by John Baldwin
A beautiful sunny, but cold, day has brought a few different faces, or should I say birds’ beaks, into the garden at both the front and the back. The Nyjer seed has attracted our usual flock of Goldfinches, a couple of House Finches, and even a couple of Red Polls, which we haven’t seen much of this year.
Unfortunately, one of them, startled by a passing car, panicked and tried to take a short cut through our big front-room window and met its demise! I checked it out where it had fallen, but there was no response from the poor little bird. A very sad occurrence indeed, but something that happens now and again, unfortunately. These visitors were all at the front of the house, and not many of them are seen in the back garden.
However, for the past few days, a group of three to four Crows have taken to sitting in the trees at the back and, seemingly, aren’t doing much. Today, though, they at first sat on a branch of our Japanese Willow, and then perched on the top hand-rails of my bridge over our water feature. There were three of them, and I can only assume that they were seeking water, because they were pecking at the snow covered ice that had gathered there over the past week. As can be seen in the picture, two of the birds have got ice at the tips of their beaks.
After their brief stay on the bridge, they came around to the front of the house to nervously ground feed, as they usually do, along with the Rock Pigeons, Juncos, and Mourning Doves. I hope that you have also been able to take advantage of the sunshine to see and enjoy your own garden birds.
Stay safe and well,
Cheers,
John Baldwin
