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No birds in my garden....

Taxi Tom said:
I was thinking exactly the same...no birds except, for odd magpie and pigeon, and we have a very bird friendly garden....robins normally come into kitchen....live Kings Norton Tom
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Hi Tom...
Yes ... I still see a variety of the larger birds... but the Robin's and blue tits and wrens are non existent....
It may be a abundance of food, berries, etc....
I have lived here for 20 years and never known it be so quiet... no morning chorus... It's a little bit concerning...
Do you think that the bird flu is taking its toll ?
Hope not.....
 
i saw a lot of swallows on a wire ready to go back. for a week there has been no small birds in my garden. when we go out for a walk no black bird singing to us from the tree as we pass, only the racket from the rooks. there has been a lot of dead birds (starlings) dropping in the fields and roads. what is happening to the world.:worried:
 
mw0njm. said:
there has been a lot of dead birds (starlings) dropping in the fields and roads.
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We are also missing smaller birds here. We have a single redstart regular in the garden, nothing else. The big birds are about, red kites and buzzards, and a kestrel has a regular perch on a tall post in the garden. But what we don’t see are corpses. I can understand the heat, and as mentioned, bird flu, but where are the bodies? We see some road kill, such as pheasants, but even that is not as prevalent as in previous times. Nature is making a few corrective adjustments perhaps to compensate for us humans.
Andrew.
 
Tony B said:
No small birds in the garden....
Is it me or have they migrated.. There have been no sparrows , black birds in my garden for weeks...
On reflection , I thought it was the severe hot weather... but now it's been a lot cooler and still no sign !
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Most of my local sparrows and blackbirds have gone AWOL too, leaving the robins and tits. But I've noticed this happens every summer with them returning by autumn. My guess is that with food plentiful, they head out away from the traffic and humans to enjoy the greenery of summer. They come back when their natural food gets scarce because they know there's likely to be some around the human habitations.
 
I appear to be a bit luckier, we have sparrows, black birds, great tits, blue tits, our regular cheeky robin but also too many magpies and pigeons coming to our garden pond to have a drink or a bath.
We have a large conifer in the back garden , I call it their multistorey flats because all you see all day is birds going in and out.
We have feeders in the front and back garden and my husband is having to refill them every other day.
Being close to HS2 works we also now have lots of crows who come into neighbouring trees their own having been cut down.
The only disappointment this year none of our bird boxes were occupied.
 
Whilst we do have a variety of birds coming into the garden there are certainly not as many as there used to be, much to our disappointment. However, we don't know what takes place early in the morning long before we are up. Saddened last week to find a dead blackbird in the pond. They usually come most days to have a bath on top of the weeds, he comes first followed by his wife.
Also saddened last Saturday as My pet mouse suddenly died - couldn't work the computer at all until I got another one !!!
 
Plenty here sparrows blackbirds crows and magpies and four regular seagull visitors if I chuck out the chicken skins and bones bathing in my old frying pan on the garden path but the neighbours pedigree cats have killed a couple and I've had to clear up the left overs.
 
This is so coincidental as I’ve said the same to my Wife over the past few days.
we live in north Leicestershire.
 
Here in the Black County steady decline over recent years of small birds. No sparrows for years.

Plenty of larger birds such as magpies, crows and wood pigeons. Over a hundred rooks pass over in an evening
flying to roost in parkland trees. Loads of seagulls gather on playing fields and return to local lakes. There has been a tawny owl around for as long as I can remember.
 
I live in Chelmsley Wood by Meriden Park. I have a small tree in my Garden full off sparrows (counted 19 yesterday) which I feed with bread and seed every day, this attracts magpies, pigeons and crows. Occasionally see the odd blue tit and robin. Also loads of Sea Gulls
 
As you know Eric I live across the road from you at Bacons End, we have lots of Seagulls squealing away as soon as it gets light.
 
I live in Tamworth this year has been very quiet. Pair of Blackbirds in the garden earlier in the year but not seen for weeks. Usual have all sorts apart from sparrows, blue tits, robins and a couple of finch's in previous years. Not seen as many pigeons, magpies or crows.
Its not just the birds that have gone missing. Have seen hardly any flies, bees or wasps. I have a large Lavender that is normally covered with honey bees but nothing this year.
 
Well there are certainly a lot of sparrows here. Where I sit at my desk I can watch them, at certain times of the day, in the trees, in the rambling roses and even on the bench and paving. There seems to two colonies - on at the back of the house and another in the front gardens. The front area has sycamores and holly trees and is a natural area with pond and wild flowers. We have roses, standard and climbers which the sparrows keep clean of aphids. A good source of food for them it appears. There are a couple of earth 'baths' and of course shaded water receptacles. A pair of sparrows, who nested in my garage roof (tiled roof, not flat), bred two families this year. The other nests were more hidden from sight. We have a lot a pigeons and doves but for the most part they settle on other folks roofs, they only come here to feed. We saw a pair of blackbirds early in the year but they only visit occasionally. Crows are frequent visitors but Magpies seldom visit - which is just as well, pretty but spiteful creatures. Bees, not as prolific as usual, but those that come gather nectar from many sources. Fortunately we didn't have any wasp nests last year or this year.
 
A couple of years ago I made a nest box out of some spare wood but it's never been occupied, I just noticed there is grass sticking out of the opening, had a closer look and it looks as though something has nested there this year but I never saw it.
 
I did not mention gulls, well they are usually, at this time of year, to be found among the tourists. They will turn up later but our dog chases them away. He does the same to pigeons but they soon return.
 
Radiorails said:
I did not mention gulls, well they are usually, at this time of year, to be found among the tourists. They will turn up later but our dog chases them away. He does the same to pigeons but they soon return.
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Alan my dog too runs after them. but he jumps in the air and try's to take off as well
 
There are lots of wood pigeons about, very noisy too, this morning I thought someone was putting a ladder up the wall but it was three pigeons jumping about on the flat roof under the bay window. Magpies seem intent on fetching the old brittle guttering off next door. They have pulled the cement out from under their roof and ridge tiles too.
I haven't seen any little birds for some time now, I thought it was was because another neighbour has had a lot of outside work done and they were scared off but they haven't returned. Maybe it's the magpies?
rosie.
 
"They have pulled the cement out from under their roof and ridge tiles too."

So the house belongs to the magpies now?
 
Smudger said:
I have a great many varieties of birds in the garden though sadly there is one less thanks to a Sparrow hawk. I wish the pigeons would find somewhere else to do their coo-cooing. !
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Quite agree Smudger, They stand on our chimney pot, or the cowl on top and call to us down the chimney. I'm sure they are reminding us to put some more food out for the birds
 
Here on the Staffordshire/Cheshire border we are also having trouble with feral pigeons, they use our neighbours solar panels as a breeding ground. The local population has trebled over the year.
Our estate also has quite a few cats who we suspect are responsible for the absence of the smaller birds that used to be quite common.
I'm told that Feral Pigeons are a protected species and can't be shot. Does anybody know if this is true?
 
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i like woodies (wood pigeons) but feral grrrrr...... Many people appropriately call them rats of the sky as they can carry more diseases than rats therefore they are a serious risk to health. Examples of bacteria associated with pigeons are aspergillosis, cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, listeriosis, psittacosis and salmonella
 
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