Birds you've seen today

 Towhee, Grackles, thrasher-----What fantastic bird names...or are you making them up Ruth?

 Here there have been recent reports that the Sparrow is in decline, but this year in our garden we have had an explosion of the common little bird, I have been putting out food since early spring and the numbers have been a steady 18 - 20  in the garden at feeding time, the young ones have learnt to go in with my chickens to get a few extra titbits-

I have been putting out Nija seeds too for the Goldfinches, which are a very shy colourful bird, and they have brought their young to the garden too, they also eat the seeds from the lavender and sunflowers.

I will continue to feed the birds through the winter and hope that next spring we have even more.

As for the Woodpigeons, they are a pest and will eat anything and everything that is put out, I don't have to worry too much, as we have a Sparrowhawk that often visits and dispite it's name has left the small birds and takes only the pigeons.

Also had a family of Crows visiting for the second year, they are lovely intelligent birds and come down when I shake the seed bin, they also store and hide anything that catches their eye, clothes pegs,flower heads,pebbles and plant labels, it's a small price to pay to have a garden full of birds.   

Hi Karen:  No, not making them up, honest.  I love the birds you have over there that we don't have, especially the cheeky little robins.  We had one that was in the garden like clockwork every day, when we stayed in our holiday apartment in Dorset.  I recently saw a docmentary on crows, and they, along with humans and great primates, make and use tools.  They are super intelligent.

more or less the same here karen --we have had siskin's,goldfinch,blue tit's and many blackbird's--most of the dove's have migrated now only the straggler's are left and they are fastly becoming prey to the hawk's.

The American kestrel we have here is sometimes called a sparrow hawk, but they're only about the size of a collared dove.  They take smaller birds, lizards, snakes.  But they're really pretty birds.  Google them if you'd like to see.

I love the chaffinches over there.  We don't have them here.

Hi Karen:  Actually, they've been coming around for the dove/quail blend of birdseed that I bought for "my" bird, the little fledgeling collared dove that I had in a cage for 3 weeks last spring, after my cat got hold of him.  He still comes around.

I have bouganvillea which attracts the hummers, and I usually put out a feeder for them in winter.  They are nectar eaters, so the feeder gets filled with sugar water.  They are wonderful to watch.  They're very tiny, they look like large bees and they hover as they're feeding.  They beat their wings at the rate of about 80 times per second.

The lovebirds come round for the big seeds in my chinaberry tree.  The lovebirds and collared doves are exotics that have only been seen in this area in the last 5 years or so.  The park by my house is loaded with them.  It's very cool to see all these little green parrots in the trees.  They do well here because they're native to that desert area of S. Africa that Syd Harling recently sent pictures of.  The climate here is very similar to there.

James used to raise peach faced lovebirds, that's why he knows what vicious brutes they can be.  :-)