In this newsletter:
An avian friend returns
Feeding garden birds
Update from Albania
Event: The Great Backyard Bird Count
Tip of the week - Merlin Bird ID app
Recommendation: Songbirding podcast
Suzy’s Bird notes
An avian friend returns
Guess who turned up in my garden this afternoon?
If you listen to my podcast you will know that during the last year I received almost daily visits from my Rook Friend. Always following a set routine, the Rook would land on the deck railing outside our kitchen window, and then approach the window, looking in to make it clear that suet pellets were required. It made its last visit on January 4th, and although there have been a couple of Rooks around the neighbourhood, I had not been sure if any of them was my friend.
This afternoon, while I was making lunch, out of nowhere the Rook hopped onto the deck railing and looked through my kitchen window - as though it hadn't been 5 weeks since our last meeting!
I immediately rushed to the back door to throw out some suet pellets, which it ate. It gathered additional suet in its crop, I assume to cache somewhere. It came back a second time later in the afternoon for more suet.
I am both excited that it is back, and intrigued to know why it was missing for so long. What drives its decision to visit? Are we back to our old daily routine, or will it only visit once in a while? Today has been particularly cold and tonight will be worse. Maybe it just knew I was an easy route to filling up its cache of food!
Feeding garden birds: Start here!
If you don't yet feed your neighbourhood birds but would like to start, here are my recommendations:
Additional foods to consider
The RSPB reminds us to help birds by giving them supplementary food, particularly after these cold winter nights. With less daylight to find food, and needing to replace the calories used to stay warm overnight, leaving the right type of food out can really improve their chances of survival.
Recommended food includes: mild grated cheese, bruised fruit (not mouldy), cooked rice, unsalted bits of hard fat, roast potatoes and dry porridge. The RSPB also suggests calorie-rich foods like mixed seed, sunflower seed, nyjer seed and good quality peanuts.
Foods to AVOID: Cooking fat from roast dinners mixes with meat juices during cooking to make a runny, greasy mixture. This sticks to feathers and stops them from being waterproof. Other foods to avoid are dried coconut, cooked porridge oats, milk, and mouldy or salted food.
For more tips, click the button.
Update from Albania
Last week I told how Steph Fuccio (Geopats Podcast Network) had accepted a challenge to learn to identify six birds during her daily walks in Grand Park, Tirana, Albania.
This week Steph checked off House Sparrow and Robin!
Identifying the birds we see is challenging. Even as our knowledge grows, there will still be birds we are unfamiliar with or unsure of a positive identification.
I'd love to hear your top tips for encouraging new birders.
The Great Backyard Bird Count 12-15th February
The Great Backyard Bird Count starts today!
It is very easy to take part: watch birds for a 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days (more if you can). Submit the count of species seen using the Merlin Bird ID app or eBird.
Sign up for free - and contribute to this fantastic piece of Community Science
I'm taking part - I hope you will too! And you can let me know what species you enjoyed seeing via SpeakPipe
Tip of the week - Merlin ID app
Download Merlin ID app to your phone.
It is a very helpful app that can help you identify species by description (of size, shape, colour) or by uploading a photograph.
You can also browse species and it includes birds from Europe and North America.
Recommendation - Songbirding Podcast
Host Rob lives in Ontario, Canada and set up the Hamilton Bioacoustics Research Project which has recorded thousands of hours of soundscapes in his region.
Songbirding podcast brings you those recordings, with information on species and other items of note.
Give your ears a treat and immerse yourself in the sounds of the birds of Ontario. Check out his website for more details.
The Casual Birder Podcast
Current episode:
This week’s episode with Dr Amir Khan was an absolute joy to record!
His enthusiasm and joy of the natural world is wonderful to hear. He tells me about the birds in his garden and why connecting with Nature is so important for our health. There is also a surprise cameo by a Hedgehog!
Past episode suggestion:
Feeding Garden Birds
Visit my website for photos, blogs, and episode transcripts
Keep in touch
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