Blue tit, great tit, green finch
It's a small triumph, but a triumph nonetheless: within a day of putting up our new bird feeders (actually, they were given to us at Christmas), they've been visited by all of the above. And I saw a chaffinch just biding his time too. Interestingly, the fat balls are currently untouched, as is the grain, but the peanuts are clearly hot favourites with our local birdlife. Just wait until we put in an actual bird table or something similar so we don't have to hang them on the neighbours' tree. I'm hoping to get a full house of the top 20 birds according to this year's RSPB survey before long - I think I've seen all but rooks, coal tits and goldfinches before anyway. I'm intending to put a 'what's about' board up in our kitchen and monitor what we see, month to month.
I'm slightly hesitant about using feeders in the Spring because I know that accepted wisdom used to be that this was bad for young birds, but I've been reassured more recently that actually adult birds eat what's good for them, and only take the stuff that's good for them to their chicks. The RSPB says to avoid peanuts in Spring and Summer, though, and the BTO seems to say the same thing - avoid peanuts unless they're only accessible through a wire mesh, so birds aren't tempted to take them whole to their young. We're probably early enough now to get away with the peanuts, but I might have to change soon.
Though I've not seen or heard any yet, I also know (thanks to BirdGuides) that the migrants have started appearing: black redstarts, willow warblers, chiffchaffs, swallows and sand martins all mentioned over the last week or two.
PS A chaffinch landed on the seed feeder this morning - until a blue tit chased him off.
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