Pleased to see return of my yearly visitors

Stomperone · #1 (**permalink**) 01-01-2010, 10:40 PM

I am pleased to see that my Blackcaps have returned for the third year running.. They have arrived a little later this year I normally spot them early to mid december but this year today was thefirst sighting They seem to still like the berries from the ivy bush in my hedge and also enjoyed a bath in the new artificial waterfall ..

Also today was suprised to see a grey wagtail getting food from my artificial waterfall. that was a first for my garden.

I am very slowly building up quite a varied selection of bird visits to my garden but unfortunately I no longer seem to have hedgehogs visiting and that is a real shame..

Monkey Orchid · #2 (**permalink**) 02-01-2010, 08:22 AM

I saw a male Blackcap in our garden three days ago - a first for us. It was feeding on berries on our jasmine.

There's an interesting article on the BBC website about the changes in behaviour of species such as as the Blackcap, as a result of humans putting out increasing quantities of bird food over the winter months. The suggestion is that we may be seeing the beginnings of an evolution of a new species (although, as the article points out, it would take 100,000 - 1,000,000 years for a true new species to evolve).

BBC News - Feeding birds 'changes evolution'

Stomperone · #3 (**permalink**) 02-01-2010, 10:30 AM

I will have a look at that link in a minute thank you .. I have just also noticed that my flock of linnets are back in the garden - again I am suprised as they apprently are not often seen on garden feeders but at a rough guess today I think there are about 15 or more.. For a LBJ they are quite pretty I like the reddish colour on their backs .. reminds me of the kestrel colour ..