Diary: June 2003

The garden seems full of noise and action at the moment, mostly from young birds. And today and there was another first for the garden: this time a nuthatch.

I heard the nuthatch before I saw it. Once learned, the call of the nuthatch is difficult to confuse with anything else; it has a kind of 'liquid' quality about it. I didn't actually see the bird in my garden - it was in a tree belonging to a neighbour, but three or four adjacent gardens, including mine, are quite well wooded at the end, and I tend to regard them collectively as a distinctive habitat patch. (Certainly the birds have no regard for garden boundaries!). There are a few decent wooded areas around which could support nuthatches, but perhaps this was a young bird dispersing from its place of birth.

There's plenty of action in the garden from other young birds, like blue tits, great tits and robins. At this time of year the food in the feeders probably disappears faster than it does in winter: there are so many hungry young mouths after it. It used to be thought that gardener's should not feed birds during the summer months, but it is now generally accepted that feeding them at this time of year probably does as much good as during the winter. Most young birds will not survive till next year, but by giving them a good start you improve their chances measurably.