|
| Part One Part Two Part Three It is nice to enjoy the summer and with it the flowers and garden birds. During all the cold weather in June and July both seemed to flourish. We feed birds in our garden all year. This is somewhat controversial but certainly produces results. We feed both peanuts and seed. I was reassured to see a circular saying that more birds die of starvation in the summer than the winter. The logic seems to be that it would be the winter that causes deaths. This seems to be a good year for our main summer migrants. I bemoan the loss of house martins from our eaves whilst the missus is delighted as they used to c**p on the windows. There are reports of strong populations of house martins in Lower Heyford and Tackley. We have good populations of swallows with two sets in one building and another in a third. There seem to be plenty of swifts about. They are now really noisy as their population has been boosted by two broods. All these three bird species can expect to rear two broods each visit. This is an increase from a single pair in May to a family of around ten birds when they depart in September. Why is it only the same numbers of pairs return each year to inhabit the old nests? Any suggestions, email us! D.M. | TOP | Part One Part Two Part Three Are you a bird feed junky? Or are you able to merely put out a few peanuts and leave the matter there? Lucky you. We started out normal and then got hooked watching the blue and great tits on the peanuts. In order to increase the show we put up a second feeder. The results were impressive. We then added a fat-block feeder. Then the grey squirrels arrived. Change the feeders. Then the starlings arrived. Put mesh round then so that they could not get in. This worked quite well. Then we started putting out special high-energy bird seed mixture. The results over time have been spectacular. There can be over 30 birds feeding most mornings in the autumn and winter months. Apart from the common tits there are regular visiting coal tits, long tailed tits and marsh tits. Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Dunnocks are generally feeding at different times of the day. Robins visit and even Wrens. In the summer the variety is much less. It is interesting that Goldfinches spend the winter visiting the feeding table but disappear altogether in the summer. Collared doves take a lot of food. Blackbirds and Thrushes are not generally interested in this type of food and don't visit. The next stage in becoming a junky is to join the BTO birdwatch scheme and start recording the birds coming to the table. If you want to get involved in such a scheme make sure that your feed table is near to your house so that you can watch from inside in a warm dry environment. Happy watching! Dick Makepeace | TOP | At the time of writing I am looking out of my window onto a scene of frost, sun and freeze. Where has the water all gone? Since January 4 the temperature has seldom got above freezing. "This will be good for the garden," I hear said in the pub, "it will kill all those bugs." Sadly it will also kill a lot of birds and small animals that feed on these bugs. Worst off are the raptors - Kestrels and Sparrow Hawks - as since, voles and shrews will become dormant in freezing temperatures. Most will be pleased to know that Magpies and Jays die in great numbers from starvation in a cold winter. Worst news of all is that Barn Owls, Tawny Owls and Little Owls also starve and die in freezing weather. This picture of doom is tempered by a natural benefit. An example came in some research on pigeons. Wood Pigeons were decimating oilseed rape in the winter. In response parties of guns were organised to try to reduce the population. An ornithologist was grant-aided to assess the effects. When he compared estates with shooting and without shooting he found that shooting in the months of January and February led to a 25 per cent increase in pigeons the following autumn. The reason was that by culling the population in the winter it left relatively more food for the survivors. As a result, compared to the undisturbed estate populations, the survivors were healthier and heavier. They hatched larger broods with higher survival rates. The clear answer was to stop shooting the wood pigeons - but how to reduce damage to the oilseed rape? Answers can be obtained in the H & G for the price of a pint. R J Makepeace | TOP | | |
FEATHERS 
Part One