Monday 5 December 2022

Woody Woodpecker

I always used to feed the birds in our old garden. We had quite a selection which visited, sparrows, starlings, blue tits, coal tits, chaffinches, goldfinches and many more besides. There didn't seem to be many different birds other than sparrows which visited our garden here when we moved earlier this year but, as we did at our old house, we've offered a selection of different seed and we've seen a wider variety visiting over the months. There's now greenfinches, great tits and a little robin, amongst others.

Our new house is on the very edge of open countryside so I had a sneaky feeling that we might be able to lure some different birds to our garden from those we saw at our old house. The birds there weren't all that keen on peanuts but we've offered them here, along with mixed seed and sunflower hearts and it's definitely done the trick, we now have woodpeckers which visit regularly.

This is a great spotted woodpecker, I know it's female as it doesn't have a red patch on the nape of its neck, but we've seen a male on the feeder too. Just look at that beak. 

Of course, the other birds aren't keen on the woodpeckers visiting, they have to queue up and wait for their turn at the feeder.

I could watch the birds all day long, I love seeing them come and go. Do you feed the birds in your garden? 

15 comments:

  1. How lovely to see so many different birds, I love to see the birds feeding as well but I don't seem to have many visitors to my garden other than blackbirds, pigeons and magpie's no matter which seeds I put out the feeders remain untouched. I think it's because my next door neighbour has so many feeders in his garden they all seem to go there, I do love to see the blackbirds splashing in the birdbath though, have a great week. xx

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  2. How lucky you are. I have put feeders out so many times and never had birds visit. I think the cats probably put them off.
    More pictures please, like you I love the birds.
    Briony
    x

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  3. Yes we do although I need to go out and fill the feeders as they're almost empty. We have tons of sparrows, tits of all kinds and even saw a tree-creeper one day. Very exciting. Mind you, we also have a sparrow hawk who visits now and again. Nature can be cruel!

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  4. That sounds a great success, it is fun to watch the birds come and go. We don't usually feed them over the warmer months but are back with our bird café now it's cold and are enjoying seeing them all again.

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  5. I've had peanuts and fat balls go mouldy here this autumn but I do have lots of the tit family visiting the seed feeder and suet block

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  6. How exciting to get some Woodpeckers. You've just reminded me I need to replenish the fat balls. At the moment we are mainly entertaining Starlings. Xx

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  7. I love watching the birds. We also have woodpeckers come to our feeder, they love the nuts I put out we still get visits from the nuthatch too as well as all the usual garden birds you would expect

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  8. Lovely to see the birds coming to the feeder & we used to have a feeder, but we only seemed to attract sparrows, doves & blackbirds, not our own native birds very often. We still get many birds visiting in different seasons to feed on flowers & fruit and of course my lovely Australian magpies, different from your English ones. Thanks for sharing, take care & hugs.

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  9. It's lovely to see the birds visiting the feeders.
    We have a friendly robin who loves to visit.
    Madness, I know, but I often find myself saying 'good morning or good afternoon to him' :)
    I'm sure there are others like me who talk to the birds! LOL.

    All the best Jan

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  10. Oh wow how amazing to have a Woodpecker visiting your garden. My grandma used to have them visiting her garden, I loved spending hours watching from her kitchen window, she had all three types of Woodpecker visit her. We have seen them once from our house, they loved the wood we had put on our green roof, we even saw them feeding a youngster on there but they never returned after that one time we saw them.

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  11. I always enjoy watching the birds. While I think woodpeckers are fun, we have way too many trees to want to encourage them. We get lots of little sparrows and juncos at our feeders, as well as Steller's Jays. The deer and squirrels like to try to sneak in for a snack once in a while too!

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  12. Well done, and lucky you with the woodpeckers. I certainly enjoy watching the birds both at home and on the allotments. xx

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  13. No, our community has been discouraging people from feeding the birds. We have a rat problem. Drop seeds etc attract rats. We have lots of birds, including Woodpeckers. But, it's sorta a bad sign to see them; as it means a part of a tree is dying. They like to feed off a decaying wood, which is also where they like to make holes. We have Goldfinches, House Wrens, Cardinals, Robins, Blue Jays, Crows, Nonhatches, and Woodpeckers. I do watch them out of the windows, but I don't put any feed out.
    Sandy's Space

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  14. I still miss the English robin after 40+ years in the US. But we do have some lovely birds here, including woodpeckers.

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