MY BIRD FEEDING STATION Part 2

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On Thursday the garden was visited by the Grey Squirrel who enjoyed a good meal of the cake and seeing as there wasn’t much left I started making the third cake for the birds this winter.

After mixing all the ingredients together I poured the water in from the tap, unfortunately I put in too much water and had to add more seed to thicken it up. After well over half an hour in the microwave I turned it out onto a plate, I never weighed it but I’m sure it was over five pounds in weight. First thing Friday morning I put it out and immediately Boss Blackbird got stuck in for a feed

Today I spent most of the time taking pictures through the window beside the computer of all the different birds that visited the feeding station. One of the first visitors was an old favorite female blackbird from last winter, who we called, “Snowcap”, as you can see she has some white patches on her head. One of the blackbirds enjoyed some of the hawthorn berries that I had collected on our walk the other day. The Dunnock often walked among the berries but didn’t try to eat any although it can be seen pinching the suflower hearts and eating the cake.

Three species of finches visited the feeders but the Chaffinches were rather nervous.

The Jay never misses visiting and has become very relaxed with us at the window. The other two corvids are nervous and stay close by wistfully staring at the food left out for them, when it gets colder then I expect the Magpie to come in.

The Wood Mouse is excited about the cakes and it looks so small in comparison.

Four species of Titmice visit but the Long-tail Tit hasn’t yet stayed long enough for me to get a picture, the Coal Tit’s dive’s in to grab a black seed then away to bury them in any nook or cranny in the district. The Great Tit’s are regular visitors but the Blue Tit’s are here throughout the day and there is one of them with a deformed beak who likes to feed on the cake, probably because its easier to manipulate.

Woodpigeons try to wander into the garden after the cake but now are a bit wary of me when I wave my hand at them, at the moment they are dining on the Piracantha berries across the lane. I will be going over there and getting some more to tie onto my plants.

We were greatly excited today to have the Great-spotted Woodpecker come and feed on the cake, they’ve never done that before, later it went onto the suet balls and had a meal of them. I went out and discovered the log was empty of food so I filled it and put it on the old stump where I am able to see it easier. The bird returned and looked so bewildered when looking for the log in the tree.

Thanks everyone for all your appreciative comments, its a great pleasure to be able to post these pictures of my garden visitors. As a seventy year old pensioner I find this hobby to be a stimulant in my retirement, much better than sitting in front of the telly waiting for God.
Today there came another winter visitor to my station and the cake it seems was the draw-card. My visitor was the hen Blackcap Warbler, last week it was the male Blackcap who popped in for a look around before disappearing again. These birds come to Britain from the German area of Europe and stay till about February when they depart. The Blackcaps that come here to breed in our woods in the summer depart to warmer climates at the south of France and North Africa