Tag Archives: Birch

The Birds

Over the last couple of days there’ve been large numbers of birds in the garden making me think of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, although there have been fortunately no casualties as far as I know. I try to limit the amount of bird food I put out (as its production isn’t good for birds) and it’s good to see that most species are still eating natural food. 
This winter there’ve been reports from all over the county of unusual numbers of overwintering bramblings (bjørkefink) with flocks up to 300 birds recorded. I’ve had smaller flocks of 20-30 for some time, but yesterday they were everywhere in the garden and at least 140 birds were present, a new winter record for Malvik kommune! The films below show them both at the bird feeder, feeding on rowan berries (eating the seed and discarding the flesh) and also on the ground perhaps feeding on birch seed? 
Apart from that there was a sizeable flock of some 60 waxwings (sidensvans) on guelder rose / krossved (Viburnum opulus) and hawthorn (hagtorn) , 11 bullfinches (dompap), 50 house sparrows (gråspurv), 6 goldfinches (stillits) still mostly on burdock seed, 16 siskins (on birch seed), 6 greenfinches (grønnfink), 2 hawfinches (kjernebiter) seen on plum stones and rowan berries, a single robin (rødstrupe), a couple of fieldfares (gråtrost) on apples and hawthorn, a great spotted woodpecker (flaggspett) and great and blue tits both establishing territories now. In addition, a flock of 500-600 jackdaws (kaie) fly over to the roost every evening.

Bramblings with a hawfinch:

Bramblings with a hawfinch feeding on rowan seed (at the end, both birds are seen to discard the flesh). A greenfinch was also feeding on rowan.

Bramblings on the ground (feeding on birch seed?)

Large flock of bramblings at the bird feeder:

Snow covered with storm blown debris and seed

After the storm some days ago now, it was interesting to see how evenly the seed from Norway maple / sycamore and birch (spiss- og platanlønn og bjørk) was spread evenly over the whole garden…it’s easy to imagine how the more open parts of the garden would quickly transform to forest given the chance!
Most trees had an enormous production of seed and berries this year following the hot summer  in 2018 and mild winter last year.

Siskins dining on the roof

Close encounter with an Eurasian siskin on the other side of the window

It was fun this morning watching a flock of up to 80 siskins (grønnsisik) with a few house sparrows (gråspurv) feeding on birch seed that had fallen on my extension roof! They couldn’t see me on the other side of the window and came really close!

The pitter patter of birch seeds

The pitter patter of birch seed bracts (or scales) as you can hear at the beginning of the video can only mean one thing here, a large flock of siskins / grønnsisik (or sometimes redpolls / gråsisik) at the top of this birch tree creating a shower of debris from the bird’s feeding! However, they ARE silent when dining!

Siskins and birch

Birch seed scales are currently falling in the garden thanks to the feeding of siskins (grønnsisik)….
Added videos of a siskin feeding on fallen birch seed next to the entrance to the garden…this one allowed me to stand only 2m away and film:

…and above the siskins were feeding in the birch trees

…joined briefly by a Robin

…and showing the proximity to the road

 

Snow clearing on 20th January 2015

With an accumulated snow depth of some 30-40cm over the last 3-4 days, it was time to clear my driveway (the snow was over my highest boots). With 30m in to the house and another 20m to the wood pile and outside bioloo, I got some good healthy winter exercise :)

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The pictures are long exposure shots in the dark with some light from the street lights and moon…
This winter is a hard one for perennials as the soil was probably frozen solid down to the bedrock before the snow arrived…
My Facebook feed and newspapers have been full of adverts to buy your snow-clearing machinery yesterday…no way in my garden!

See the pictures here http://www.edimentals.com/pictures/index.php?/category/105