We recently started to fill the bird feeders that sit just outside the French doors at Genus HQ. It didn’t take long for the local population to discover what we’d done and within days all the usual suspects had returned. Blue tits are nearly always the first arrivals quickly followed by great tits, and then the odd coal tit. Squabbling goldfinches come next, always bickering and fighting over their position on the sunflower hearts. The biggest acrobats are the nuthatches, defying gravity, nearly always upside down and rarely eating on the spot, preferring to gather a few seeds in their beak before taking them off to the trees to eat in solitude.
Every hour or so the great spotted woodpecker will appear, its characteristic swooping flight easily spotted as it heads towards the garden from the copse. Though a large, strong bird their shyness means it rarely stays for long before returning back to the safety of the trees. Pheasants, blackbirds, chaffinches and robins nearly always remain firmly on the ground clearing up any seeds that fall, and many a time we’ve seen a vole break cover from the lavender, darting in to snatch a broken peanut.
It’s great entertainment and of course nice to know we’re helping the local population get through the tougher, colder, months.