We have been identifying birds that visit the orchard. You can find the full list here.
Greenfinch
Most of our best-loved garden birds visit the orchard throughout the year, including the Greenfinch, which is on the increase at last, after suffering from a deadly virus in recent years
Long-tailed Tit
The shy, dainty Long-tailed Tit.
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Occasionally a Great Spotted Woodpecker will also make a dramatic appearance. There is at least one that has recently stripped the bark off one of the blackthorn trees with its bill, to extract beetle larvae.
Robin
While the range of species varies little over the year, the birds’ behaviour changes according to the season:
During the WINTER there is always a single Robin (male or female) singing from a high branch, claiming the orchard as its territory.
Great Tit
It is joined, from late January, by Great Tits with their black heads and their insistent ‘teacher, teacher’ call. You might also hear a song thrush in January, performing its loud, varied song, in which every little phrase is repeated three or four times.
Blackbird
From early SPRING all the birds become more active and more vocal, as they begin courting and prepare to raise the year’s brood. The male Blackbird now starts to sing, often late into the evening. His song is clear and fluty, out-shining even the Robin.
Blue Tit
Groups of Blue Tits join the Great Tits to come and pick off the emerging caterpillars on the apple trees.
Goldfinch
Larger bands (or ‘charms’) of chirruping Goldfinches may also flit across the orchard
After MID-SUMMER you will begin to hear less birdsong and in July and August will notice less activity, as once their nestlings have fledged many birds will go through their seasonal moult.
As AUTUMN approaches and the apples ripen you may well see Blackbirds coming to feast on the fallen fruit. The female is dark brown, the male coal black, with a yellow bill.
We hope that they also feed on the rose hips and other berries in the perimeter hedges and that the Goldfinches take seeds from teasels we have allowed to grow in the longer grass.