This weekend is the Big Garden Birdwatch! The perfect excuse to get outside and meet your wild neighbours. Don’t worry if you haven’t got a garden, there are plenty of wild creatures to discover right on your doorstep and here at Mudchute!
With few leaves on the trees, it’s a great time of year for birdwatching. Keep an eye out for finches and tits in the trees, chattering as they nibble on catkins and buds. Keep an ear out for scolding blackbirds and melodious starlings. And be sure to keep an eye out for the bright orange breast of the robin, a bird that seem ubiquitous in the hedges! Need help identifying a bird you’ve spotted? Be sure to have a look at the RSPB’s what to look out for page. Mudchute is also frequented by a number of more exotic species as well, with wild ring-necked and monk parakeets frequenting the farm. So if you think you hear a parrot squawking overhead, you’re probably right!
Here are just a few of the avifauna that make Mudchute their home! Out birdwatching this weekend? Be sure to share your sightings with the RSPB and us! You can tweet them us @mudchute and be sure to use #Birdwatch!
- A blue tit takes flight.
- The ring-necked parakeet is one of two parrot species that visit the farm.
- Robins can be seen along our hedges.
- You can find flocks of goldfinches foraging in the trees.
- Blackbirds search in the leaf litter for their prey.
- A robin sings from the top of the roses.
- A pair of chaffinches.
- A Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus), one of two introduced parakeet species found on the farm.
- Magpies (Pica pica) are in the same family as crows, ravens and jays.
- A great tit (Parus major) with their characteristic glossy black head and white cheeks.
- The long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) has a distinctive long tail and small round body.
- A pair of wood pigeons (Columba palumbus). These birds often make a loud clattering noise when taking off, which gave them one of their folk names, “clatter doves”.
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