Saturday, 16 August 2008

How many?

Of all the birds that frequently visit my garden, I'm fondest of the house sparrows. And over the past few days trying to sort out the best way to feed them has been a bit of a challenge. I used to put food directly on the ground but the seeds germinate too quickly and I'm having to weed all the time. And the sparrows only wanted to eat that, totally ignoring the hanging feeders. I bought a couple of trays but they were ignored while food was on the ground - well the pigeons and doves ate from them. I have a bird table but only the doves and starlings use that, though I did disturb one sparrow once. I tried a feeder on a pole and put seed in that and that was ignored until very recently.

Now the sparrows seem to go everywhere, using both trays (one has just seed, another has sunflower and peanuts as well), the sunflower heart hanger and the fat balls - I'm going to have to put more fat balls out now. Today I saw a female flying back and forth from the fixed pole to the fence to feed a youngster.

The photo on the left is quite large and has at least 40 sparrows in it - I think there are 43. Can you see them all?

I've hidden the text where I think they are. Move your mouse to just after this sentence, hold down the left button and drag downwards.
From the left - 5 up to the white post - 6 above the marigold (2 close together at the top of the hornbeam branch) - 10 left of the black post - 5 between this and the next white post - 8 above the next marigold - 1 in front and 1 to the right - 1 above the horse-chesnut and 2 to the right of it - 1 on the ground between the orange marigold and the black post - and I think there are 3 on the ground behind and on the right edge of the marigold.

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