Big Garden Birdwatch.

The Big Garden Birdwatch, as it always does, left me a bit disappointed. In previous years, the RSPB has questioned our count of 50 sparrows, a number confirmed with a photograph; today there was just one though we could hear dozens of them twittering away in our holly bush. We used to get 20 each of goldfinches, jackdaws, rooks and starlings. Today the starlings were the only one to make double figures (just), with a couple each of the corvids and no finches at all. My biggest  disappointment (Hersef would disagree) was the absence of the rat family; we don’t know the reason but I suspect a the pest exterminator has been  called and put down poison. While I wonder if birds have been poisoned as a result, Mrs TD wonders if rats predated the nestlings. We will never, of course, find out either way.
 
After the count, I commented that I hadn’t had a chance to Blip the starling squabbles so, without any hesitation, Mrs TD went out and filled the pink suet feeder. When we first bought the pink, the birds wouldn’t eat it but, now they are used to it, they barely touch anything else. Within a very few minutes the feeder was empty again and the continuous camera drive had squandered about a hundred shots. Many of the pictures didn’t work because there were too many birds in the frame but there are a couple, like the Blip with this bird dragging his friend(?) off his perch and several of the well endowed bird in the extras – he really knew how to use his weapon to advantage. Neither of these incidents were visible to the naked eye.