North Devon Wildlife through the window. Seasonal photos of the birds in my garden

Well what a year. Stormy times, supermoons, lockdowns and Covid19 restrictions meant that I didn’t get to visit some of our favourite locations and all the events were cancelled for the year. Luckily for me I love my small messy garden and the bees, birds and butterflies love it too. 

The natural world did not take a break and continued as usual with the regular birds on and below the feeder. For the first time I enjoyed watching a couple of Siskins which stayed in the garden for a couple of months, I do hope they return and nest here. January 20/21 2020 a fleeting visit from some Long Tail Tits and wonder of wonders they returned with a flurry of snow on 23^rd January 2021. 

I had started putting out Niger Seed for the Goldfinches, which they enjoyed, I then added Sunflower Hearts to the menu, they loved those even more and continue to devour messily on a daily basis.  They have dominated the feeders throughout the year and it looks as though this year will be the same, I counted 11 yesterday, I am hoping they stay around for the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend. The Sunflower Hearts are popular with most of the birds and probably why the Siskins visited. 

As usual the Swifts and Swallows arrived in the Spring, spotted the first Swallow flying aloft 17^th April, watched them gather on the wire above the garden on the 17^th September, the next day they were gone. Finally snatched a shot of the elusive Great Spotted Woodpecker in June, they are regulars in the garden but pretty much peck and go a bit like the Wrens. Sadly I only saw one Greenfinch a juvenile, I miss the House Martins that once used to build their nests in the corners of the windows beneath the roof.

I have watched as usual as the birds sing out, nest and raise their fledglings. Here are just some of the photos from 2020.

Great Spotted Woodpecker Photo credit Pat Adams

 Sparrow Fledglings - Photo credit Pat Adams

Male and Female Siskin. Photo credit Pat Adams

North Devon Birdwatching through the window. Photo credit Pat Adams

Birds in my garden 2020

Blackbird

Blue Tit

Chaffinch

Coal Tit

Dove

Dunnock

Goldfinch

Great Tit

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Robin

Sparrow

Starling

Wood Pigeon

Wren

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch is from 29th-31st January 2021. They are counting on you to count the birds in your garden Click here to find out more

👀👀👀

Pat Adams' North Devon Focus. A North Devon Coast & Country Chronical

Facebook

Flickr

Instagram

Youtube

Explore the Coast and' Country' side of  Bideford Bay and Beyond

North Devon Focus Website

Gardening on the wild side. Free online talk on helping wildlife in your 'garden jungle' organised by Moor Meadows 14th January

Renowned wildlife author and bee scientist Dave Goulson is giving a free online talk to illustrate how a few changes to your garden can help reverse wildlife declines.

The talk, on Thursday 14th January at 7:30pm, is inspired by Professor Goulson's book The Garden Jungle, or Gardening to Save the Planet.

This event has been organised by Dartmoor-based Moor Meadows, a community wildflower and wildlife conservation group. Open to everyone, the event is free but you must CLICK HERE TO REGISTER PLACES

From beautiful butterflies and dazzling dragonflies to the bumblebees, wasps and hoverflies that pollinate our crops, insects make up over half the species on Earth - yet across the globe they are suffering a catastrophic decline.

In the UK, Professor Goulson suggests insect numbers have more than halved in the last 50 years.

But all is not lost. Event organizer and Moor Meadows co-founder Donna Cox of Buckfastleigh said: "Fortunately, there is something we can do to start reversing the trend. Insect populations can recover. With just a few small changes, our gardens and meadows could become a vast network of nature reserves, where humans and wildlife can thrive together."

The free talk on The Garden Jungle will include a Question and Answer session to highlight the simple ways every gardener can help endangered bees, butterflies and other insects.

Professor Goulson said: "The simplest thing you can do to make your garden more wildlife friendly is stop using pesticides. I also urge gardeners to try to be more relaxed and less tidy-minded; mow the lawn less, don't dead-head flowers at the end of summer, leave a log pile or a pile of brash for wildlife to overwinter in. In wildlife gardening, less is often more."

Members of the Moor Meadows community group are already managing more than 1,000 acres of wildflower-rich meadows to benefit insects and other wildlife. Many of these 'meadows' are in village front gardens and one is even on the roof of a shed in Chagford, so a small space dedicated to wildlife can make a huge difference.

Professor Goulson added: "If wildlife is to thrive, we need to create and restore a network of biodiverse habitats across the country, and gardens can play an important role in helping to link up and provide stepping stones between rich habitats such as wildflower meadows."

Places on the free online talk by Professor Dave Goulson can be registered at HERE

 

 

Dave Goulson at Moor Meadows 2017 conference - Photo credit Chris Chapman

Meadow on shed roof in Chagford. Photo credit Nicky Scott

Buff-tailed Bumblebee. Photo credit Andrew Taylor

----------- 

'Gardening on the wild side' - Open to everyone, the event is free 

 TAP HERE TO REGISTER NOW

-------

ABOUT

 

Moor Meadows Dartmoor 

Moor Meadows Dartmoor is a community group established in 2015, whose aim is to help each other in conserving, restoring and creating wildflower meadows, on any scale, in the landscape of Dartmoor. Moor Meadows Dartmoor have set up the online Meadow Makers' Forum to help with the formation of new groups across Devon.

 
More Meadows 

More Meadows is an umbrella name for the network of new meadows groups being established in different parts of Devon, all sharing information via the new Meadow Makers' Forum. Establishment of the Forum has been made possible by a grant from the Devon Environment Foundation.
 

Professor Dave Goulson 

Dave Goulson is a Professor of Biology at University of Sussex, who specialises in bumblebees. After completing a PhD on butterfly ecology he became a lecturer at University of Southampton, where he began to specialise in bumblebee ecology and conservation. In 2006 he founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a charity devoted to reversing bumblebee declines. A Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, he has published over 200 scientific articles on the ecology of bees and other insects and is the author of Bumblebees: their behaviour, ecology and conservation. His popular science books on bumblebees and other insects, and how conservation measures can help them, include A Sting in the Tale, A Buzz in the Meadow and The Garden in the Jungle.