A male sparrow . . .
. . . and a female sparrow.
We now have a second webcam showing the bird feeder on our dining room window. We have two pairs of robins, at least two pairs of bluetits, a multitude of sparrows, a wren and a squirrel coming to feed from it. Yes, we know that robins are fiercely territorial, but the two pairs seem to have called a temporary truce with regard to the feeder.
When we first get up, we often find two robins waiting to be fed, one in each half of the garden. Now they are both feeding either a sitting female or a nest of chicks, but there is very little fighting between them. They all seem to have accepted that it is better to get on with taking the readily available food before the bluetits and sparrows get it, rather than waste time squabbling.
After gathering a beakful of mealworms, one robin goes into or over the hedge on the left of the garden and the other to the hedge on the right. Unfortunately, all the robins look the same so that even from this advantageous position, we cannot tell one from another. It is the robin from the left that comes last thing at night, when all sensible birds have started roosting. The last visit we had today was at ten past nine when it was almost completely dark. When you think that they are up with the lark at about 4.30am, they must be completely exhausted by the end of the nesting season
Here is a selection of the birds that visited us today.
