Thursday 22 October 2009

Birdy Visitors

Yesterday morning the usual multitude arrived for their early morning snack and sat around trying to work out where their feeders had gone. Some, like this Greenfinch, were enterprising and found there was food to be found if you worked at it. When I cut off the ripe Sunflower heads I had placed them where I could see which birds would eat the ripe seeds but up till now there had been easier pickings.

Greenfinch on Sunflower Head

I have been scattering the batch of dried mealworms which the Hedgehogs  turned their noses up at on the grass. Normally it has been slow to be chosen but yesterday a group of Starlings make short work of them.

Starling with Dried Mealworm

The rain had started overnight and persisted almost continuously through yesterday and on through most of last night. This Blackbird was scouring the lawn for any easy pickings and in spite of the rain there are only a few drops to be seen on its feathers.

Blackbird

I kept watch on the birds on and off through the day and was pleased that I did not see any sickly looking ones. I can but hope that using Ark-Klens spray disinfectant and a reduction in crowding will bring the outbreak to a speedy end.

18 comments:

  1. This is wonderful pictures. You did a good job man! Keep it up! Best of luck. I will visit your site in future also.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The greenfinch on the sunflower series is great, very artistic; maybe "still life with green finch".

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have Sunflower heads and I have noticed some of the seeds are being eaten. Also I have Evening Primroses that has gone to seed and the Goldfinches and Siskins are eating the seeds from them. I have not seen a Blackbird in my garden for months now. Lovely pictures of the Greenfinch eating the Sunflower seeds.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had no idea there was such a thing! Good job you publicise it via your blog so we can all be aware of it and take steps!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I absolutely agree with Wilma...they are like still life paintings!

    I'm glad you still have some healthy looking visitors John.

    I haven't had to top my feeders up for two days so I think the Sparrowhawk must be around!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Adrian. There were a couple of iffy looking birds about for a while today. It will probably take a while to take its course.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for visiting Nahrungserganzung and for your kind comment.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you Wilma. Un-still life version of Friday ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you Lynmiranda. I had a quick look at your great photos of the Goldfinches on the Evening Primroses.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello Matron. I had no real idea about the problem until this year when I saw it mentioned on a blog or two.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Jan. I saw a couple of iffy looking birds today but all the rest look fine so far. It makes you wonder how it starts in what were healthy looking groups of birds.

    The 'not so still life' version of the Greenfinch on Friday ;)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi. Great shots. I clean my bird feeders at least once every two weeks with a little washing up liquid in warm water and a brush to scrub and then they get a dowsing with boiling water. I also buy a spray distinfectant from the pet shop. It's not expensive and I use it every time after washing. Spray on... leave a while... rinse with water. Safe to all animals. A consequence of having lots of feeders is that it can help the spread disease rapidly. We have lots of feeders and touch wood, no problems so far. Best wishes. Angie

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lovely photos of the bird with the sunflowers. Hope the sickness with the birds clears up soon. Its terrible to think how quickly something like that can spread.

    ReplyDelete
  14. First John your a smart man for taking care of the wild birds at preventing the spread of this parasite that's killing off the birds. I smiled when I saw a bird eating from the dried sunflower head. I did the same thing with mine. They devoured the seeds in two days.....little piggies..lol

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you Angie. I shall rethink my feeding set up. Spread things out more and reduce the number of feeders. I will get some more feeders so I can rotate their use and make it easier to keep them clean.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thank you Mick. I have long wanted to photograph birds eating from a Sunflower. Managed it at last.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Crista. I was surprised just how fast the Greenfinches were getting through the Sunflower seeds.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

Related Posts with Thumbnails