General Chat

While spring has not yet sprung properly, on our golf course we have a cuckoo each year. Absent thus far. Anyone got one nearby.? Mentioned on a thread yesterday that blackbirds usually take precedence at our fat balls over robins - that position has been reversed recently. is that common, or possibly due to a particularly aggressive or shy brood? Happy days

Haven't heard my first cuckoo of 2006 as yet! G

Never had a cuckoo near me, but a noise dove has just reapeared in the last few days. Lou

Hello Harry, no cuckoos but lots of Robins, we have five at the moment.

We had a woodpecker in the woods down the road to us last year. It made a nest in a tree trunk and reared it's young there. This year it's back again, it is making a hell of a noise pecking away!

saw a large but beautiful blackbird having his morning bath in our pond waterfall on monday. lovely site it was too. jean

Haven't heard a cuckoo yet. I go out every morning to the sound of the dawn chorus - fantastic! The collared doves and peacocks are all in fine voice now. Tina

I throw corn on my lawn for my fantails and I've noticed the robin sneaking in and pecking it. We also have fat balls and get blackbirds, blue/coletits, sparrows and a wren. Claire

Our garden has been full of Blue tits for ages. Lovely little things. We have a black bird(?) who nests in our clematis every year, it has been examining it for weeks. I has usually started to really green up and bud by this time , but not this year. I hope it does soon, I would love the little birds to have Their regular home on our shed. Deanna X

Thanks for those replies. Never seen a woodpecker. always interested in where robins nest. I have all kinds of different boxes, pots etc, but none have ever lived in them - but they do have a place somewhere in my large garden. Deanna - snap. our blackbirds fav spot has not greened up yet either. Happy days

We have 2 boxes in our garden - one for blue tits and one for great tits and they are used every year. Last year we just happened to be watching when the baby blue tits left the box for the first time, it was fascinating.

up until 2yrs ago, our garden was surrounded by conifer trees, used to love listening to the dawn chorus, but now the trees have gone so have the birds, really miss them., birds that is. jean

Think my house martins may be back. Jay

Glad to hear that Harry, I was getting quite worried. Must be the colder winter we've had. Still hoping then. Deanna x

None here But we have got hundreds of Parakeets,and just been watching from the kitchen window a Sparrow Hawk being attacked by Starlings.

Not heard a cuckoo yet, Harry, but I've heard the woodpeckers 'laughing' and saw a blue heron flying over the gardens yesterday - obviously looking for fish in garden ponds. CB >|<

Lovely to hear of the different birds in your gardens. I live in the north west - at least we don,t hear the birds coughing these days, although we don,t get any ornate ones, unless the blue-tits qualify. just wonder if all these people who have their Leylandii cut down, have affected the bird population - birds, insects and what have you. Thanks jean, for the lovely message below. Happy days

Hi harry, when we first moved to our village, there were hardly any trees, so obviously no birds as such, so we put the conifers in, had loads of birds nesting in them, thought it was great, then due to subsidence had to have trees taken down, so the birds all went. still hardly any trees in our village so not a lot of birds about. do have a nest box on my wall, we used to have finches stay in them, they used to come back every year, but not for the last couple of years. it was lovely watching the adults trying the get the young to fly, used to push them off the perch we put up for them. saw a couple of wagtails the other week, saw a bird the other month looked like a robin but the red was more deeper and over a wider area. havnt a clue what it was. jean

Not yet :-)

I live near woodland and a few weekends ago I had a woodpecker visit my bird table, he was pecking away like mad at my coconut shell that was full of the mixture from fat balls. I havent seen him for the last few weeks but I have loads of starlings, sparrows, a couple of robins, blue tits, collared doves and black birds that visit my garden. I have a female black bird that is a regular visitor to my garden and shes getting quite tame now :-) This year I've got myself a nesting box which I'm hoping some blue tits will use, I've already had a few blue tits inspecting it but none as yet have set up home in it. In my local town centre theres a large wagtail roost which homes about 200+ wagtails, its an amazing sight to see :-) Karen