The garden feeding station is still host to hoards of House Sparrows, 60 + being a conservative estimate, plus decent numbers of Starling, Blue & Great Tit, Blackbird, Collared Dove and Feral Pigeons. Sparrowhawks are frequently seen, although very rarely successful hunters, marauding through the Vine Close gardens, attracted by these, artificially food rich, feeder hanging, versions of an avian "Mcdonalds" We were just on our way out for lunch when I spotted a large, juvenile, female devouring a Collared Dove on the back garden lawn. Is this a positive, or negative, aspect of garden feeding stations in our suburban location?
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| A rare privilege to watch such a scene from the comfort of our kitchen doorway |
After alerting Bev to the spectacle, I grabbed the big lens and rattled off a few shots through the kitchen window. ISO 1600 and 1/500th sec meant that the results were always likely to be grainy, yet better than nothing? Murder in the suburbs - or quite simply nature in the raw?
Other bird related stuff is rather sparse. There was a lone Sky Lark over the garden earlier this morning and Goldfinches have started to turn up on the sunflower heart feeder, occasionally. Three chunky finch-type birds flew over the factory yard, mid-morning on Thursday, and were probably Crossbills, although I am unable to confirm this suspicion as they remained silent whilst within my earshot, plus I obviously didn't have my optics to hand, and I still need them for my 2017 list!!!!!!
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