8 : Yate
My Home Patch in Harescombe, Yate is in the middle of a housing estate. Despite this, we’ve sighted a variety
of birds in the garden over the last few years. Both front and back gardens are very small, but we filled them
with wildlife-friendly trees and shrubs and made a small pond.
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We get Wood Pigeon and Collared Dove on a regular basis and good numbers of Starling and House Sparrow.
(In the Winter the Sparrows can be 50+). In the Winter of 2009, a Meadow Pipit visited, which sadly was a one-
off. We have regular wintering Pied and Grey Wagtail. We have seen Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted
Woodpecker and Waxwing from the garden. Dunnock, Wren and Robin are regulars. Song and Mistle Thrush
are rare visitors but Fieldfare and Redwing come most winters. We keep them supplemented with apples when
the berries are all gone. In January 2013, we had a rare leucistic Fieldfare.
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Blackcap is now a regular winter visitor and we have counted up to six at the same time. A surprise in April
2013 was a Common Whitethroat which was present for two days. We used to have Goldcrest quite often, but
a succession of hard winters mean that we don't see them anymore. The regular Tits that visit are Great, Blue
and Long-tailed. We also have the odd Coal Tit. Goldfinch is the most common finch with up to 20 birds.
Chaffinch, Brambling and Bullfinch come to the garden in small numbers, on and off for the past few years.
Greenfinch are now scarcer due to a deadly parasite trichomonosis which Pigeons and Doves also catch
occasionally. In March 2013, a small flock of Lesser Redpoll visited our feeders for the first time, with some
Siskin.
Gulls seem to be on the increase and we see Black-headed, Herring, and Lesser Black-backed quite regularly,
and occasionally Greater Black-backed Gull. The Corvids are getting very abundant with Raven often seen and heard flying over. Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw and Rook take over the bird table, pushing the smaller birds
off.
Last year, we found a Rook that didn't fly off when we approached it. It didn't look very well. While we were
wondering what to do, it walked down the path and into the house! We went in to see it sitting on the sofa! We
took it to Oak and Furrows Wildlife Rescue and we released it a few weeks later back in the garden.
Hobby, Peregrine and Red Kite fly over the house occasionally. Common Buzzard soar frequently overhead
from the Wapley Woods area. Probably the commonest Raptor to visit our garden on a daily basis is the
Sparrowhawk. We know it is about when the Sparrows start giving alarm calls. We once found a dead juvenile
Sparrowhawk that looked like it had hit the fence. The predator doesn't always win!
So, there you have it: just because you live on a housing estate doesn't mean you don't get any good birds.
Chris Teague
