Last updated at 16:26, Wednesday, 04 March 2009

Gordon Nicholson reports from his Kells garden where spring may be on its way - but so are the pigeons

Well Spring is almost here, a friend of mine who has a pond in her garden was telling me she has about forty Frogs in her pond, so that’s a pointer that Spring is just about with us.

So we will have a lot more activity in the garden over the next few months. The Blackbirds are already starting to fight each other to mark their territory for pairing up with the females. The Blue Tit I was telling you about last month is still checking out our nest box. We are having a problem with Pigeons hanging on to our seed feeders to eat the seed so the small birds are having a struggle to get on the feeders, the pigeons are frightening them off, I am sick of chasing the pigeons from the feeders.

We had a surprise visitor in the garden last week we had a Grey Wagtail, they are usually found near fast flowing streams and brooks, and near lakes or slow flowing rivers, and they usually eat insects but this one was happily eating small pieces of cheddar cheese. Most birds seem to like cheese. I managed to take a photograph of the Grey Wagtail, but it was late afternoon, so the light was very poor, and it was quite a long way from me, and I had to take the picture through the window.

I have just got a new Niger seed feeder for the garden, and the Goldfinches are really very partial to Niger seed, they seem to prefer Niger seed more then the other seed I have in my other feeders. If you want to attract Goldfinches into your own garden get a Niger seed feeder and some Niger seed.

This month I have chosen the Chaffinch (Latin name Fringilla coelebs) The Chaffinch is our commonest finch, The male Chaffinch has red-buff head pink breast and cheeks, blue-grey crown and nape, and chestnut brown back. Its bill is grey-blue, turning to pale brown in the winter. The Female Chaffinch has Olive-brown upperparts with pale underparts, almost white towards the rump, which is greenish, and two white wing bars like the male Chaffinch.

The Chaffinch feeds on seeds and insects during the breeding season mostly caterpillars, and they forage under seed feeders for hearts and sunflower seeds, they also eat cheddar cheese. Last year I had a female Chaffinch sitting on our garden fence watching for me throwing the pieces of cheddar cheese into the garden and then it would come down and get a piece then fly off into the trees to eat it.

Their nest is a neat camouflaged cup of grass leaves moss and cobwebs, against a trunk of tree or bush, they have one brood; April-May and they have 4 or 5 eggs the eggs are light blue with purple-brown blotches.

First published at 12:42, Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk