Letter: Where Have Our Garden Birds Gone?

Published on: 24 May, 2018
Updated on: 24 May, 2018

From Norman and Morag Evans

We wonder if Malcolm Fincham can help solve a mystery?

My wife and I have for years attracted a variety of birds to our East Horsley garden with a well-stocked feeding station and nesting boxes. Since about four to six weeks ago, there has been a sharp decline in the number of visitors, to the extent that we haven’t seen any great tits and blue tits, usually the most frequent visitors.

We do not now get any greater spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches, long-tailed tits, green and goldfinches etc. Even robins are scarce.

There’s a pair of dunnocks that still scurry around the station and there are numerous blackbirds that visit the garden and sing profusely, plus, of course, wood pigeons. There are no residents in the nesting boxes. We cannot understand what is happening – the birds are rejecting their normally favourite food, sunflower hearts, which is a real surprise.

We haven’t seen any evidence of a predator, such as a sparrowhawk which has visited in the past, and we’re unaware of any new cats visiting. It’s very disappointing, and we would be very grateful if Malcolm could offer any explanations. (We have emptied all the feeders and give everything a good wash, to see if that encourages them back).

Many thanks.

Response from The Dragon’s regular bird watcher Malcolm Fincham

Dear Norman,

Thank you for such a detailed enquiry.

This is a mystery to me too. Just about all probabilities I would have suggested, such as possible predators, seem to have been deducted.

If living near a river, or stream, it is possible, of course, that there maybe mink in the neighbourhood ?

I do promote the fact that feeders are regularly cleaned, as dirty feeders can promote disease but you have attended to that.

Feeder activity does decline at this time of the year, as resident birds will prefer to collect the abundance of caterpillars and insects, now available, to feed themselves and their young although this doesn’t answer why none of your nesting boxes have been used.

Hopefully, your problem will resolve itself in the near future.

Would be pleased, to hear, of any conclusion to this mystery.

Malcolm Fincham

Responses to Letter: Where Have Our Garden Birds Gone?

A Tatlow Reply

May 24, 2018 at 3:06 pm

I’m over the hill in the Tillingbourne Valley. This summer I have noticed magpies and numerous noisy jackdaws clumsily trying to access my neighbour’s feeders, normally frequented by smaller songbirds. The sparrows take their chance but the blue tits nesting in my garden does seem happy to forage in the natural vegetation.

I tend to put out bird food through the winter once I reckon seed heads are depleted and insects are gone.
Jim Allen Reply

May 24, 2018 at 3:19 pm

I know where they all are… in my garden! Robins, goldfinches, blue tits, great tits, dunnocks, herons, crows, magpies, wrens, woodpeckers, blackbirds, song thrushes, doves and pigeons. I have noticed all these, although I ain’t no twitcher.

The birdsong even as I type has been deafening for weeks now around Clay Lane and the Burpham Nature Reserve. Isn’t nature wonderful?
Lisa Wright Reply

May 24, 2018 at 5:05 pm

Perhaps there’s a new cat in the neighbourhood?
Wendy Johnson Reply

June 2, 2018 at 4:40 pm

I agree with the view posed on a recent episode of TV’s Springwatch that the difficult winter and long, wet spring have affected the routine of our resident birds and other visitors.

I have lived here on Timber Pond in East Horsley for over 31 years and we have never witnessed before the sight of a raptor – possibly a buzzard or more likely a sparrowhawk, dive-bombing the waterbirds (and maybe the fish).

This individual has a wingspan of more than a metre and its underfeathers are so beautifully “painted” – like a Red Indian totem pole – one finds it hard to think of her as an enemy of our resident ducks and moorhen.

I wish we could find our bird book so I can more accurately identify her.

My husband reckons it is a female and she is raiding nature’s larder to feed her own chicks.

Where could she be nesting? My own knowledge pinpoints her territory to be around Pitch Hill but that is miles away!
- John Perkins Reply
  
  June 7, 2018 at 8:04 am
  
  Surely a red kite. These days a couple can often be seen over Ripley. There used to be a buzzard too, though I haven’t seen it for a couple of years.
Norman and Morag Evans Reply

June 5, 2018 at 9:17 pm

I’m pleased to report that our garden bird population appears to have returned to almost normal.

We now have renewed visits from the tits’ family – including parents feeding offspring – as well as appearances from goldfinches, nuthatches and greater spotted woodpeckers, etc.

What caused the hiatus, we’ve no idea! However, we cannot leave without passing comment on a regular blackbird ‘friend’ who is identifiable by his daily song which always includes a musical fifth interval – a G to a D!
Malcolm Fincham Reply

June 7, 2018 at 1:46 pm

So pleased to hear such resplendent songs, sightings and sounds have made a return to your residence… enjoy!
Juliet Hills Reply

July 20, 2018 at 3:35 pm

I don’t know whether this is a problem in the UK, but I live next to a public park in Wisconsin and the local village sprays against mosquitoes in the summer. This, of course, means there are no swallows nearby since that is their principal diet. Just a thought.