To twitch or not to twitch!

Now let’s get this straight right from the start – I am NOT a twitcher! But I do enjoy watching birds - in my garden, on Gower, Mid Wales when we go there at Easter, and anywhere else in Britain for that matter – but no I do not dash across the country to see some rarity that has rather foolishly ended up in Britain as its been blown off course. I say foolishly as it can’t possibly have imagined all the incessant clicking of camaras by hundreds of birding fanatics – the aforesaid mentioned ‘twitchers’ – that it would have to endure just because it took a wrong turn! True I do belong to the RSPB – Royal Society for the Protection of Birds – but for me bird watching has got to be more relaxed than that. These days I don’t even have to leave my desk, just pick up the bins that I always keep handy (lovely little pair that I won in an RSPB raffle!) and take a look.

So what do we get in our garden? Well, there’s always been the usual suspects like blackbirds, robins, sparrows, blue tits & magpies, but also the larger common birds such as pigeons, collared doves, and crows - recently a pair of jackdaws have taken a fancy to the fat balls we’ve been putting out. Funnily enough it’s only the last couple of years that we’ve really bothered with bird food, as over the years we’ve been lucky enough to get quite a few interesting species without really trying. So my apologies to those not into birds as for the rest of this article I’m going to be bird-name dropping like nobody’s business!

For a good while now an ever increasing family of goldfinch have used our apple tree as a stopping off point between two other gardens. And other shrubs & bushes have brought winter visitors like long tailed tits – so pretty & delicate – plus this year for the first time with the bitterly cold weather numerous redwings. But the varied array of bird food has finally paid off as we’ve been getting regular visits by a male Blackcap - see the handsome chap at the top of the article. Formerly just a summer visitor these now stick around all year. But then why wouldn’t he? After all this is Wales – not only land of song, rugby & beer, but also the tastiest tucker any bird could ask for!

Les