Welcome to 2022! Hopefully this year will be a great year for birds! Once again injury and recovery from operations including an operation of the heart are taking their toll.
The House Sparrows have really taken up home in the garden, as the garden is transformed from a place where pesticides and weed killers were used for 40+ years into an organic garden and hopefully wildlife wonderland, the amount of insects and soil life has increased dramatically. I have been removing the showy plants that had no wildlife value and replacing with plants that benefit bees, butterflies and birds. There’s a list of plants I have put together over here: Plants to help bees, butterflies and birds.
Feijoas: I have had to scale my feijoa growing back from the farm we rented to a few surviving plants at a mates garden nursery and I now have over 250 small plants in pots in my own garden on the driveway. The House Sparrows, Wrens, Blackbirds and Robbins spend a lot of time amongst them. More about the feijoa farm closure here: Feijoa Farm Closed 😡😢 – Feijoas UK – hoping as my health improves I will start back up in the future and am gearing up to grow at least another 1,000 seedlings from Scottish grown feijoas this year.
Once again I am using Garden Birds* food due to the great price and excellent service, the most popular in my garden is now the Ultiva® Wheat Free Seed Mix* the basic: Ultiva® Everyday Seed Mix* is also popular with almost every bird that visits the garden especially the house sparrows.
*
2022 Edinburgh Garden Bird List:
- Black-headed gull – July 10th – FO
- Blackbird – Jan 1st
- Blackcap – Jan 7th
- Blue Tit – Jan 1st
- Bullfinch – May 5th
- Carrion Crow – Jan 1st
- Chaffinch – Jan 4th
- Chiffchaff – March 3rd – in the wildlife hedge.
- Coal Tit – Jan 1st
- Collared Dove – Jan 1st
- Common Buzzard – Jan 11th – FO
- Dunnock – Jan 1st
- Feral Pigeon
- Fieldfare – November 12th – FO
- Goldcrest – Jan 22nd
- Goldfinch – April 21st
- Great black-backed gull – July 10th
- Great Tit – Jan 1st
- Grey Herron – April 8th
- Herring Gull – Jan 9th
- House Sparrow – Jan 1st – First Bird of the Year.
- Jackdaw – Jan 1st
- Lesser black-backed gull – July 10th
- Long-tailed Tit – Jan 9th
- Magpie – Jan 1st
- Mute Swan – November 21st – FO
- Oystercatcher – May 12th – Heard at night – FO
- Red Kite – July 10 – FO* – first time I’ve seen one, not common in Lothian region.
- Robin – Jan 1st
- Siskin – May 6th
- Sparrowhawk – Jan 4th
- Starling – April 14th
- Swift – May 13th – FO
- Woodpigeon – Jan 1st
- Wren – Jan 1st
- Yellowhammer – Feb 24th – This is the first Yellowhammer I’ve ever spotted in the garden, it was along the region we planted up called “the wildlife hedge”.
* the Red Kite was flying amongst 100s of gulls and swifts as it was an ant day. I was shocked to see it and will admit, let out a yell “KITE” and pointed, such a stunning bird. A few friends have told me they are quite rare around Edinburgh and the Lothians. Sadly the sighting was short and didn’t have a chance to grab a camera.
The Black-headed gulls never seem to land but the Lesser black-backed gull, Great black-backed gulls and herring gulls are regular visitors. The Lesser black-backed gulls are the most common in the garden and we have named one Steven Seagull.
2022 Year total:
- 13 Species as of January 1st.
- 15 Species as of January 4th.
- 16 Species as of January 7th.
- 18 Species as of January 9th.
- 19 Species as of January 11th.
- 20 Species as of January 22nd.
- 21 Species as of January 30th.
- 22 Species as of February 24th
- 23 Species as of March 3rd
- 24 Species as of April 8th
- 25 Species as of April 14th
- 26 Species as of April 21st
- 27 Species as of May 5th
- 28 Species as of May 6th
- 29 Species as of May 12th
- 30 Species as of May 13th
- 34 Species as of July 10th
- 35 Species as of November 12th
- 36 Species as of November 20th
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
- Blackbird – 7
- Blackcap – 2
- Blue Tit – 5 – Some were testing out nest boxes!
- Carrion Crow – 3
- Dunnock – 2
- House Sparrow – 50+
- Jackdaw – 20
- Long-tailed Tit – 1 – Oddly normally flocks of 5+
- Robin – 2
- Sparrowhawk – 1
Oddly missing common birds
- Coal Tit
- Collared Dove
- Great Tit
- Magpie
- Woodpigeon
