Foraging Jays

Jays are incredibly busy this time of the year burying acorns and foraging for food. They often fly around in small groups and this bird was part of a pair which was seen close to our house digging up acorns from the lawn opposite.

Jays are clever, resourceful birds and will often visit a bird table, particularly for peanuts which they then stash for the harder times of winter. They have a darker side though as, in Spring, part of their diet includes young fledgling birds.

Great Spotted Woodpecker Feeding

Window Feeder Experiment

We were interested to see which birds would feed from a Sunflower Feeder mounted right next to our kitchen window.

For the experiment the window feeder was positioned just 10cm from the glass, so we were sure that many birds would be put off by the proximity of the house and us humans walking around inside peering at them!

To our amazement, a whole variety of birds visit the feeder, some even feed when we stand still right next to the window! So far we've had a Nuthatch (pictured), lots of Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, a Marsh Tit and a Robin visit.

It is interesting that sparrows are not on the list of visitors, so the sunflower hearts tend to last that bit longer now!

Migrating Goldfinches

The autumn season seems to be the best time of the year to see Goldfinches, as some birds head down to Spain to escape the cold winter weather of northern Europe.

This time of the year, quite large groups of migrating Goldfinches (sometimes twenty or more) congregate on Greenham Common feeding off seed-heads and we are lucky enough to get quite a few on our Nyjer and Sunflower feeders.

The Goldfinch has to be one of the UK's most striking garden birds and this picture - taken this morning shows the stunning red face and yellow wing stripe plumage of these birds.