suet blocks. As a person who lives in a first-floor flat with no garden, I just love visiting Sharon’s garden. I could sit watching the birds all day long.
My photos show just a few of the birds that entertained us yesterday – and these 14 species are not the only birds that visit: House sparrow, Blue tit, Great tit, Collared dove, Woodpigeon, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Carrion crow, Great spotted woodpecker, Magpie, Robin, Dunnock, and Blackbird.
The Great spotted woodpeckers have been bringing their offspring to the garden this year
The Woodpigeon doesn’t look too happy about the Carrion crow being so close
A Blackbird with an odd beak
‘This is ours’, squawked the Goldfinch to the Bullfinch, but …
… the Bullfinch won out on the day!
A beautiful Collared dove
19 Thursday Jan 2017
Tags
berries, birding, birdwatching, blackbird, British birds, Cotoneaster berries, Redwing, Roath Park, winter berries for birds, Woodpigeon
They may look luscious and juicy but Cotoneaster berries contain toxins, which means that many people consider them poisonous. (There’s a good article about whether or not they really are poisonous on the Poison Garden website.) Yet the blackbirds, thrushes and woodpigeons seem to enjoy them and, when the more desirable berries like rowan have been consumed, these nutritious berries help to sustain the birds through the lean winter months.
Roath Park has several cotoneaster trees that are covered in bright red and dull yellow berries at the moment so, as I walked home from the train station this afternoon I kept an eye out for feeding birds. And I got lucky.
The hefty woodpigeons were easy to spot as their clambering made the branches shake a lot. The blackbirds were more delicate but also more entertaining, as they performed their aerial trapeze, clinging to branches and stretching as far sideways or upside down as they could to reach the furthest fruit. The bonus of the day was a group of about five redwings also feeding spasmodically in these trees. They were more skittish, flitting quickly on to the very top branches for some rapid pecking but, always watchful, flitting away again to higher nearby trees as people walked past along the pathway.
25 Monday Apr 2016
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Blackcap, Blue tit, British birds, chaffinch, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Great tit, jackdaw, robin, Woodpigeon
We’ve seen some of the landscape at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park; we’ve checked out the prime lakefront real estate; and we’ve been tit-elated by some of its small birds. Now, here’s what was on Nature’s menu last Wednesday.
The absolute highlight of the day was seeing my first Blackcap, and not just one, but five in total, at different times, in different locations, including a female (she wears a brown cap). I was well pleased with that!
After a quiet birding day last time I visited, I was delighted to see more of my favourites this time: a robin was feeding its fledgling; the great and blue tits were demanding food; chaffinches and wood pigeons were getting tucked in to seed left by others; two buzzards were gliding overhead, looking for lunch; a jackdaw was collecting nest-making materials.
As well as these and many other birds, there was a wonderful assortment of butterflies and bees feasting on the lesser celandine and wild violets flowering along the path edges. There were occasional clumps of bluebells and wafts of wild garlic flowers, and it was a gloriously warm spring day. A man I met during my wandering told me I looked happy, and so I was, doing what I love most – being with nature.
