Tits Population

They’re back! ……..and looking great – the Tit population at my home in West Sussex has suddenly exploded – great numbers and great variety – I have had Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, ...

Starling Gangs

Oh No! (says David Cole, a long time Twootz customer and wildlife photographer). Towards the end of June each year the starlings arrive – parents with masses of squabbling adolescence youngsters. ...

Where Have All the Blue Tits Gone?

So where have all the Blue Tits gone? At this time of the year I often have friends asking me where all of the Blue Tits have gone. There were throngs of them just a couple of months ago, but no ...

Great Spotted Woodpeckers

A total of seven Great Spotted Woodpeckers are dominating activity on my main feeding station. They are from two families – one to the north and the other to the south of my home and they are causin ...

Pheasant

Percy’s Back !!!! Every year when the shooting season finishes a fine cock pheasant appears at my feeding station. He is certainly not he same one that I noticed and fed by hand some twelve years ...

Great Spotted Woodpeckers

Date: 2019-10-23 12:00:29 | Category: Bird Feeding | Author: David Cole
A total of seven Great Spotted Woodpeckers are dominating activity on my main feeding station. They are from two families – one to the north and the other to the south of my home and they are causing mayhem!

I really would not like to be involved with the domestic disputes which start as soon as I replenish the fat ball holders at about 6am. Those beaks are sharp and strong – but I suppose when you have a brood of youngsters nagging at you for food then you might be on a short fuse with the neighbours…..


Greater Spotted Woodpeckers


We have also attracted a pair of wary crows who strut around importantly but vanish at the first sign of human beings and see that even being much larger does not make you braver in the face of those ‘pecker’s beaks!

The parent woodpeckers smash into the fat balls breaking them up and then take pieces off to feed their youngsters - wedging lumps into cracks in tree branches for the youngsters to take – obviously pre-grub finding training. Meanwhile the sparrows arrive to scurry around on the ground under the feeders picking up the dropped material with minimum effort.