We ordered some binoculars and they arrived a while ago, together with a little book of photos and descriptions of common garden birds.
So far, I have identified the the majority of the most frequent visitors, but a couple of them have me completely confused. I have to order a better book about the birds of Europe...
We also put a couple of fat and seed balls hanging from the window shutters in the kitchen. The number of customers has been increasing steadily.
These are photos from the internet, as I don't have a decent enough camera to attempt taking my own pictures.
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| Magpie |
The magpies building their nest have sparked our interest in bird watching. We can't see into the nest at all, but we assume there are young birds there, judging by the movements of the parents. Now we have to wait and try to catch a glimpse of the fledglings leaving the nest.
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| Male and female house sparrows |
House sparrows are very common and the females like the seeds we have on offer. They perch on the telephone wire just outside the window, and "piu" quite loudly before coming to the ledge to feed.
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| The ballet |
We observed a daily continuous ballet in the distance. These birds form fairly large flocks and fly round and round, disappearing behind the trees, then re-emerging where you least expect them. I couldn't tell what they were, even with binoculars. The other day we went to Uzerche, visited the garden centre, then went to a nice bar on the church square for a couple of drinks (TW, CC and IG will remember it). We noticed the same ballet around the church. They were near enough and would land on the roof of the church every now and then, so we finally identified them. Apart from the ballet, there's nothing spectacular about feral pigeons...
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| Feral pigeon |
Some cousins of the above are far more interesting and look more attractive:
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| Collared dove |
The collared dove is much smaller than the feral pigeon, with a pinkish tinge to its feathers.
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| Male blackbird |
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| Female blackbird |
Blackbirds are terribly common, but it's nice to observe their behaviour. The females seem to spend long periods on the ground looking for grubs in Monsieur Soup's garden. The males like to use the drums Mr Soup uses to collect rainwater for long baths and a good drink.
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| Carrion crow |
I'm not very keen on these. The name alone puts me off.
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| Chaffinch |
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| Goldfinch |
These finches are lovely and colourful. I was very proud of myself when I managed to identify them. It took me a while to learn to notice markings like bibs and wingbars.
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| Great tit |
Identifying the great tit correctly was another achievement. From a distance, it's easy to take them for blue tits, but I did notice the black head, white cheeks and broad black stripe on the chest.
The blue tits are our most frequent customers and we're absolutely in love with these cheeky little birds (so is Pirouette).
We hope to see some of the more exotic species as summer approaches and they migrate from Africa. Last year I saw a hoopoe and that was quite a sight!
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| Hoopoe |
Bird watching is great fun and for people like us, who used to think "a bird is a bird," being able to tell them apart is very gratifying. Seasoned birdwatchers may laugh at us, but you have to start somewhere...
