Bird Society

Two young sparrows playing a game with a straw

You can go wildlife friendly in the garden but how do you know it's working? You can't always remember what your garden was like before you started and the changes happen gradually.  It's taken a while for me to realise that I actually do have more types of hover fly than a couple of years ago,  more ladybirds, more little swarms of tiny flies, more butterflies (a few) and a general feeling of 'aliveness'.  Perhaps the biggest indication is the fact that there are many more birds and much louder birdsong. (I thought this might be due to my new nearing aids but friends have noticed it too). I  listed sixteen different birds in the garden last month, including five different types of tit, a spotted woodpecker, the new starlings, and a goldlfinch.

In fact the social life of the birds has entertained me for weeks. It begins with the sparrows. When they returned four years ago, (after 20 years' absence) there was just one pair. They were quite cautious, kept an eye on the garden from the golden privet, which acted as a sort of safe haven and social club. 

Baby sparrow on its first outing

Today I counted eight sparrows on the patio and there are certainly many more than that. They are no longer newcomers but old hands and have commandeered the whole of the garden and other gardens too with enormous aplomb and confidence. 

Young sparrow taking its first bath

   

                                                              Young sparrows playing games 

They nest under the roof guttering and the young ones have a sort of play centre on the patio where they bathe in my row of bird baths and play all sorts of games. One favourite is to pick up odd pieces of straw or leaf and shake them about or snatch them from each other. Another is to take dust baths in the flower beds. I thought at first they were sunbathing like the robin, but it wasn't a hot day and they were just rolling around in the dry compost. Sometimes they will play piggy back. 

Also having fun were the two wood pigeons,  just soaring and swooping together for the sheer joy of it as far as I could see. 

There is a bare stretch of trellis which makes a good  observation and launch point for many of the birds. 

                                    

                                                The trellis makes a good reconnoitering post

Meantime, the crows and the magpies must have nests too near each other because the neighbour-from-hell cawing and arguing  that goes on has to be heard to be believed. You can hear whole families going for each other. 

Crow on a mission

I'm not very good at recognising individual bird songs although I can recognise a wren, a blackbird, a robin and some of the tits. But today I was sitting in the sun and I heard a blackbird with at least six variations of its song and I actually suspect there were a lot more. 

A pair of blackbirds