A male blackcap (munk) in the garden feeding nervously on an apple that a fieldfare (gråtrost) has been guarding attacking any bird that gets near.
…and then demonstrating that SIZE MATTERS as Herr Blackcap (munk) meets Hr. Hawfinch (kjernebiter) with guest appearances by Hr. Siskin (grønnsisik) and Hr. Brambling (bjørkefink)…..and there’s a finale!
I grow burdock (borre) in the garden both as a vegetable but also for the birds. Goldfinches / stillits (still relatively rare in my area) eat almost exclusively the seeds of this plant in winter. This year I cut down a few of the plants and placed them in a large pot of earth right in front of the kitchen window…and 4 birds discovered it today. How they avoid the burrs attaching to them is a mystery….
Some of the seed burrs had fallen to the ground in a storm a week ago. This video starts with siskins feeding next to the window on birch seeds:
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 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!
Before my D.A. (Dandelion Awakening) I would religiously remove and cut down as many dandelions as I could, but nowadays my garden perennial beds are full of them. As I’ve written before, dandelions have become probably my most important vegetable in the winter months. I dig up the roots from my garden beds, where I’ve deliberately let them grow, in the autumn, store in my cellar and force them as I need them in cooler rooms in the house. These wild dandelions grow themselves, the only energy I use on them is in the digging and moving to store! A perfect vegetable! There are 11 pages in my book Around the World in 80 plants about the multitude of food uses for dandelions and how you can make a whole meal of them and cycle home after the meal on tyres made of dandelion rubber! But there’s so much more to this miracle plant and I’m sure you’ve read of its many medicinal properties including it being an anti-cancer powerhouse! Sat in the garden, a Eurasian Siskin (grønnsisik) just landed on a dandelion head showing it’s also an important plant for birds in addition to bees, beetles and other insects! Make sure you leave a few dandelions to seed and you may also experience a magical moment like this!
A small sacrifice (in extra weeding) is to let thistles set seed…I can then watch siskins (grønnsisik) feeding only a few metres away! Here on Cirsium erisithales (yellow melancholy thistle)
White-tailed eagle (havørn) in flight past Malvikodden
Note that you can see Trondheim (Værnes) airport in the background…this is where eagles were flown out and over to the UK and Ireland as part of the reintroduction program…
You can also hear singing siskin (grønnsisik) in the background.
Over the weekend of the national garden bird count (hagefugltelling) the temperature was stable between -1 and +1C. I registered 23 species in the garden, 7 of which sang or drummed, here they are with maximum numbers of each:
Siskin (grønnsisik) 18
Brambling (bjørkefink) 22
Nuthatch (spettmeis) 1
Fieldfare (gråtrost) 6
Bullfinch (dompap) 6
Greenfinch (grønnfink) 7
Robin (rødstrupe) 1
Great Tit (kjøttmeis) 2
Redpoll (gråsisik) 26
Blue Tit (blåmeis) 2
Coal Tit (svartmeis) 1
Great spotted wooodpecker (flaggspett) 2
Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) 1
House sparrow (gråspurv) 10
Chaffinch (bokfink) 1
Magpie (skjære) 3
Hooded crow (kråke) 1
Yellowhammer (gulspurv) 6
Blackbird (svarttrost) 2
Feral pigeon (bydue) 1
Jackdaw (kaie) 30
Hawfinch (kjernebiter) 1
Goldfinch (stillits) 2
Siskin singing (grønnsisik)
Siskin (grønnsisik) singing in a birch tree as they fed…
Siskin (grønnsisik) singing in a birch tree as they fed…and you can hear a woodpecker drumming in the garden (my first ever in the garden) about 3/4 of the way through
…and here are the pair of great spotted woodpeckers which have chosen to set up home in the garden on the neighbour’s bird feeder tree…I didn’t notice the second bird arriving until I saw the film!
Siskin (grønnsisik) singing in a birch tree as they fed…
Every day there’s something different birdwise to see in the garden. This morning, a flock of some 20 siskins (grønnsisik) were looking for crumbs under the feeder, but they were soon gone again! (together with bramblings / bjørkefink and redpolls / gråsisik in the videos)
Waxwings (sidensvans) and siskin (grønnsisik) foraging under the bird feeder today.
With siskin and tree sparrow seen today, that brings this week’s species count to 21 species in the garden…in addition various other species have been seen flying over and on the fjord!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
