Breeding behaviour

March was very up and down, with a very cold start changing to warmer temperatures, before the cold arrived back again in what was dubbed the 'Mini Beast from the East' around the middle of the month. Fortunately, this freezing spell didn't last too long and by the end of the month it was back to normal. Now into the third week of April and temperatures are set to reach above 20° tomorrow and it will remain warm all week. The feeders have slowed down considerably, as have sales of food, as expected. There is plenty of courtship going on, lots of beautiful bird song and nesting material being collected. The first baby blackbirds are being reported on social media, although we haven't seen any here yet.

I did witness some interesting behaviour with the dunnocks at the start of April, with the female raising her tail and the male pecking at her behind. This is apparently known as 'cloacal pecking' and is an attempt to remove the sperm from the female's previous mate (it's fair to say dunnocks aren't always faithful to their partner...).

A pair of kestrels appear to be nesting in the church, which has seen successful broods raised for the past few years now.

Woodpigeons can be seen performing their display flight, noisily flapping their wings as they rise and then dropping back down quietly. Another territorial behaviour the woodpigeons can be seen doing is fighting. This often happens in the depths of a tree but two recently took their fight down on to the ground by the cow shed. The battle went on for about a minute or so before the defeated pigeon took off.

I heard my first singing blackbird at the end of January and they have been vocal ever since. Robins, wrens, dunnocks and goldcrests are all in good voice currently too. Our first cuckoo was reported by Lyn on the farm on Saturday 14th.

Our visiting hawfinches were last seen on the 25th March, rather amazing how long they stayed for after arriving in early December and what a privilege it was to have had them. There are still siskins around however, as usual they tend to arrive later in the winter and often stay until early Summer.

And finally a few photos of a red-legged partridge which made a rare and brief appearance on the 7th April.

Feathers' finches

Our last blog post revealed our 97th species here at Feathers - the hawfinch. This winter's influx has been unprecedented, with an estimated 12 times as many in the UK than normal at this time of year. Sussex has certainly seen good numbers, with plenty of sites recording them across the county for the first time. I wrote before Christmas about our surprise of still having the hawfinches here two weeks after their arrival and expecting them to move on. Well, here we are in February with another sighting in the church yard yesterday and our biggest count of 7 late in January. Dozens of birdwatchers have visited to see them and most have been successful.

Hawfinch at Feathers, Salehurst, Sussex, 07/02/18

We've also recorded our first siskins and redpoll in the feeding area outside the shop. Redpoll isn't a species we see very often here so that was a nice surprise.

Redpoll, 21/12/17

Siskin, 03/02/18

Another species we don't see here as much as we'd like is bullfinch. In February 2015 a small flock spent much of the month feeding on the buds in the flowering cherry outside the shop, but we haven't had them often since then. This winter I have spotted one or two on the odd occasion, but they're always very elusive and difficult to photograph.

Female bullfinch, 05/01/18

Winter roundup and signs of Spring

Weather wise, winter 2016/17 was fairly typical, with mostly average temperatures throughout. The feeders have remained fairly active until just recently as we now move in to the breeding season, with temperatures on the rise (though still mostly average at 10-12°). We have certainly experienced more frosts than in recent winters, though the only snow (although nothing to shout about) arrived in January. Unlike winter 2015/16, the daffodils started emerging just on time and have been in bloom in Feb and March, rather than December!

The biggest disappointment has been the shortage of winter visitors. Apart from redwings and fieldfares, which were in good numbers early on in the winter feeding on the yew trees, we have had little else to shout about. One brambling sighting in november, no redpolls and our first siskins of the year arrived in very late February. There had been 1 male and 1 female siskin until this morning when 2 females were present, though no sign of the male. Hopefully they may stay on and breed this year.

There has been lots of 'flirting' and territorial behaviour, with even some early breeders already on eggs (as per local reports). In the garden at home, a robin is nest building in a coniferous shrub out the front. At feathers there is no evidence of any tits taking up residency in our nest boxes but there may still be time.

With spells of warmer weather in the past couple of weeks, a few butterflies have been spotted here including brimstone, small tortoiseshell and peacock.

In time for summer, I completed a new insect hotel to place on the shop wall next to the lavender. This latest design is 1.2m tall and features a terraced nest box (ideal for roosting in this case), drilled wood for the solitary bees, a lacewing house, butterfly house and other bits and bobs for sheltering insects.

Where to watch birds in Sussex: Feathers Nature Area

Our Hide / Nature Area is perfect for watching and photographing garden birds in East Sussex. In the last couple of weeks we have spent a bit of time tidying and reshuffling the plants, feeders and perches, making for better photographic opportunities. The Siskins are very regular now and are one bird in particular which use the perches a lot. Here are a selection of recent photographs:

Other highlights since the last post have been a female Brambling, back very briefly in the Nature Area on the 27th Feb and a Firecrest (or possibly 2) spotted and photographed yesterday (9th March) by a customer in the yew tree just over the road.

Feathers Optics: www.shop.featherswildbirdcare.co.uk
Feathers Bird Food: www.featherswildbirdcare.co.uk

Early winter roundup

So it looks, although we've had a few cold days and a once very brief dusting of snow, to go down on record as another wet, warm winter. The wet weather doesn't seemed to have dampened (see what I did there?) the feeding activity, as the Siskins turned up in January and have been regular ever since. Goldfinches are visiting in good numbers, more Coal Tits this winter than any previous, a regular Chiffchaff (or two), more Goldcrests than you can shake a stick at and a Firecrest back again today. Just one Brambling sighting this winter again. With all this activity, it's no wonder the Sparrowhawks have been visiting regularly too, once or twice stopping for photos and I'm sure a Blue Tit or two falling prey to these magnificent birds. Since David, our previous ringer, moved on, it had been a while since any had taken place here, but Chris has filled in his spot now and she is looking to undertake sessions more frequently, so it will nice to get some info back on birds ringed in previous years. Here are a few photos from the last month or so:

Sussex snow - 17/01/16

Male Brambling - 28/01/16

Blue Tit with beak deformity

Still managing to feed by bending sideways

Firecrest (17/02/16)