Up with the lark?  Sadly, after a week of waking before the alarm went off, this morning we slept in. By the time I poked my head out the front door George and Ben had been at work for an hour. Early birds, of course!  These very nice young BTO volunteers are here to count and ring Pond Cottage songbirds. And, oh, what a great start it is to our day!        

The mist nets they have set up by our feeders are fluttering with small birds: tits, chaffinches, robins, siskins – the regulars we see every day from the kitchen window – and some we don’t. 

Flash forward a month or two. We’re now into May.  Make that July. But the birds are still coming to be counted.

It’s a thrill to see them all so close up, such bundles of perfection. It was also good to see George back again. He first arrived with all his birdringing gear in a sub zero cold snap before Christmas when our great excitement was meeting a pair of nuthatches face to face.  A rare sighting of newcomers to Central Scotland. This time George arrived on a warmish Good Friday with a new colleague, Ben, and a different discovery. 

“Chiffchaffs” says George introducing the small warbler gently secured in his hand. It’s a female which close investigation reveals would have hatched last year and she’s now ready to breed. Her mate is in Ben’s hand.  These shy birds have probably arrived from southern Spain although with climate change many chiff chaffs find the south of Britain warm enough in winter. They no longer need to travel to and from Africa. 

Feeding and breeding

Flash forward a month or two. We’re now into May.  Make that July – life and work keeps getting in the way of my blogging but the birds are busier than ever, queuing up at the feeders. (Spilling seed on the ground much to the delight of young red squirrels).   Lots of siskins were still here in May although George had heard that one of ours had since been found in Orkney.  

The picture has changed by midsummer but that tiny ring fitted at Pond Cottage has codes which add to crucial information about the movements and numbers of bird populations.  Number counting is more important than ever given the results of annual surveys by RSPB and British Trust for Ornithology.  We did surprisingly well in this year’s Big Garden Birdwatch – more blue tits than the average, said RSPB in a congratulatory Blue Peter Badge kind of email in February – but admittedly 10 acres of woodland is a bigger garden than average.  

A bright start to the day. Top row from left: goldfinch, blackcap, blackbird. Bottom row: adult and young great spotted woodpecker, male siskin and chaffinch. Just a few of the birds caught, ringed and released at Pond Cottage between March and July 2024

Regular bird ringing will provide evidence of changes but so far our numbers seem to be holding up despite this unsettlingly uncertain breeding season. Fewer bluetits in the latest count though there’s still time for another brood. Recent sessions record goldfinches, dunnocks, robins, wrens, great tits, great spotted woodpecker with occasional guest appearances – brambling, blackcap, redpoll.

Say it again. Goldfinches, redpolls, wrens, robins…There’s fun even in simply typing the names of the birds we see at the feeder or in the notes Ben has sent us. There’s poetry in listing the names – a device well-used by Roger Deakin in his Notes From Walnut Tree Farm (my favourite book this year) as he sat at his desk late at night. “Well fed blackbirds sing better,” he noted one May, “because they develop fuller throats – like busty opera singers.”

A male blackbird calmly considers birdringer Ben.
A blackbird in Ben’s hand looks back at us unblinkingly with its gold rimmed eye.  It weighs just over 100g – “about the same as 10 siskins” points out Ben. A fun fact with a serious scientific purpose. Photo Alice Perman

To this onlooker it’s surprising how calm the birds seem, gently scooped out of the nets to be ringed, measured and weighed (highly skilled work carried out under BTO licence).   It’s possibly our most enjoyable experience at Pond Cottage. In a world of human chaos, I find few sights more cheering than close encounters with these beautiful unblinking creatures.

And there’s special pride in finding a new generation born and bred at Pond Cottage. But new arrivals can change the status quo. Meet the young nuthatch recorded (and photographed) by Ben on his latest early morning visit. Remember the nuthatch pair caught on that freezing December day? It was an exciting discovery of a species which has only recently begun colonising central Scotland. “Male and female,” said our birdringers triumphantly, “perhaps you’ll have a new family next spring.” And so we do. Hopefully our young bird is evidence of a healthily increasing population. But how might that affect the existing local bird community? The answer is to keep counting.

Feature image at the top: a young nuthatch. Photo by Ben Swallow at Pond Cottage. Thanks also to Alice and Ben for gallery images.

A nuthatch is gently coaxed to pose for the camera by BTO birdringing volunteers at Pond Cottage. Photo Fay Young
Daddy Nuthatch, posing for the picture December 2023: photo Fay Young