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Greylag Geese

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I saw this beautiful little greylag goose family while I was out with the official blog dog last week.   I was delighted to see them as usually in my local patch I only see Canada Geese and their goslings.   Although it looks like I’m close by them, I got the photo from a distance on top of a bank and left as soon as I’d taken the picture so as not to disturb them. Greylag geese, or to give them their catchy Latin name Anser Anser, are found in gravel pits, lakes and reservoirs year round in southern Britain.   There is a wild breeding population further North, our southern birds are thought to be the result of reintroductions in the 60’s and 70’s. They eat grass, cereals leaves, spilled grain and green shoots.   As grass is low in nutritional value they graze almost constantly.   Interestingly, the grass doesn’t remain in the gut for long, as the bird needs to be unhindered for flight.   This explains why there’s goose poo everywhere when there are geese present! Grey
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How Can We Encourage More Birds Into Our Gardens?

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There is nothing quite like the quiet joy of watching birds in your own garden.   The RSPB Big Bird Watch results for 2018 show that smaller birds are increasing in numbers in our gardens.   Goldfinches are up 11% on 2017’s numbers, and greenfinches are up 5% which is really pleasing.   Long-tailed tits and coal tits are also increasingly seen.   But perennial favourites robins and blackbirds had lower numbers reported this year.   So how can we encourage more birds into our gardens?   Your Garden as an Ecosystem You will get an increase of visitors with a well supplied table or feeder, but to make a garden more inviting to birds year round a long term approach is needed.   Our human idea of a beautifully manicured formal garden with decking and a wooden fence all round is sadly unattractive to wildlife.   But most of us need our gardens to be family and pet friendly spaces where we entertain and enjoy our summer.   Happily there can be a compromise. Starlings love chafer
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Wading Birds of the Essex Mudflats

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Essex has the longest shoreline of any county in the UK.   Though the mudflats don’t always look pretty on a dank winter day, it’s productive and food rich ecosystem is one of the reasons that Essex welcomes so many wading bird species each winter. Beautiful Godwits My personal favourites are the bar-tailed and black-tailed Godwits. They are a large bird, and very pretty in breeding plumage. They form large flocks along the shorelines as they probe the mud for invertebrates. Tiny numbers of black-tailed godwits breed in the UK but they are on the UK conservation red list.   We see them here in Essex as they over winter from their Icelandic breeding locations.   Project Godwit is working hard to help this beautiful bird’s long term future in the UK.   If you see a ringed bird, let them know! Our mudflats also welcome large numbers of knot and dunlin for the winter.   Large flocks of Dunlin looking for their dinner! turnstone are common along Leigh seafront and near S
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Are Garden Feeders Harming Bird Populations?

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ZSL and BTO published their joint report on the health of our garden birds this week.   Could it be that we are inadvertently harming our garden visitors? They had some interesting findings about two diseases in particular. Finch trichomonosis is a protozoal infection which causes laboured breathing, difficulty swallowing and drooling.   Infected birds are thin and emaciated, and sometimes have matted, wet looking plumage around the face and beak.   It mostly affects greenfinch and chaffinch but any flock forming seed feeder is susceptible. It is believed that trichomonosis is responsible for a 60% reduction in the breeding greenfinch population since 2006.   It is spread through food or water that is contaminated by an infected bird, though the protozoa can not survive for long outside the host. Passerine Salmonellosis doesn’t show any characteristic symptoms, but birds are lethargic with fluffed plumage, and emaciated.   Like trichomonosis, it affects gregarious seed eaters
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My Garden Birds

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As a first post, I thought I would introduce myself but more importantly the birds I get in my garden. I live near the South Essex coast and so get the usual array of Sparrows, Starlings, Blackbirds etc.  I've got a Robin that sits in the tree outside and stares through the window singing which is both sweet and faintly threatening.  There have been a few unusual visitors to my feeders (in a tree out front it's not technically my garden, but I'm claiming it.) probably due to the cold snap.  I've seen Long-tailed tits, a pair of Goldcrest and even a male Blackcap - the sight of which caused me to choke on my tea as I tried to attract the attention of Mr. Essex Birder. I walk the Official Blog Dog along a part of the Thames estuary path so we get to see plenty of waders, ducks and the like.   It’s quite a varied habitat featuring managed reed beds and fresh water lakes so there is always something to see.  I’m attempting the #200birdyear, and so far I’m up to
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