How many birds are in The Hidden Gardens?

Some days in the Gardens it seems there are only pigeons here, but we’re actually home to a lot of birds. Bird expert Mark came along to chart all the birds in the Gardens. How many of the following have you seen? Probable breeders within the gardens: Great tit Blue tit Goldfinch Greenfinch Blackbird Wren […]

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Great photo of some blue tits in the willow by Lesley McCue, volunteer and photographer extraordinaire!
Great photo of some blue tits in the willow by Lesley McCue, volunteer and photographer extraordinaire!

Some days in the Gardens it seems there are only pigeons here, but we’re actually home to a lot of birds. Bird expert Mark came along to chart all the birds in the Gardens. How many of the following have you seen?

Probable breeders within the gardens:

Great tit
Blue tit
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Blackbird
Wren
Blackcap
Bullfinch
Robin
Willow warbler
Dunnock

Other birds recorded, but no evidence of breeding based on today’s visit:

Coal tit
Long-tailed tit
Lesser black-backed gull
Magpie
Feral pigeon
Starling

How many can you find? Let us know!

Here's a long tailed tit taken by Lesley.
Here’s a long tailed tit taken by Lesley.

Dawn Chorus at The Hidden Gardens

It’s traditional to wash your face in the dawn dew on the 1st May, but hardy volunteers and staff, joined by Alan Wood from Starling Learning, got a thorough wake up with wind and rain on our annual Dawn Chorus event. It was all worthwhile when we heard and saw 13 different kinds of birds, […]

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We didn't see this guy at the Dawn Chorus this year, but he's pecking around the Gardens so often he's practically staff!
We didn’t see this guy at the Dawn Chorus this year, but he’s pecking around the Gardens so often he’s practically staff!

It’s traditional to wash your face in the dawn dew on the 1st May, but hardy volunteers and staff, joined by Alan Wood from Starling Learning, got a thorough wake up with wind and rain on our annual Dawn Chorus event.

It was all worthwhile when we heard and saw 13 different kinds of birds, some who were just visiting like the flock of Swallows, and some more familiar garden residents such as Blackbirds, Starlings and the noisy but tiny Wren.

We were left with lots of snippets of info: Long Tailed Tits aren’t Tits, and Dunnocks used to be called Hedge Sparrows even although they’re not Sparrows.

After sharing a lovely breakfast and hot cuppa we were ready to get on with the day, and The Hidden Gardens had added 2 new bird species to our list (swallow, lesser black backed gull).

Paula