We were very pleased to see a pair of siskins on the sunflower seeds today. They must be breeding somewhere near because we have herad them calling, too. Strange, isn't it, that, until a few years ago, we only ever saw siskins as winter visitors but the last two years they have definitely nested in the area? One of our old bird books shows them as only nesting in Scotland, nowhere near as far south as here.

Dear Monika, that's rather exciting, strange how birds seem to move about over time.

I've noticed that a few siskins have stayed around this year too, when they usually disappear by the end of March. Also, one of our regular pairs brought two fledglings to the feeders yesterday which was lovely to see. Their favourite snack is the sunflower kernels, but when they first started coming into the garden a few years ago, they always went for the peanuts.

We have lots of them on Nyger seed mixed up with Goldfinches. I think they are all adults. I didn't know about them breeding in Scotland, friend on Holy Loch says she has youngsters on her feeders (going there next weekend so may spot some).

Hi Monika,
I understand that Siskins have bred in this area for some time now but I have never seen them at this time of the year as they seem to stay in and on the margins of the conifer plantations about half a mile away.
Earlier on in the week I saw a female Greater Spotted Woodpecker with three young red headed youngsters. What a wonderful sight!
JB.

Hi JB, Glad to read you had a good holiday! Your sighting of the woodpecker family has just given me hope - I watched from an upstairs window this morning as an adult woodpecker was feeding its youngster from our peanut feeder. I was very upset this afternoon to discover the youngster has flown into our window and killed itself . But I have suspected for a couple of weeks that there is more than one fledgling because of the tremendous amount of calling going on - too much for just one youngster - so I am very hopeful that this is not the only young one.

EG, that's very sad, but do beware that birds can knock themselves out cold by flying against a window and survive! If you find one, just put it in a show box or similar with a bit of crumpled newspaper and leave it for an hour or so in the dark. Then open the box carefully and outside and you may find that the bird has fully recovered. We have certainly had several cases of this over the years, including a chaffinch which looked as if it had broken its wing, but it, too, recovered, sat quite still for a while after the box treatment and then flew off.

Thanks Monika, sadly this one is very dead, but we have had stunned birds fly off before. I keep things in the window now to try and stop the birds, but I guess this little one was just too new.

Hi Elle,
I had a male Sparrowhawk shatter my lounge window a couple of years ago but thankfully it lived to tell the tale. I rushed outside and it was on its back I lifted it into the right position, rather stupidly without hand protection and it is amazing the strength of their grip and the sharpness of their talons. I very soon felt both but thankfully having punctured my hand in several places it opened it's eyes and opened it's wings and I was thankful to let it fly away. I still see what I believe to be the same bird quite regularly now so apart from lacerations to the hand and a bill for nearly £100.00. for the new window I'm OK and so is the bird!
Blackbirds are the ones that most often commit suicide here which are several each year. So sad but really there is no way of preventing such accidents. It is mainly when they are collecting food to feed their young
they seem to be oblivious to everything but to get the food back to the nest a quick as possible.
JB.

I've noticed that far more birds fly into the windows when I've just cleaned them, so at this time of year I leave them alone and there are relatively few collisions. It also gives me more time to do the gardening.

What a good excuse, Plumpudding! I hate cleaning windows, second only to ironing.

I don't feel quite so bad about it now! I like your thinking Plumpudding!

Put some cardboard cutout hawks in the window with blutack.

Alternatively try some of the slapon plastic bullseyes Everest and others put on their windows in transit.

I often see siskins, both on my allotment and in my back garden. On the allotment I have noticed them regularly enter the bird feeders through the portholes and feed on the seeds from within the feeder. In the garden I notice that the pair rarely seperate, keeping a constant 'dialogue' going between them. One of the pair seems to like perching on the rotary line, while the other is at the feeder, even though they are close, in view of each other, they maintain the tweeting between them. Neither are they particularly wary of people and will allow you to get quite close to them, even if you have not built up a 'rapport' with them.