Friday 15 April 2011

Devon v Hillingdon

I have just returned from a short trip to Devon. The house I stayed in used to be advertised in nature magazines as a B&B for birdwatchers and indeed there is a very good view of the various bird feeders from several windows.

I decided to list what I saw and compare it to the species that visit my own feeders. To my surprise, they were exactly the same. Chaffinches, sparrows, long tailed tits, blue tits, coal tits, robins and beneath, hoovering up the spilt seed, collared doves and wood pigeons. Interestingly, the collared dove had a more distinct neck ring and frilly-looking black and white feathers poking from beneath the wings, something I haven't noticed on the Hillingdon birds, where the darker feathers are a uniform grey colour.

However, the Hillingdon feeders scored over the Devon ones by attracting goldfinches and greenfinches, too, neither of which I saw in Devon. The Devon garden has a visiting great spotted woodpecker; so has our Hillingdon one, and we frequently have a green woodpecker drilling for ants on the lawn. There was a pheasant in the Devon garden which had flown in from the neighbouring field, but I don't think anything beats our Hillingdon sighting of a grey partridge on the deck, right outside the patio doors, two Christmases ago.

A definite win for Hillingdon, I think!

2 comments:

Jackie Sayle said...

Don't forget the jays and the parakeets you get, too!

hydra said...

That's true!