A Lilac by Any Other Name

In our back garden we have one tree.  It looks a bit scraggly but it's useful for hanging our bird feeders off and gives the birds a bit of cover.  We plan to remove it in the next few years when we have our garden landscaped.

It's actually one of what were originally four trees when we first moved here two years ago.  We cut the other three down to create more space.

I was looking at our solitary tree today and suddenly realised that I didn't know what it was.  I've been looking at it for two years and never bothered to find out anything about it!

On the off chance, I asked my wife, who is Czech, who did know and she told me it was called 'šeřík,' which Google translate soon rendered to me as 'lilac' in English.  So there you go, at least I know what it's called now.

I've dug out an old photo of the garden from last year, when all four trees were still present.  Here you can see our lilac in full bloom in the centre.  Isn't it a stunner!

Our Back Garden
(May 2011)

Tits and Bird Feeders

Last week I saw my first ever coal tit.  Today I saw my first ever long-tailed tit.

What has brought about this sudden garden birdwatching success? Well the answer is very simple. It's the power of the birdfeeder.

I've invested in a simple feeder that we've been filling with black sunflower seeds. I also put up a couple of fat-filled coconut halves. The result has been a feeding frenzy of blue tits, great tits, chaffinches and dunnocks, among others.

Last week I finally got round to training my binoculars on them and noticed that what I had assumed to be great tits were smaller and stockier that I expected. A reference to a bird book suggested they could be coal tits. I was able to verify this because of the white patch on the back on their heads.

I immediately tweeted the news about the coal tits. Someone told me about long-tailed tits that used to appear in their own garden. Yet another species I'd never seen!

Well, until today that is. Walking not far from home on a Christmas Day stroll, we saw a group of long-tailed tits milling around somebody's birdfeeders. I couldn't believe I'd seen both of these birds in such quick succession!

I managed to get this basic photo of one of the long-tailed tits on my camera phone.

Long-Tailed Tit
(December 2012)

The key to it all is, of course, the birdfeeders.

Goldfinch

Here's one example of something that got me excited this year.

In May, I stepped outside the house to take the rubbish out. I noticed a curious little creature.

It was a small bird sitting very quietly and very still on the gravel next to the wall of our neighbour's house. I'd never seen anything like it. It had a bright red face and a flash of gold on its wing. It couldn't have looked more exotic.

I took a photo. It didn't move a muscle. I stepped closer and took another one. In the end I stepped forward several times and got unexpectedly close and was able to get this shot.

Goldfinch
(May 2012)

It was so still I was worried it was injured, but when I returned a few minutes later it had disappeared.

I dived into a bird book and very quickly discovered that it was a goldfinch, which actually happens to be our second most common finch after the chaffinch. But this didn't alter the effect on me. The encounter had given me a real buzz.

About This Blog

In the last year or so I've developed a passion for nature. I'm not sure why.

I'm a complete novice, to be frank. I don't know how to identify birds or trees. I have two young kids so I rarely get a chance to explore things in any detail anyway. I'm not a member of any clubs. I don't know any like minded people.

I only have a cheap pair of binoculars.

But here's the exciting thing. I do have a passion for nature and I know I've got the rest of my life to explore it and to learn. I'm not in a rush. And I've got the added bonus of being able to do this alongside my two young children.

This blog is here to keep track of things as I go along. My own nature diary, if you like. I don't expect any more from it.