Garden birds

It’s not cold enough they are spread out the countryside I hope, if not bird flu is a likely cause, yes it affects garden birds too but I expect farmers will get the blame as usual.

The usual suspects are in our garden everyday they are like residents here. The flocks of geese flying over has increased dramatically this year.

I did notice earlier in the year that we had fewer starlings than usual this year. Normally they drive me bananas with their noise and taking over all the feeders. They eat us out of house and home while they have youngsters.

I think it is Avian flu season again, apparently a number of wild birds that have died have tested positive for Avian flu.

Still lots of birds in our garden, eating the sunflower hearts. We’re in Kent, surrounded by woodland.

I’ve noticed a huge drop in birds. I haven’t even seen a blackbird all summer. I don’t feed the birds in the summer but restarted putting food out a week ago and it hasn’t been touched.
Our local river is also empty of the common water birds. I see an occasional duck but there have been no coots, moorhens or swans for several years.
I wonder if avian flu has killed our local birds?

We still have lots of blue tits, great tits, robins and goldfinches. The woodpeckers still appear. A few days ago the feeders were covered with long tail tits. We used to have 5 or 6 blackbirds pottering about but only see 2 at the moment.

We've always been visited by lots of greenfinches along with the goldfinches but this year haven't seen any. Also haven't seen the bullfinches and chaffinches this year that normally call by this time, but that may be because we have spent less time in the garden.

As PG says above. I’m sure birds prefer berries and/or worms turned up in ploughing.
I’m a bird feeder and I’ll start again from tomorrow, but once I start, it’s necessary to feed every day. Small birds loose so much energy overnight that they need to use that energy to find food asap, so it’s essential they know that my bird feeders are available and replenished daily.

Birds often disappear after breeding. The need to moult worn feathers and rebuild energy reserves so they hide away to make themselves less vulnerable to predators. They also disperse to find more abundant food sources in the countryside and new territories before winter.

I’ve already started to see the blue tits and wrens reappearing after a short absence. A few weeks ago, I had a good clear up in the front garden and noticed there was no robin accompanying me, which there usually is. This week they are back and looking very bright. I’m expecting the goldfinches later to feast on the cosmos seed heads.

We seem to have lost some too - robins, tits and goldfinches have deserted us - temporarily I hope. The sparrows are still doing their ablutions though!

We have a colony of sparrows that roost in the evergreens of 4 gardens. Every lunchtime they come for a swim in the large . bird bath

Can't say I've noticed either- it is wise to remember birds are wild creatures and will go where they will- not just there to see you in your garden!

I have noticed that many birds seem to disappear for a while in Autumn and then start returning round about now as the weather starts to cool.

I live in a town but there are quite a few farmers fields not far away and I wonder if the birds make the most of harvest time and then come back as "pickings" start to run out?

I don’t know, but the other day a dd sent a little video of ‘a gazillion’ goldfinches around their sunflower hearts feeder!