Feeding the birds

Hello

The day after a stormy night, and a quick walk at Harrington Airfield this morning didn't locate anything much out of the ordinary, but there were at least five Grey Partridges on the top fields, and of course still plenty of Redwings and Fieldfares in the bushes.

We are now broadcast-feeding the birds on the concrete track next to the willow bushes just in from the metal gate and already today there were good numbers of Chaffinches and Yellowhammers taking advantage. If you do visit Harrington and can spare some safe mixed seed or similar we would be grateful if you would supplement our food by feeding the birds too. For some reason this spot seems to attract disproportionately large numbers of common birds, and when it becomes cold sometimes up to thirty Blackbirds and many others. It can be a good spot for Bramblings too and the advantage is that they can be watched from vehicles or at least from the gate area without causing too much disturbance.

Eleanor saw a pair of Ravens near Hanging Houghton this morning and my visits to the Kelmarsh Estate feeding stations provided me with views of Marsh Tit, Nuthatch, several Siskins and Grey Wagtail.

Chris Payne opened a single mist net for just over an hour at Bradden this morning and he caught 35 birds amounting to 12 Goldfinches, 3 Chaffinches, 17 Blue Tits and 3 Great Tits.

Regards

Neil M

Blue Tit.
Image courtesy
of Cathy Ryden.

Chaffinch.
Image courtesy
of John Tilly.

Brambling.
Image courtesy
of Steve Bennison.

All these birds are regular
visitors to winter feed stations.