Tuesday 3 November 2009

Where are all the birds?

I did venture into the garden for a few minutes yesterday, mainly because I could see a butterfly flying around.

It was another late Red Admiral, that really should be getting down to hibernation soon, if it's going to make it through the winter.

Despite the amount of rain around and the dark skies in the evening the sky cleared and the full mood was like a light out in the garden. I didn't run my moth traps, partly because I was still feeling rough and didn't fancy getting up in cold to look inside them in the faint hope that there was an interesting moth and partly because the forecast looked as if it would be very wet around 3 or 4 a.m. These seems to have been pretty accurate and the weather was poor first thing but improved later.
The only birding I managed today was the garden. I got out for a few minutes to top up the feeders before coming in to wrap up warm and support the pharmaceutical industry. But where are all the birds? A few Blackbirds were around, but not as many as there often are at this time of year. This young bird spent long time have a good bath.

A Great-spotted Woodpecker did come and feed on the peanuts for a while. The black cap and red nape mean that this is a male. It was the only one I saw today.

Even the finches were in short supply, just a couple of Greenfinches and one Chaffinch came down to feed. I don't know if the awful weather has cleared a lot out, or whether there is still enough food in the fields and hedgerows, so that the number coming into gardens is limited. I don't think that this is the answer, because before we went up to Clitheroe there were loads of Goldfinches and Greenfinches coming in to feed. So far this year there haven't been any Siskins or Bramblings in the garden, but it not too late for them to come.

Before the garden safari I went round and straightened all the arches, they always suffer in the high winds. I added supports back and front to this one, but the last few days once again have taken their toll.

3 comments:

Warren Baker said...

The feeders are a bit quiet here to Tony.

Unknown said...

Try researching chemtrails for your answer.

Tony Morris said...

Ah!, the conspiracy theory lives.