Pulborough's sparrows

Yesterday, I went to RSPB Pulborough Brooks and when I was waiting for lunch, a flock of house sparrows came close to where I was sitting, meaning I could take lots of photos of them.

House sparrows are, according to The Big Garden Birdwatch results 2016, the commonest bird in Britain, so it is easy to overlook their beauty as they are so common. But unfortunately, they have been in decline, and that means they are on the red list.

They were so tame and that meant I could get in close and get good detail. In fact, they where so tame that when the food came, I set up a small, not very scientific, but fun, experiment...

I put the pastry from my meal and the cake from my pudding equal distances away from both me and the fence and sat away(ish) from the food. About a minute later, the cake was gone and the pastry was still there. It isn't surprising, the cake contained the calories they wanted. You can feed cake to birds, but only in moderate amounts.

A bee nest in Buchan Country Park

Today, I decided to go and put my trail camera out at Buchan Country Park and whilst putting it out in the heathland, I came across a nest of honey bees. The nest was in the crack of an old split tree. Already, some of the honey bees were bringing in pollen, probably from the gorse.

Looking into the nest

Also, the remote camera on the nest box at the visitor centre has two eggs, but I am yet to see a parent bird, so I am wondering if they will survive...

Why are the siskins breeding in my garden?

I have just seen some very unusual behaviour regarding our siskins. We have a flock of about 13 odd, (we don't know the exact number), and they stay for the winter months and leave for spring so they can raise their offspring
somewhere else.

A male siskin

But, after seeing something today, I doubt that they will leave at all. Our old peanut feeder wasn't being used by the birds, so we put in some fur from our pet rabbit, (we collected it when he was moulting, we didn't just yank it off him!), and we wanted to know if we would get anything taking the fur.

Today, my Mum saw something on the peanut feeder. It was a female siskin, with a bundle of rabbit fur in her mouth. This was a sure sign that they are breeding. But where is their nest? They normally breed in conifer forests, but this siskin is  in a town where, on many maps, is where siskins may overwinter, not breed.

The nearest conifer plantation is 500m away but we don't think they are travelling that far!

Birds and their birdboxes

It is that time of year when the garden birds are searching for a home to raise their chicks in. We already had 2 nest boxes up, (see here for more details), but to increase the chances of a successful brood.

The other identical box

We know that a blue tit had been going into the older nest box. This is the normal behaviour they show when choosing a good nesting site.

Today, my dad and I put up a nest box above the shed. This is the third box on our property. We used a larger hole than the nest box on the side of the house so that we could encourage a wider variety of species.

We didn't expect too much would happen until we got into the house and out of the way, but five minutes later, when we where sitting on the bench, a blue tit decided to have a look around.

All I can hope for now is that a family will breed in there, that would be a first!