Bird Feeder Update

When it finally stopped raining about 8 pm last night I put out a tray of brown breadcrumbs and topped up the seed feeders, although it didn't look as if they had been used at all during the day.
By the time I had got back inside and looked out of the kitchen window a collared dove had commandeered the crumb tray, and methodically scoffed the lot! It even cleaned up the bits it had accidentally knocked on to the hebe under the feeder before departing.

As the evening cleared up - a bit of watery sun appeared low on the horizon - lots of collared doves started calling, and the goldfinches called each other together into a small flock before taking off somewhere. One particular goldfinch has selected as his song perch a TV aerial immediately opposite my office window - they are surprisingly loud. Well named, too; when they are in a flock their conversation sounds like someone rattling a gold charm bracelet.

I got up earlier than usual this morning and was rewarded by a family of blue tits at my bird feeder, the first I have seen actually in the garden. When I first looked there was one juvenile perched on top of the feeder watching the usual sparrow breakfast squabble. It had a tentative peck at the peanuts then skittered off into the silver birch just outside my fence, where I could see there were more blue tits. It obviously gave my feeder a good report, because two adults ad three juveniles all descended at once, testing the peanuts and the seeds. Oddly, when the sparrows saw all the excitement with the peanuts one of them had a good go too; normally they ignore them altogether.

The rain seems to have gone, although the sun which was shining straight into my eyes an hour ago has gone too behind a curtain of grey. Rain or no rain, the season marches inexorably on; last Monday I saw three black blackberries (possibly not properly ripe, but black anyway), one each on three different bushes at the edge of the coombe. Yesterday, in the rain, there were a dozen or so, almost one on every bush.