Blackbirds

The Blackbird is an interesting bird! It is very common in our gardens, it is easily recognizable, it has a nice song and most people, even non birdwatchers would be able to hazard a good guess as to its identity.

That said, there is a lot more to the Blackbird than one may assume. Not only is it a common breeding bird in the United Kingdom with some four and a half million pairs but it is also a winter migrant, it escapes the colder Eastern European countries by spending the winter months here. They're arrival generally coincides with the onset of harsh weather at their departure point, when it gets cold they leave.

I've been looking at some of the numbers recorded at east coast sights this week and they are pretty impressive.

In one field alone, on the morning of the 11th Nov, at the migrant hotspot Spurn Point, there were over 1000 individuals! So, remembering that this is one field, on a coast line of 800 miles, how many thousands of birds arrived in the UK that evening...the mind boggles, a hundred thousand, a million?

Some of the Spurn individuals were trapped and bingo, one had a ring on it. It was a bird that had been rung in Germany so this gives us a great indication of where these migrants have been arriving from.

Another single observer noted over 50 in his east coast garden! I bet he had to re-stock the Bird Table after they had their fill.

There is more bad weather on the way so more birds will depart and join the tens of thousands that have already arrived here in the UK.

Over the coming weeks, all of these arrivals will start filtering across the country, take up residency in our gardens and start feeding at our Bird Tables and Feeding Stations.

So lets be good hosts to our European friends and keep a good supply of food on the go in our gardens. Blackbirds are easily fed, they will take berries, fallen fruit and snails along with high High Energy Seed Mixes, Fat Feasts, Fat Balls and Suet Pellets...keep the bird table stocked and remember to provide water especially during hard frosts. Let's do our bit for a united Europe and provide a nice winter home for our visiting blackbirds.