Month: July 2024

How to… Identify All Year Round Garden Birds

/ Laura Tuke / Leave a comment

Photographs will be updated in the future

In the UK, 633 wild bird species have been recorded up to 2024, from eagles and owls to kingfishers and thrushes. Between 2015 and 2020 though, almost half of all bird species in the UK were seen to have experienced a decline in number, adding to a steady decline over 50 years. Some of the biggest factors have been increased development, agricultural intensification, habitat loss, lack of woodland management, disease, and climate change, amongst others.

As bird species continue to lose access to habitat and food sources across the UK, our gardens, however big or small, are becoming an important lifeline for populations. ‘Garden birds’ refer to any species that visit and utilise a garden, and species will depend on what food, water, and habitat is available, and also the habitats that can be found around a garden. This often leads to variation in what people may see from garden-to-garden.

Despite differences, there are a number of birds that are more likely to be seen in gardens, and it is great to know what you may be seeing to help easily tailor your garden for their use, such as what bird food to offer. To help identify species, here you can find a helpful guide to 10 birds that can often be seen in gardens across the UK, even when their populations are decreasing in number. Take a look below!

Species:

Common Blackbird (Turdus merula)

  • Length: 23.5 – 29cm
  • Weight: 80 – 125g
  • Colour: Adult males are all black with a yellow beak, whilst adult females are dark brown with a more dull beak. Young start as a speckled version of the female and change to adult feathers through moulting their feathers
  • What To Feed: Mealworms, fat balls, or sunflower hearts on the floor or in a ground feeder
  • Breeding Season: March to Late July
  • Nest: A round cup made of twigs, grass and other plant materials, close to the ground in adequate cover
  • UK Conservation status: Green

European Robin (Erithacus rubecula)

  • Length: 12.5 – 14cm
  • Weight: 13 – 21g
  • Colour: Adult males and females look the same, both brown with an orange-red breast and white underside. The young start a speckled brown
  • What To Feed: Mealworms, suet, or seeds on a ground feeder, bird table or bird feeder with platform
  • Breeding Season: March to mid-August
  • Nest: A round cup made of grass, moss and leaves and lined with hair and maybe feathers, usually tucked in a hole, crevice or behind something
  • UK Conservation Status: Green

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

  • Length: 14 – 16cm
  • Weight: 23 – 35g
  • Colour: Adult males have a grey crown and cheeks, chestnut sides to head, black bib, grey underparts, rufous-brown back, and white wing-bar. Adult females and young (until body moult) have buff-brown upperparts, underparts grey, brown cap and cream supercilium behind eye
  • What To Feed: Will eat a range food, including seeds and grains from feeders
  • Breeding Season: March to August
  • Nest: In cavities, where dried plant material is stuffed in to make an untidy sphere which is then lined with softer materials, such as feathers
  • UK Conservation Status: Red

Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

  • Length: 13.5 – 15cm
  • Weight: 9 – 13.5g
  • Colour: Blue crown, wings and tail, white cheeks, black eye-stripe, underparts yellow, and greyish-black central belly stripe. Their young begin with more dull feathers and yellowish cheeks
  • What To Feed: Fat balls, suet, peanuts, or sunflower seeds from hanging feeders
  • Breeding Season: March to June
  • Nest: Built inside cavities and formed of a cup of plant material, such as moss, lined with soft materials, such as feathers, wool and fur
  • UK Conservation Status: Green

Great Tit (Parus major)

  • Length: 13.5 – 15cm
  • Weight: 14 – 22g
  • Colour: Black head with white cheeks, moss-green back, blue-grey wings and tails, yellow underparts and black central belly-band. Males have wider, more defined belly-band. Young begin more dull and with yellowish cheeks
  • What To Feed: Suet, fat balls, peanuts, or sunflower seeds in hanging feeders
  • Breeding Season: March to July
  • Nest: Built inside cavities, formed of a cup of twigs, roots, moss, lichen and/or grasses, and lined with soft materials, such as hair or plant material
  • UK Conservation Status: Green

Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

  • Length: 19 – 22cm
  • Weight: 60 – 97g
  • Colour: Black bird with long-pointed yellow bill, white spots dotted through plumage, a green-purple sheen to the feathers and pale pink legs. The young start with grey-brown feathers and change with body moult
  • What To Feed: Suet, peanuts or sunflower hearts in hanging and ground feeders
  • Breeding Season: March-July
  • Nest: In holes and cavities in trees and buildings, made up of a messy depression of plant stems, grass, and moss, and often lined with feathers or wool
  • UK Conservation Status: Red

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

  • Length: 12 – 13.5cm
  • Weight: 13 – 20g
  • Colour: Adults have a black and white head with red face, brown back, black wings with yellow bar, and black tail with white spots. Young lack colourful head until body moult
  • What To Feed: Sunflower hearts, niger seeds or mixed seed in hanging feeders
  • Breeding Season: April to August
  • Nest: A neat cup made of moss, grass, wool, and hair, relatively far off of the ground in tight tree branches, hedges or shrubs
  • UK Conservation Status: Green

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

  • Length: 14 – 16cm
  • Weight: 17.5 – 29g
  • Colour: Adult males have pinky-red cheeks and breast, and blue-grey crown and neck, whereas adult females and young lack the colourful head and instead have a grey-green one. All have a distinct pale rump and double white wing bars
  • What To Feed: Peanuts, sunflower seeds, seed mixes, or suet in hanging or ground feeders
  • Breeding Season: April to June
  • Nest: Deep cup of lichens, grass, roots and feathers, lined with plant down, feathers or wool, usually in the fork of a tree, shrub or hedgerow
  • UK Conservation Status: Green

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

  • Length: 29 – 33cm
  • Weight: 168 – 249g
  • Colour: Pale pinky-grey-brown feathers, black neck collar, dark eye, grey underparts, and reddish feet
  • What To Feed: Small seeds from ground feeders or bird tables
  • Breeding Season: March to September
  • Nest: Sparse platform of twigs and leaves in trees or high up in buildings
  • UK Conservation Status: Green

Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus)

  • Length: 38 – 43cm
  • Weight: 325 – 620g
  • Colour: Grey-blue head and back, pinky-red belly, large white patch on neck, sides of neck iridescent purple and green, white wing patches and pink legs. Young are pale with no neck patch.
  • What To Feed: Only British herbivorous bird. Feed seeds on a bird table, ground feeder or the ground
  • Breeding Season: February to November
  • Nest: Simple platform constructed from sticks in trees, shrubs, vegetation or ledges
  • UK Conservation Status: Amber

Spring 2024: How It Happened

/ Laura Tuke / 1 Comment

Over the last few years, it has been noticeable that weather patterns and average temperatures have been changing and highly unpredictable, leading to the seasons, such as spring, varying from month-to-month and year-to-year, especially here in Dorset. For example, last year spring began a wash out, moving to cold and stormy spells, before ending with heat waves. This year was an equally odd series of spring weather events with a cold start to the season, followed by wet weather with northerly winds, and finishing with drier spells. It was on average warmer and wetter, but cold nights continued for a long time, and had a noticeable effect on plant growth patterns being seen.

Spring 2023 encountered trends for later spring events and a slow start to spring, which helped to create a mismatch between species and spring events. With a warmer, wetter winter before spring this year, and often above average spring temperatures, it is likely the trends this year may differ to those of 2023. It will be interesting to see if this has had an effect though, by looking at trends for some tree, shrub, flower, insect and bird species. How will spring 2024 have shaped up? Read on to see how my favourite season unfurled this year!

Trees

During 2023, spring emergence dates for trees showed a trend for on average later dates, ranging from 1 to 28 days later. In 2024 though, the majority of spring tree dates were earlier, as seen with field maple, horse chestnut, english oak, and wild cherry, ranging from 1 to 22 days earlier from March through to May. Alder dates though were fractionally later, as were ash and sycamore flowering, and silver birch and norway maple budburst, but the other events for these species occurred earlier. The on average warmer and wetter weather will most likely be the reason for these trends, allowing trees to get a head start this year.

Flowers

Plants flowering during spring 2023 occurred on average later, varying from 1 to 16 days. During spring 2024 though, flowering has occurred earlier, as was the trend with tree species. For snowdrops, lesser celandines, primroses, greater stitchwort, wood anemones, early purple orchids, wild garlic, yellow archangel, cuckooflowers, oxeye daisies, and bluebells flowering occurred 1 to 32 days earlier between January and May. The exceptions were found with daffodils, flowering 6 days later during February, and cowslips, 4 days later during April. It would be understandable thus to think that the warmer, wetter weather of the start of spring will have had a heavy influence on these events, just like with trees.

Insects

Of 12 species that had the emergence date recorded during spring 2023, the majority emerged later than the year before, ranging from 2 to 46 days later. This year though, spring 2024 saw the occurrence of a 50:50 split for the 10 species that had their emergence date recorded, with some species from 2023 yet to be seen at all, such as painted lady butterflies.

Buff-tailed bumblebees, 7-spotted ladybirds, and orange tip, red admiral, and speckled wood butterflies all emerged earlier this year, ranging from 2 to 46 days earlier. Conversely, queen wasps, and brimstone, peacock, gatekeeper, and small tortoiseshell butterflies all emerged later than 2023, ranging from 8 to 47 days later. Though not complete for all, the split does tend to be due to March to April species emerging earlier this year whereas April to June species emerged later this year. This may be due to April being a cooler, wetter month this year, impacting insect species more greatly than plant species that were already making their advance and were less impacted.

Shrubs

Spring 2023 mainly showed a trend for later shrub budburst, leaf unfurling and flowering, ranging from 3-27 days from March to May. In contrast, for spring 2024, the majority of events for shrubs occurred earlier, ranging from 1 to 53 days earlier from December through to May. These included for blackthorn, dog rose, elder, hawthorn and hazel, with the only later event being for red female hazel flowers being observed. This trend shows similarities to those of trees and spring flowering plants, and would be similarly due to a warmer, wetter winter and start of spring, allowing events to occur earlier and shrubs to get a head start on the season.

Birds

Following on from the last two years (2022 and 2023), the dates of bird events during spring 2024 showed no clear trend, with a split between different species and events. Rooks began building their nests earlier, chiffchaffs and swallows arrived earlier, song thrushes and yellowhammers first sang earlier, and the first wrens fledged earlier. Conversely, blackbirds first sang later, the first blackbirds fledged later, blackcaps, cuckoos and house martins arrived later, and great-spotted woodpeckers drummed later.

Some of these event timing changes will be due to spring temperatures and weather conditions on short term and long term scales. Other reasons are less obvious currently, but the hope is that bird events will still have been timed right with other species to make the most of resources this year.

Conclusion

Spring 2024 was a thoroughly odd season, varying from month-to-month, but feeling like wet weather prevailed more than the normal. In the end it was vibrant and colourful, though missing the traditional spring feeling. This year spring was heavily effected by climatic changes and changes to weather patterns, and this may become typical during the springs to come. It is really hard to predict then how each season will play out, and it will be interesting to see now how all British species cope with such unpredictability as time goes on. Only time will tell!

Species List

  • Alder (Tree) Alnus glutinosa
  • Ash (Tree) Fraxinus excelsior
  • Blackbird (Bird) Turdus merula
  • Blackcap (Bird) Sylvia atricapilla
  • Blackthorn (Shrub) Prunus spinosa
  • Bluebell (Flowering Plant) Hyacinthoides non-scripta
  • Brimstone butterfly (Insect) Gonepteryx rhamni
  • Buff-tailed bumblebee (Insect) Bombus terrestris
  • Chiffchaff (Bird) Phylloscopus collybita
  • Common wasp (Insect) Vespula vulgaris
  • Cowslip (Flowering Plant) Primula veris
  • Cuckoo (Bird) Cuculus canorus
  • Cuckooflower (Flowering Plant) Cardamine pratensis
  • Daffodil (Flowering Plant) Narcissus spp.
  • Dog rose (Shrub) Rosa canina
  • Early purple orchid (Flowering Plant) Orchis mascula
  • Elder (Shrub) Sambucus nigra
  • English oak (Tree) Quercus robur
  • Field maple (Tree) Acer campestre
  • Gatekeeper butterfly (Insect) Pyronia tithonus
  • Greater stitchwort (Flowering Plant) Stellaria holostea
  • Great-spotted woodpecker (Bird) Dendrocopos major
  • Hawthorn (Shrub) Crataegus monogyna
  • Hazel (Shrub) Crataegus monogyna
  • Horse chestnut (Tree) Aesculus hippocastanum
  • House martin (Bird) Delichon urbicum
  • Lesser celandine (Flowering Plant) Ficaria verna
  • Norway maple (Tree) Acer platanoides
  • Orange-tip butterfly (Insect) Anthocharis cardamines
  • Oxeye daisy (Flowering Plant) Leucanthemum vulgare
  • Peacock butterfly (Insect) Aglais io
  • Primrose (Flowering Plant) Primula vulgaris
  • Red admiral butterfly (Insect) Vanessa atalanta
  • Rook (Bird) Corvus frugilegus
  • Seven-spot ladybird (Insect) Coccinella septempunctata)
  • Silver birch (Tree) Betula pendula
  • Small tortoiseshell butterfly (Insect) Aglais urticae
  • Snowdrop (Flowering Plant) Galanthus spp.
  • Song thrush (Bird) Turdus philomelos
  • Speckled wood butterfly (Insect) Pararge aegeria
  • Swallow (Bird) Hirundo rustica
  • Sycamore (Tree) Acer pseudoplatanus
  • Wild cherry (Tree) Prunus avium
  • Wild garlic (Flowering Plant) Allium ursinum
  • Wood anemone (Flowering Plant) Anemone nemorosa
  • Wren (Bird) Troglodytes troglodytes
  • Yellow archangel (Flowering Plant) Lamium galeobdolon
  • Yellowhammer (Bird) Emberiza citrinella

Breeding Birds on the Farm 2023

/ Laura Tuke / Leave a comment

In memory of Trevor Squire

My love of birds can be first originated with my grandfather, who enjoyed sharing his own passion with me when I was child, even before my own began. In time, my mum passed her own knowledge on to me, but it took me going off to university to finally realise how much fascination bird species hold for me. Once I returned home to Dorset after completing my Master’s, I then got the opportunity to begin my training as a bird ringer in 2019 with a very special local trainer, Trevor Squire.

Last year I posted on my blog all about the birds breeding on my family’s farm in Dorset throughout 2022, whilst working to apply for my C permit (check it out here). That year I encountered 2 broods of kestrel chicks, 3 broods of swallow chicks, 2 broods of barn owl chicks, and 2 great mornings ringing in my own garden to build my confidence with a range of species.

Moving in to 2023, I had now gained my C permit with restrictions, and could begin to ring with more independence whilst exploring the bird life on my family’s Dorset farm. Unfortunately, no kestrel nests were discovered on the farm during 2023, as our local population were hit hard by avian flu. There was still lots of bird fun to be had though, so read on to find out what I got up to.

Swallows

In 2022, the swallow population around my home had a tough year and a very poor breeding season, which may be because less pairs returned to start with. In total, I discovered 6 nests, but only 3 fledged chicks, 12 in total. So in 2023, with my new C permit now giving me the endorsement to ring swallow chicks on my own, I hoped for more luck for my swallows.

I began nest checks again on the 25th May and over the course of the breeding season I discovered 6 different nests in use, with 4 being used again for 2nd broods. I am very happy to say that I had the pleasure of ringing 42 swallow chicks from 11th June to 16th September. Knowing that some chicks even fledged before I had the chance to ring them, 2023 was a very good year for my swallow population in comparison to 2022.

Barn Owls

Those who follow my blog will already know that barn owls are a species that are very special to my family, with these birds being intertwined with farmland in Dorset. Barn owls are a great indicator of the state of nature on farmland, and have been followed closely on our land since 2019, helping to influence management. Check out my Barn Owl page for more stories.

In 2022, the barn owls had a good year on the farm, with 2 pairs nesting at opposite ends of our land, one in an annually used nest box and another in the same tree as a pair of kestrels. Both pairs went on to have 2 chicks fledge successfully, which was a big positive for the barn owl population in our area.

For 2023, I now had my C permit that had the inclusion of an endorsement for me to ring barn owl chicks on my own. We had high hopes for our barn nest box once again, having seen 2 owls hunting around the farm over the winter, and courting around the box in early spring. On checking the box on the 2nd June, we were happy to discover 3-4 young chicks. I used these chicks as an opportunity to gain confidence, and ringed 3 good sized chicks alongside my ringing trainer on the 7th July. We had hoped to discover a second pair breeding on our farm again in 2023, but we are very happy that at least 2 of the barn box chicks were seen to go on to fledge successfully. This is a definite improvement on only 1 chick in 2021!

Chicks Ringed of New Species

As on my newly acquired C permit I only have endorsements to ring swallow, kestrel, and barn owl chicks, in 2023 I aimed to ring chicks from other species alongside my ringing trainer to expand on my C permit in time.

On the farm in 2023, I got to ring my first brood of blackbird chicks (4), blue tit chicks (7), and starling chicks (1). The highlight though was one of our tawny owl boxes finally producing a healthy brood of 2 tawny owl chicks. A great start to increasing my experience, whilst I also got the opportunity to ring at other sites, such as checking tawny owl boxes with another ringing group.

Garden Mist Netting

In 2022, ahead of applying for my C permit, I got to spend 2 mornings mist netting and ringing in my own garden with another ringing trainer. This was an exciting first for me, made even greater by catching 192 new birds of 9 species, the highlight being some lovely starlings.

For 2023, I got to experience a new first, mist netting and ringing in my garden all on my own. Through June and July, I spent 6 mornings ringing in my garden, and managed the situation each time, so as to only catch as many birds as I could deal with on my own at one time. Over these mornings I caught 90 new birds of 11 species (1 robin, 7 chaffinches, 11 blue tits, 44 house sparrows, 1 blackbird, 13 great-spotted woodpeckers, 2 goldfinches, 3 dunnocks, 6 great tits, 1 starling, and 1 greenfinch), and learnt alot from acquiring this experience already. My highlight was definitely the greenfinch, as it was a beautiful adult male and my very first greenfinch ever ringed!

Here’s to 2024 being as interesting!

All birds were ringed under license and following rules to ensure the health and welfare of the birds handled at all times.