"My smallish back and front gardens"

Enjoyed the blog & pics. We started putting seed out for the birds in the commercial feeders ... first one, & then added another, & then a third. The bird population increased daily until their were flocks of sparrows waiting on the garage roof & nearby trees for the seed to go out when those feeders were empty. But we are going to America to visit sons & their families in July next year, & will be away for 5 weeks, & that is the middle of our winter here, so we are now only putting food out twice a week, filling up the biggest feeder, in order to keep the birds finding food elsewhere, as read somewhere that if they become totally dependent upon a certain food source in the winter, & then it suddenly stops, the birds can starve to death. So now they miraculously re-appear when the container is filled with seed & then disappear when its empty. They are always entertaining, but they do chase away the finches, silvereyes & waxeyes if they dare to pop in for a feed.

It's good to have birds around, especially in the winter. When I open the curtains in the morning there is a queue waiting for food and I feel guilty until I've filled the feeders.
I'm lucky here up in the hills to get a great variety of birds and I admit to buying a variety of foods to keep them coming. My favourites are the goldfinches in their unlikely 'painted' colours who feed on the black thistle seed I get especially for them. But I enjoy all of them.
This morning I spilt a feeder full of seed on the patio by mistake which resulted in some very bad behaviour among my feathered friends. The words 'feeding frenzy' come to mind!

Nice blog Tommy. I think your garden is just about the right size - it's looking nice and tidy

Nice pics, interestingly laid out. I'm just curious as to which airport you live close to... Heathrow?

lovely blog, i do like those ring collared doves and we dont get them here.

I enjoyed this too,Tom..I wonder if I might be better to put a water dish on the gravel,as well as having the bird bath ? They seem to like yours on the ground..I think your garden is just the right size..we forget we have to look after it when we get older.or unwell...blinking heck,that plane is low.! is it very noisy where you live ? no wonder you get up early ! :o)

Thank you all for the nice comments.
Yes Bamboo London Heathrow is 13.4 miles from my house but not to far away are Luton, Gatwick, Stanstead, City, Wycombe Air Park, Denham, Northolt and White Waltham. The larger the plane the quieter they seem and this does apply to the Airbus , the noisiest are the old piston planes like a the spitfire but far the worse are the private helicopters especially on Royal Ascot Week. I'm sure they fly over to pick the wealthy up outgoing and the not so wealthy for the return journey......

We have the M40 just running about 200 yds from my back door but like most things you get use to the noise and you always know when a bad motorway accident has occurred, Sirens then complete silence then the air ambulance flies over.....

That plane was not so low Bloomer I just zoomed in a bit.
Pity your neighbours could not fill up your seed feeders Dwyliss, a bit far for me to travel. I heard too that birds can get reliant on our feeding stations. Do any of you belong to ispyabird.co.uk as I publish identical blog pages. Some cool photos of birds on that site.

I reckon your birds must have been watching to many shark movies ojibwaywith the frenzied feeding but I would love to have a single goldfinch visit ......

You are both right about garden size Sheilar and Bloomer .....
Hi Stickitoffee, I only seem to have the same pair of doves kicking around for the year. Some in disagreement we me but they definitely disappear from my garden the same as the blackbirds and chaffinches for some of the year. My wife will always comment, "The doves are back" on their return.
Today as I looked out of the kitchen window I spotted 100 or more woodpigeons flying through the woods. To shielded to get a good photo so did not bother....

Best wishes all...

Well, we're almost neighbours then - I live in Perivale and can see the A40 behind our flats... and I know what you mean about the sirens, too. But strangely, we don't get any planes overhead here, well, very rarely.

nice pics tommy, love the doves, mine here every day and still have their young one with them surprisingly, havent seen a thrush yet :o(

Hello Bamboo, I live just past Junction 3 Loudwater M40. Depends which way the wind is blowing . Westerly direction I can see them taking off into the wind and climbing in the distance and 9 times out 10 they turn starboard and head to fly just about over head. At least they don't cut off the Sky any more . East or southerly wind they fly over or just in front of my house before circling to port then lining up for the runway in the distance. Then you get all the other aircraft cutting across . Planes can be so often you don't take no notice. As I said it's the helicopters . Even scares the birds . Why can't they be quiet like the Police ones....
I surprised your Doves still have a young one with them Sanbaz but not so long ago there were two young pigeons in the garden. I had to scare them off just before next door's cat made then pigeon dinner. ..