young bluetit (photo credit: wildlife news)
The last few days has seen a big change in the visitors to my wild bird feeding station. My regular fledglings are no longer coming as often as they did to feed on the suet cakes and they are also changing their feeding habits.
While I’ll miss their almost constant presence at the window sill, in a way it’s good news as I’ll not be woken by them tapping on the bedroom window at 5.00am as they start breakfast.
Fledglings have made their home on the windowsill.
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been blessed with visits from young blackbirds, mistle thrushes, bluetits, tree sparrows and a stunning fledgling collared dove.
Apart from the collared dove all the birds seem to have spent the last couple of weeks or so feasting on the suet and mealworm cakes and leaving the seeds and nuts alone. I’m guessing that the fast growing fledglings are looking for energy packed easily digestible food to boost their growth. They’ve certainly grown well on the suet but now times are changing.
Juvenile birds now looking for more natural food.
The last couple of days there has been a big drop in the number of ground feeding visitors to the suet cakes. The blackbird and thrush juveniles still come early in the morning for that first boost. But they are no longer the constant visitors that they once were.
The rain over the last couple of days seem to have loosened up the soil enough for them to go after their normal food of worms and other soil invertebrates. I look out the window sometimes and see them pecking around on the grass outside leaving the easy meal of suet alone.
One of the amazing things I’ve seen this year for the first time is a larger blackbird fledgling feeding it’s smaller sibling. Where I have placed the fat feeder on my window sill means only one bird at a time can access it. This was done to try and stop the crows and pigeons getting at it. I don’t know how commonplace this feeding is but it was fascinating watch as the larger bird passed beakfuls of suet and mealworms behind to the smaller bird.
Bird feeding will supplement natural food not replace it.
It’s a bit of a relief to see the birds now hopping along the grass. They were spending so much time at the suet feeder that I was getting worried they may not learn to feed themselves. It just goes to show that the experts are right when they say that wild birds will use our bird food as a supplement and not as a replacement to their natural prey. The recent rains have made their natural food much easier to get at and so they are returning to their more natural prey.
The smaller birds are also changing their feeding habits. The bluetit juveniles have moved away from spending all their time at the suet cake and the fat balls and have discovered the peanuts and seeds. They now spend much more time at the peanut feeder – though they still prefer the fat balls first thing in the morning.
Just like the blackbirds and thrushes though they are not around as much as they used to be. They spend a lot of time at the feeder in the early morning and may not return till late afternoon.
Wildlife will never leave a good meal unused and so as the blackbirds and thrushes leave the suet cake their place have been taken by a group of 3 juvenile tree sparrows who spend much of the day visiting for a quick feast on high energy food. Still not with fully developed adult feathers these little brown birds are an enjoyable sight to see on the windowsill.
