Northamptonshire Birding: Bigger garden birds

Hello

A rather dull but not unpleasant day today in the county, but not enough in the way of sunshine to inspire much insect movement. Again it was the garden birds that provided most of the entertainment for me - first brood juvenile Starlings arguing with adults at the feeders - the latter now working hard to feed second broods. Plenty of adult Jackdaws are actively seeking suitable food for their young and descend into the garden at first light making quite a racket! A few advanced youngsters are with them but the majority have yet to fledge or are in the process of doing so - a particularly vulnerable time for them when Carrion Crows and other predators take advantage.

Stock Doves, Collared Doves and Woodpigeons jostle for position on our lawn and young tits in the garden included Coal, Blue and Great this morning. The local pair of Nuthatches are working hard and it sounded like their young possibly fledged today. Anyone who watches Blackbirds will know how hard they work in trying to raise young and already some of the adults are looking pretty tired and with broken or absent feathers. We used to have large numbers of juvenile House Sparrows in the garden from mid-June onwards but the numbers are much lower now and have been since an old farm with stables etc in the village was converted into small cottages.

We are fortunate to still have Greenfinches and today about three family parties came in to feed on the sunflower hearts. Plenty of Goldfinches do likewise, the juveniles quite quickly leaving the adults once they work out how to take hearts from the portholes for themselves. A few juvenile Chaffinches have appeared but already there are individuals suffering from the horrific leg diseases so prevalent in this species and which they clearly had even before fledging.

A Rosy Starling was reported on a bird feeder at Grange Park, Northampton this morning but hasn't been since. In reality these wandering birds could be seen anywhere but they are attracted to gatherings of Starlings and also have a particular taste for soft fruit and cherries. A Caspian Gull was found on pools off the A5 near the DIRFT 3 complex not far from Lilbourne again today.

Regards

Neil M