Hello Where are the birds

I noticed that from about early to mid September - all the bluetits, great tits and even the woodpecker, having been frantically feeding at the nut feeder for weeks all summer, suddenly disappeared, not a flutter for 4 weeks - but I've now got bluetits back again on the balcony. I can only assume they left early this year, and the ones here now have come from Sweden at their usual time.

I noticed they had gone too I put it down to the dry fields after the harvest giving them plenty to forage for?

I think that the better weather has made more natural food available to them. Also, the young have fledged and so there is not the same panic to supply food. Just wait until the snow comes back in a couple of weeks time :-(

They have made a mega comeback this week and are eating me out of house and home, even ths goldfinches are on the feeders every day...

A COUPLE OF WEEKS! Bulbaholic, I really hope not, its way to early for snow in London... though I know you get it early up there often.

It just seems so strange without them ... I hope they do soon come back ..

Here as well, normally we have masses of blackbirds but none..for weeks. Saw a Jay today though.

I am really pleased to read this information,as I was worried about our regular Blackbirds..as I haven't seen them for weeks either..they have never gone AWOL for this length of time before..I do hope this is the reason...the bluetits and sparrows have never gone away,and are always on the feeders..

Now that it's getting colder up here, the birds are taking more interest in the feeders. I think they just had plenty of natural food available in the last few weeks. The goldfinches are back after a break, presumably feasting on wild thistle seed. Nice to have them around again,in an unruly queue and squabbling for places at the feeders.

Ive got loads, maybe they have all came to Edinburgh :))
BTW...The clematis is looking good!!!!!

The lack of birds is often relevant to the locale ..... and often down to other factors - more people around, birds of prey, cats and the cutting down and removal of large shrubs, trees and hedges.

If your garden has got the large shrubs and trees place feeders - be specific though .... ground, seed, peanut - be specific. Be food specific too.
If you offer just grain based food you'll get just the larger birds so make sure you leave the grain based stuff alone and you'll shift the accent of birds.

It's not just the UK - we have noticed it here, too. Having so many cats obviously has an impact - we used to get tree-creepers, linnets, pigeons, long-tailed tits, and redstarts, as well as the summer visitors - hoopoe, cuckoo, swallows, swifts, and the bigger ones like jays, buzzards, magpies and crows, and some of the smaller ones disappeared from the immediate vicinity once the cats moved in. I don't think our dozy bunch of felines have ever caught much, but the birds weren't daft and moved elsewhere. However, this year, we have seen and heard far fewer. The pigeons have gone completely (the neighbours think that is disease), and the dawn chorus back in March was very thin. The cuckoos and hoopoes and swallows have still been around in force, but we didn't hear any nightingales for the first year ever, jays and even magpies have been far fewer, and the linnets, tits, tree-creepers, and goldfinches have gone altogether. The pretty redstarts, which used to be very common, are still around, but the numbers are down. Another worrying thing - we used to see dozens of bats, but this year we have only noticed a couple. What's happening? Too much insecticide?

I dont think its much different to other years, I asked the same question on here in August 2009. As soon as the weather turns they will be back.

Your birds will return Pp. The migratory ones (sensibly ignoring the warm temps we have been enjoying) left for warmer southern climes about 3 weeks ago. Aware the weather IS soon due to become suddenly colder,the resident birds... yes Bilbo, they do include the tits, not to mention a great many of our other birds, + our mammals,butterflies,moths,insects,spiders etc the latter few being a valuable,nutritious & plentiful food source at the moment, along with abundant seed everywhere,all of which provides them with the essentials for good health,& the best start for the leaner,colder days that they know are imminent. Those that were eagerly using the feeders during the spring & summer,sensibly using the nearest regular food source to sustain themselves during the busy nesting & brooding season, whilst using natures own food supply to feed their young. Watch the birds, they will forecast the weather & advise you when to dig out the feeders..& your thermal socks!

PS Sparrow Hawk numbers seem to be up this year. They can deplete a gardens stock of birds more efficiently than any cat,& will target birds frequenting feeders/tables. Regular & easy pickings for them too.

Bilbobaggins - as Pajo confirms, you may be surprised to learn that the bluetits we have here during spring and summer are not 'ours' as such - they have migrated here to breed. Then they clear off at the end of summer, and those from places like Sweden over winter here instead. So the bluetits you see in autumn winter here are not the ones you've carefully been rearing all summer... And frankly, how anyone could mistake a swallow or house martin for a bluetit is incredible to me... bluetits are one of the easiest IDs any idiot could make, lol!

Well i`m surprised .. Thx Bamboo

I thought they were our native birds .. Have we got native BlueTits.

I'm not at all sure - probably not, they seem to move around, some coming here from hot places to breed in spring and summer, others leaving to go back to Scandinavian countries to breed and returning in winter.

Off the point but ... Hello Scottish ..
2 weeks ago I cut down the 2 Clems and I now have 16 rooted clems inc the 2 that i started with. There was one hell of a bundle of roots though and being impatient I lost more roots than I managed to keep. I should have put an hopspipe over them and taken my time.
I`m glad to hear yours are doing well .... peter

Hmm, I think if you read the previous posts, Bilbo, you'll see that I was saying any idiot could ID a bluetit, even me... I'm sorry if you inferred somehow from that that you are an idiot...
It was the RSPB magazine a couple of years ago which mentioned that 'my' bluetits in winter were not the same ones I'd been seeing all summer, most likely being from Sweden... I was quite disappointed, feeling proprietorial about 'my' bluetits. And Chris Packham mentioned it on Autumnwatch last year as well, saying our winter ones were most probably Swedish. So conflicting info seems to prevail - I shall ask my twitcher bird freak photographer brother in law - what he doesn't know about birds can be written on the head of a pin.

I didn't hear about that - he is a bit strange I must say, I saw him on autumnwatch the other night wearing a very strange ensemble, the top resembled a star trek uniform in some ways.
Anyway I digress - I spoke to my brother in law, and in some ways wish I hadn't - he told me that little birds like robins and blue tits only live about 2 years anyway, at the most 4, how depressing, there's me thinking 'my' robins have come back again every year for 6 years...
Anyway, he says that bluetits vary - some do, indeed, reside here all year round, others come from Sweden for the winter here, or may go down to Italy from here for winter, in fact, they go where the winds take them, so if the wind's in the right direction, the ones from colder parts will end up in the southern areas of Europe, and return to their original country for breeding the following year. He also said young ones sometimes arrive here in late summer from colder regions, eat and eat and eat and then fly on to an even warmer region for proper winter when the wind's right. Which might explain the intense activity on my balcony during August... and they were miniature bluetits, so to speak, all gone by mid September.

I am choosing to believe all my Blue tits are related to the one at the end of this Study.

http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/bird_lifespan.htm

Just saw a Wren in the garden ... the first bird in my garden for weeks (that i`ve seen ) ... peter

We had Tits in the garden today on the feeders.

The bird population in and around my garden has increased threefold in the last three days, obviously because its turned so cold, even the magpies are visiting daily, for a great many years there was a definite lack of dunnocks and we never saw any sparrows either, now there are lots, the goldfinches have taken over in the ivy on the hawthorn hedge and theres lots of tits flitting about the fruit trees, my robin is fighting over his patch as well and the doves are definitely staying put,lol...
Been helping my daughter in her garden today and you can imagine our excitement to see a woodpecker in one of the large trees just over the fence from her neighbours garden, my flipping camera was left at home and hers isn`t powerful enough but I`m making sure I take it with me next time I go round there...