Our garden birds - Harsh winter weather can spell doom

[paxtime]

Phone Dan Boyle

[teapot]

Of all birds, I do think I love the Robin best of all. They really are exceptionally confident in themselves. Our local cock follows me around the garden any time he sees an implement of destruction in my hands looking to pick up free worms.

Lucky you to see worms in the garden - in 12 years here I have seen three and two of them were in plantpots. Reason being we have an asylum seeker here called The New Zealand Flatworm - guess what it eats... It is like a wireworm type thing, you find it curled up under stuff and kill it if you have any sense. But I hope they don't bring in anything to get rid of it, like idiots have done before, the cure being worse than the disease (the gobey fish, introduced into the Great Lakes to kill off zebra mussels, which it does - along with other species)

[CookieMonster]

Of all birds, I do think I love the Robin best of all. They really are exceptionally confident in themselves. Our local cock follows me around the garden any time he sees an implement of destruction in my hands looking to pick up free worms.

I have to agree with you. Other birds have different things going for them but overall Robins just rock.

[Fraxinus_]

Cork City Council have just spread weed killer on all the flower beds.

Just when the birds need food at the most.

The council kills of, the only raised beds in the area.

Expect plenty of deformed eggs .

Sounds like the start of Silent Spring. Glyphosate shouldn't do much damage, or am I wrong there?

[greenporcupine]

Another cold snap for the next few days it seems, with sub-zero temperatures at night and hard frost in places. So please think of our feathered friends who will struggle again to feed themselves, and put out some food first thing in the morning and again in late afternoon between the hours of 3:00-5:00pm. Thank you

May be some men could learn a little bit about courting from the graceful Rouge Gorge.
Mine was looking straight at me yesteday ,and I will be jealous ,when I see him with his mate.

[Christel]

How many robins could I have around? I get the feeling there are several pairs (as they look the same female and male.) Everywhere I go and where we leave barley for them when we feed the sheep. a robin first appears. At several places around the same time, so they can't all be the same individuals.

There's a pair of dunnocks as well. That reminded me to ask: We never have house sparrows here, since years. Why is that?

[Lightning Rod]

How many robins could I have around? I get the feeling there are several pairs (as they look the same female and male.) Everywhere I go and where we leave barley for them when we feed the sheep. a robin first appears. At several places around the same time, so they can't all be the same individuals.

There's a pair of dunnocks as well. That reminded me to ask: We never have house sparrows here, since years. Why is that?

House sparrows like to nest in groups, if they do nest near you you'll know about it.
Someone told me they can migrate to other sites en masse.

You could try putting up a bird box in a safe sheltered location.
Right time of year anyway.

[Christel]

House sparrows like to nest in groups, if they do nest near you you'll know about it.
Someone told me they can migrate to other sites en masse.

You could try putting up a bird box in a safe sheltered location.
Right time of year anyway.

I don't need to have house sparrows, I was just wondering why we don't have them, as there are so many other birds.

My husband thinks he heard an owl today. They have nested in our trees for the last three years. (Short eared owl.)

[maxthedog]

Sounds like the start of Silent Spring. Glyphosate shouldn't do much damage, or am I wrong there?

That could be it,

I watched them spraying the winter bedding plants on Monday and when I checked today, the plants had wilted at an alarming rate.

[Baron von Biffo]

How many robins could I have around? I get the feeling there are several pairs (as they look the same female and male.) Everywhere I go and where we leave barley for them when we feed the sheep. a robin first appears. At several places around the same time, so they can't all be the same individuals.

There's a pair of dunnocks as well. That reminded me to ask: We never have house sparrows here, since years. Why is that?

House sparrows like to nest in groups, if they do nest near you you'll know about it.
Someone told me they can migrate to other sites en masse.

You could try putting up a bird box in a safe sheltered location.
Right time of year anyway.

Because they're gregarious creatures, house sparrows like to nest together so you can get special nest boxes for them. This sort of thing - Sparrow Box - the Sparrow Parade nesting box from the Nestbox Company

There are also lots of plans for various species of nesting box available on-line for those with a bit of dexterity.