Last few swallows

Couple of new birds appeared in the garden this weekend and particularly good news was the first house sparrow - so hopefully the sparrow terrace may get occupied next spring. The other newcomer was Mistle thrush with at least 3 visiting the garden all weekend. Overhead there were just 3 swallows flying around the house. I guess they may all be gone by next week unless it warms up a bit and the insects stay out.

Took a trip to Spurn Point on Monday and it was quite brilliant. Weather was great and birds even better. Chalked Great Grey Shrike, Yellow Browed Warbler, great views of merlin and a good selection of migrants including 5 winchat - FAB well worth the very early start and long walk along the spit.

Week 3

Start of 3rd week in new house and bird numbers in the garden continue to grow. We now seem to have 8 bluetits visiting the feeders, a pair of robin, dunnock and great tit and many goldfinch and chaffinch. A newcomer at weekend were a pair of greenfinch plus very vocal tawny and little owls at night. Still overhead were a count of 6 swallows but no sign of house martins anymore. As an aside there are still large numbers of swallows down dale from Reeth. Also overhead some quite large groups of thrushes. The local pheasant population also seem to have found the food in the garden which will no doubt please the Game Keepers but may prove rather expensive for us on food!

Just some very poor photographic proof that the birds have started to show themselves!

Birds start appearing

Last week we set the bird feeders up but to be honest for the first weekend nothing appeared. Things have warmed up as the week progressed however and now we seem to have a regular crew of feeders at the station. New comers this week include blue and great tit, dunnock, robin and chaffinch. Everything seems to be far more wary than the birds around the village and wonder if it is just that they are less used to feeders or taht the garden is far more open and they are more vulnerable to attack? Talking of which, from the garden we are getting regular sighting of both kestrel and sparrowhawk down by the river. Still plenty of house martins around but numbers of swallow are falling away quickly as temps drop down to about 5/6 degrees over night.
Best thing so far was putting up our nest boxes (yes I know its a bit late!! or early!!) Box had only been up 1 hour when one of our newly arrived blue tits popped straight inside for a look - a winter roost sight perhaps? Several other new birds seen from garden including 2 cormorant which as a local fly fisher was not such a welcome sight!! They did seem to be moving fairly quickly east so hopefully they are on Teeside by now.

View from new house

New beginning!!!

Right! Having just moved house it feels right to have another new beginning with Gunnerside Twitch! Our move is just one of 1/4 mile to the outskirts of the village but it gives us much more space and big big views of the Dale. We moved in last Thurs (9th Sept) and what I hope to do is record the birds and other wildlife seen in and from the grounds of the house, as well as reports on other local wildlife sightings.

The house is surrounded by fields, stone walls and the odd tree/bush. The previous occupants did not seem to feed the birds and there are currently no bird boxes up. In between moving boxes over the weekend we did manage to keep an eye out for bird activity but our count of birds in the garden is pretty poor so far
Blackbird
Wren
Swallow
Mipit
Pied Wag
Goldfinch

Birds from the garden is a little more impressive (just)
as above
Jackdaw
Raven
Kestrel
Red Grouse
Pheasant
Mistle Thrush
Starling

My intention at first is to do a weekly update in particular recording what success we have in attracting new birds to the garden. Already our bird feeders are up but we are keen to make the garden far more wildlife friendly with perhaps hawthorn hedging and a small water feature.

Update - better late than never!!

All been a bit busy since coming back from hols so got very lazy on blog !! So what has been happening? Well I don't know what others think but from a Gunnerside perspective I think 2009 is looking like a really good breeding year for garden birds. The bird table and feeders seem to be absolutely full of young and the swallows/ swifts and house martins are still very busy nesting. Houise martins on front of house and very busy feeding young and I guess they may well fledge in next day or two - once gone we will however have a very serious window cleaning job to do - it seems the young like nothing more than pointing their a*** out of the nest and projectile poohing all over our bedroom window!!!! Still a small price to pay i guess.
Sand martins are also still nesting down at Rowleth, infact they were washed out just 2 weeks ago and started nesting again 2 days later. We were relaibly informed by my house sitting parents that the Spotted flycatchers successfully raised a brood and they fledged whilst we were on holiday. Up on the moors there seem to be a few grouse around along with a few curlew and lapwing still.
Tawny owls in the village seem to be very vocal at night at the moment and i wonder whether this is the young just practising their hooting!?
Birds in the garden most days at the moment include, chaffinch, blue tit, great tit, blackbird, collared dove, siskin, goldfinch, greenfinch, dunnock, robin, song thrush, jackdaw, house sparrow, great spot woodpecker, pheasant, pied wagtail, swallow, house martin and swift.