Fierce Creatures...2

Following on from last Thursdays Fierce Creatures blog about the Goldfinches it was interesting to note that they do not have a monopoly on the feeder. During my observations both the Greenfinch and the Blue Tits also like to feed there...

Not surprisingly the Greenfinches just knock the Goldfinches off the perch. However they are just as bad as the Goldfinches when it comes to fighting.

What did surprise me a little was how feisty the little Blue Tits are.

In there at any opportunity and standing their ground as much as possible.

Sometimes even when faced with the utmost threatening... "I told you keep off my food"

They always come back for more, though...

Cheeky Black Redstart

Last spring and summer we had a pair of Black Redstarts nesting in a hole in our eaves and I am sure the nest site was used more than once!

During the winter I was looking at another small roof problem with the same area and decided whilst I had the ladder there to block the hole with two pieces of polystyrene. I am not keen on birds nesting in the roofspace.

That was that or so I thought... No, think again...

The cheeky blighters have pecked and pecked and managed to remove all of the polystyrene and made a mess with bits of the stuff all over the front border...

My first reaction was to get the Mousse Expansive and fill the space with that... However when I got the ladder up you could see progress had been made. I had cleared all previous nesting material out...

So for their cheek I will let them have the space again for this year... Come the winter though and the Mousse Expansive will be out...

We also noticed this week another of our hole nesting friends, the blue tits, have started to use one of the three holes I drilled for them in the garden wall. This was a result of them using an existing hole last year which we blogged about here and here... I will be keeping watch on the others to see if they are in use also...