Feathered Visitors!

As you will know from my "Feed the Birds " post, we are big bird feeders! Just as we were winding down because Spring was upon us, the temperatures dipped. We've even had snow! We hadn't the heart to deprive them in such harsh weather, so increased the feeding again.

 

I am delighted to say that we have had a couple of unusual feathered visitors of late, unusual for our garden I should say...

 

This fine fellow, I thought was some sort of pigeon until an interesting post over at An Anglo In Quebec made me have another look. He is in fact, a Collared Dove.

 

 

The dove stops by every day now and loves the mixed seed. I think the smaller birds find him a little intimidating at times, especially when he lands on the feeders!

 

Speaking of intimidating, meet visitor number two...

 

A Sparrowhawk. While he looks magnificent, on both visits he was chasing down some of my little birds! I know that's nature, I just wished he preferred peanuts.

 

 

 Last but by no means least, meet visitor number three...a Lesser Redpoll!

 

This little guy even stayed the night!

 

We had been working in the garden all day and he happily ate at the feeders right next to us while Mr. Auburn drilled and hammered! As dusk started to fall, we realised something was wrong. He hadn't flown away to roost. Instead, he was still in our garden; perched on the Astilbe, his feathers all puffed and ready for the night. We feared he wouldn't make it as the weather forecast gave temperatures of -6 degrees. We tried to encourage him into a nesting box but he wasn't having it. He finally settled above a hanging basket, higher off the ground at least, away from potential feline predators! We hung a sort of plastic roof above his head to give him some shelter and hoped for the best...

 

I jumped out of bed next morning to look outside, only to find our makeshift roof on the ground. I feared the worst...

 

Then, there he was, so tiny I almost didn't see him, on the lawn beneath the feeders. He still didn't seem very energetic, he made several attempts to reach the feeders but eventually he made it. He spent over an hour in the basket feeder eating mixed seed, barely lifting his little head and obviously got his strength up enough to fly away...let's hope he made it.