First Footing

I have not fed the garden birds for at least 9 months, and last winter I put the feeding station in a different place in the garden. The weather has been exceptionally warm for winter, we have seen plenty of active insects, and I'm sure the birds have had plenty to go at in the hedgerows, woodland and rough grass around us. The garden has been very quiet - the birds are still spread far and wide, I thought

I put this up at 3pm, in fading light on a grey afternoon. Before I had gone in and sat down, this guy was there. That's not really a surprise - robins watch us closely and anticipate that anything we do outside might turn up a meal, trusting to luck (or rather the laws of statistical probability) that the chances of food are greater than the chances of us doing them harm. This pattern of behaviour must have paid off for them, because it has not evolved out over many millennia

I was much more surprised that, within a half hour, great tits and blue tits were there almost constantly. I don't sense that tits follow us around watching our every move like robins, so I wonder how it comes about that so many find a food source so quickly. Do they automatically check out any new feature in the environment? If one finds food does the message travel quickly from bird to bird that there is food? Or is there some higher level of thought going on: so many people now feed birds; have they learned to recognise the somewhat abstract concept of a feeding station, well enough to home in on it when a new one is set up? Birds are such a mystery

Based on our past experience, these common tits will eventually be joined by large numbers of sparrows, long-tailed tits and goldfinch. On the ground, picking up the fallen scraps will be wood pigeon, collared dove, dunnock and brambling. Much rarer visitors may include chaffinch, bullfinch, nuthatch and blackcap, along with an occasional starling and woodpecker. Despite there being large numbers of jackdaws here, they very seldom seem to venture into the garden. We do also have a local sparrowhawk - though it's not, of course the feeding station itself he is interested in!