SPARROW, STARLING, AND WOOD PIGEON

Now that I have started to take an interest in the names of the birds that visit my garden, I have come to realise that there are quite a few different types.  Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Great Tits, and Chaffinches, as well as Goldfinches and Greenfinches, visit my garden regularly but yesterday there was a new arrival and I had so much difficulty identifying it.  Apparently it is a young starling.

A young Starling

A young Starling

Surprisingly, maybe, I don't see so many sparrows in my garden but I saw one today and managed to capture it on camera. 

Sparrow

You might think, from the saying 'birds of a feather, flock together' that birds might arrive at their dining table one kind at a time but today I watched little Blue Tits interacting with Great Tits and Coal Tits.  I think it was a case of every bird for himself but there was no fighting or bullying.  The sunflower seeds are very popular and I have bought the husked type in the hope of having less mess.  Not a chance, the Fascination dahlias below the feeding station which help anchor it in place on windy days, are covered in bits of seeds as well as bird poop! 



The pigeons and doves tend to dine later than the little birds.  It is only in the last few months that I have realised that the heavy-looking birds with the white band on their necks are not just feral pigeons but they are Wood Pigeons.  They arrive very politely one at a time and they land on the tray underneath one of the feeders from where they can obtain seed.





Wood Pigeon

While on the subject of birds, and flocking together, this is a photograph I took a few weeks ago at a place called Hollingworth Lake, Greater Manchester.  It was quite wonderful seeing all the geese, ducks, and swans intermingling.  Of course, there just happened to be some food on the table, thrown by visitors to the lake. 

Wild birds at Hollingworth Lake, Greater Manchester