What is this life, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
This is a busy time for all the birds. They have found their mates - perhaps you noticed the doves billing and cooing, or some flirtatious behaviour among the branches. Now with nests built, and eggs laid and hatched, the birds in your garden will be busy feeding their young, or in some cases starting to raise a second brood. So take time to stand quietly at the window. You may be surprised by how many different birds visit your garden, especially if you have been feeding them.
Our resident birds should still be easy to see. The blackbird with his bright orange bill, accompanied by his duller brown mate will be searching for worms on the lawn to feed their young. If the lawn is dry and hard they would appreciate any spare pet food your cat may have rejected. He will reward you by singing his beautiful song loudly from the chimney pot in the evening. His young are also brown like their mother. Another beautiful songster found in the garden is the song thrush. He is particularly partial to snails, and you may see him hammering one on his "anvil". The colourful chaffinch will still be singing loudly. His song has been likened to a bowler running up the pitch then delivering his ball. He and his mate are easy to spot as they fly, by the flash of white in the wing. Indeed, they were once called "Whitewings". If you still have peanuts or seed feeders in the garden the contents will be appreciated by the busy tits. They feed their young on insects and the small green caterpillars that they find in oak trees, but the fat rich peanuts give them energy for all that work. Robins will be readily seen - they sing all the year round. And poking around under the bushes you may see the dunnock, an unassuming little bird with his brown back and grey head, but with a surprisingly loud song said to resemble the squeaky wheels of a supermarket trolley.
A walk in Bushy Park can be very rewarding. In the Woodland garden there are many birds to be seen on the water, both native and exotic, and they all have fluffy little chicks. Mallards can lay up to twelve eggs. The coot, which nests on a bed of twigs on the water, has two or three broods. The chicks have brightly coloured bare heads. Moorhens will also be in evidence. They have a bright red bill with a yellow tip, and long spreading toes which enable them to walk on floating vegetation.
Many birds nest in holes in trees and with patience may be seen. Most obvious are the green parakeets and the numerous jackdaws. Both will take over the old nests of other birds. In the same family as the jackdaws are the crows, the smart black and white magpies and the colourful jays, all to be found in woodland. Jays depend heavily upon trees and may be seen burying acorns in the autumn. The great spotted woodpecker also depends on the trees searching for grubs behind the bark. If you have sharp eyes you may be rewarded by seeing the nuthatch, a pretty bird with a blue back, pink belly and a dark stripe through its eye. Like the jay it collects acorns (or your peanuts), and rams them into the bark before attacking them with its sharp bill.
I have not mentioned the many
summer visitors, which come here to
breed, like the swallows, house martins
and swifts, and all the "little brown jobs"
that warble in bushes, trees and reed beds.
They will have to wait for a further
instalment of "Birds in Thames Ditton and Weston Green".
Helen Hughes