New bird table holds a feast of surprises

SOME weeks ago, I wrote an article about how I had built myself a new bird table after several years of being without one.

From the reaction I got to the article, it’s obvious a lot of readers are interested in feeding garden birds. So I thought I’d bring you an update.

The first bird to feed on the table was a coal tit. Since then, the species count is up to 11. That’s cheating a bit because it includes two birds that don’t actually feed on the table but do pick up seeds and crumbs that get spilled on the ground beneath it. They are a dunnock and a female blackbird.

It also includes a flock of little brown birds that arrived one morning. I got a little over-excited, moved towards the window and scared them off before I could identify them.

I’m sure they were either linnets or redpolls. In fact, I think it may have been a mixed flock containing both. There seemed to be some size variation and redpolls are a little smaller than linnets. If I’m right, my species count is actually 12.

There have been a few surprises that I don’t understand. In many garden birds, it’s impossible to tell the sexes apart just by looking at them.

In those species where the difference is obvious — in this case, blackbirds, house sparrows and chaffinches — I have found the female is invariably the first one to start using the bird table. I have two female chaffinches which land on the table but the males are still only scavenging crumbs on the ground below. I don’t understand why this should be.

I also don’t understand how rural Irish birds that have never seen a peanut before realise instantly that it’s a good and nutritious food.

I can only assume that birds are continually experimenting with new objects in their environment to see if they taste good.

Years ago, we used to get full cream milk in glass bottles with foil caps delivered to the door step. Blue tits and great tits very soon learned to peck through the foil and steal the cream. This must have been another example of this sort of experimentation.

Around the same time, a film crew arrived at my house to film the birds, on a previous bird table, for a children’s television programme. One of the most common species in that film was the greenfinch. Today, there is no sign of greenfinches at the table or anywhere in the garden. Although there is no evidence of a national decline in greenfinch numbers, they seem to have abandoned my part of the country.

On the other hand, goldfinches were a rarity 15 or 20 years ago but they are descending on my new bird table in droves, hogging the peanut feeder and even keeping the great tits off, although great tits are slightly larger. Some of the emails and letters I’ve got recently indicate other people who feed garden birds have noticed an increase in goldfinch numbers.

The whole thing has been a great success. The only down side has been that I’m spending rather too much time sitting in the chair by the kitchen fireplace and studying what’s going on outside the window. My children, who watch too much television, have taken to calling my set-up “dad’s wildlife channel”.

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