Bird Journal
12:00 -
Coal Tit? Wasn't impressed with the food on offer! Tried peanut feeder, then wild seed feeder, didn't try nyjer feeder or fat balls and didn't try bird table, maybe because blackbird was on there.
Blackbird, male
He was happily feeding from the bird table. What a clever birdy!
I heard the call of another bird but didn't know what it was. Re do re do re do pause, quite fast
A quick scroll down my iSpiny reveals that I often hear bluetits in hedges and trees; great tits are probably the birds I hear echoing across the valley/distance at the top of trees, I think (minor, sometimes major third), I may be mistaking robins for willow warblers and even dunnocks as the calls are quite similar. That new call I heard lately that I thought might be a new robin call, sounds like a dunnock, and another sounds like a willow warbler. But will see. The call of the white throat also sounds familiar yet I don't recall ever seeing one!
Wren and coal tit also sound familiar, particularly coal tit.
It's hard to say. Overload now.
Definite characteristics:
Tiny garden or garden-sized birds sound like robins or tits: high pitched, warbling, tuneful. Nicest for humans who like to choose favourite species at time based on aesthetic merit ...
In a non sceptical way, a nice companion for a lone human on a lonely day, in a garden, wood or meadow. Are such birds concentrated more near human or animal company?
Finches are a bit different with maybe double tones/harmonics. Something about forests and large bills for nuts maybe.
Jays and corvids are lower. Purpose - scaring away. Managing folds. A bit like sheepdogs or dogs barking.
Birds of prey and sea birds are distinctive high screeches without a warble. The function - carrying over a distance. Or result of travelling long distance open desolate spaces without music or verbal stimulation from humans. Or vice versa. Did birds teach us or did we teach them, or bit of both? Does bird song evolve?
That'll do for now...
12:25 No new birds! All quiet! Maybe I should put the mealworms out.
12:37 No new birds yet! Three or more singing in bushes and trees somewhere.
A bird sang with semitones: Ror do ror do ror do...
I put out mealworms and to my sheer delight, the safflower seeds I put out yesterday are already snaffled up! They are not on the lawn which means they are just as popular, in the back garden, as the mealworms!
They are all over the front lawn however. Maybe the birds haven't discovered that table yet, it's too close to the road or not clean enough for them (it needs a new tray really, I scrubbed the wood but it still looks skanky, and I haven't scrubbed it for 2 weeks).
I put a third fat ball in the black rectangular grate feeder thingy. To see if smaller birds with tinier feet will go for it. Wish me luck!
Peanuts still unpopular, will clean feeder and restock before weekend. Not sure what with just yet.
Will Google 'mixed nuts for birds' and see if it looks safe.
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