Tbeanz Garden Visitors
Photography by T J Smith
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My visitors and their shenanigans!
My hobby and my garden friends
I have been an avid bird watcher since childhood encouraged and educated by my parents. I remember we had a small bird feeder on our apple tree in the garden, I would spend hours watching the birds and I also remember the excitement when we got a nesting box which was used by blue tits. This may be why I have a special place in my heart for these colourful little birds.
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Although I never lost my love of birds it faded to the background in later years when other things had to become a priority. My garden, well used by our animals and children became neglected once the animals went and our children left home and we started to travel.
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In late 2019 my children bought me a small feeder for the garden which I put up on a branch near the window not expecting much to be honest - I cleaned the windows and patiently waited ... and so began the rekindling of my passion.
The sheer excitement of that first feathered visitor! 'Wait a minute that is not the sparrow I saw yesterday, it’s a blue tit!' I was ecstatic, not only were birds finding the feeder, but those lovely birds from my childhood had come to visit. I started to notice more and more different types of birds, often causing me to head to the internet to find out what they were - I had never seen a coal tit before! I then proceeded to clear around my very overgrown birdbath, cleaned it and refilled it. That was the start of many more visitors. Next came the window feeder - I was very sure it would take weeks for them to find and use it, and also not at all sure they would be comfortable being that close - turns out they loved it. The robin found it about 30 minutes after it went up, and that first winter we had many visitors including some that I am still amazed by - jay, starling and woodpigeon you would think really much too big to fit in, but they managed it! In fact, the woodpigeon got very clever and would tap on the window until my husband went out and put food on the top of the feeder for him and would patiently wait each day for him to come home to do this for him. The squirrels also soon figured out a way into it!​
Moving ahead to spring 2020 - yes that spring! Holiday cancelled, both of us at home, so decided the garden would be our 'Lockdown Project'. We have a large garden that goes around 3/4 of the house. It was a daunting prospect as it was completely covered in brambles, ivy, and very overgrown fir trees; the back chain-link fence separating us from the park was in a bad way and non-existent in places so we would have been very exposed without the 'jungle' it had become. Unfortunately, it was at this time I started suffering from a frozen shoulder, so I was unable to help much with the clearance. The birds didn't seem particularly bothered by the work going on in the garden and continued to visit, even on the days the chain saw was out! In fact, the robin would happily follow my husband around the garden inspecting his work and waiting for him to turn up some worms for him.
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After a lot of hard work which continued through the summer, the garden was at last traversable and I invested in some more bird feeders for one of the fir trees and the mock orange 'bush' (it, like everything else, was very overgrown). I was able to sit in my rediscovered garden while working and share my 'office' with the birds. I would often send pictures from my phone camera to my parents with great excitement when I noticed a 'new to the garden' species which usually they could identify. I think I counted 17 species visiting during the summer with one or two that I still can't accurately identify, ​
Above the garden before most of the clearing was done - I was not kidding about the jungle as you can see!
Now with the garden cleared the exposure to the park was evident and something had to be done. Of course, like everything in 2020 this was not easy to order and get fitted, but it finally went up in November just after our next cancelled holiday. Then I was worried – it’s a high fence cutting off the park and we lost a lot of the bushes the birds liked to hide in, would they return?
They did but not all of the species we had visit us in the summer, however, I do now have some new visitors, and more are returning every day so I have hope that by summer we will enjoy a garden full of bird song once again.
Squirrel on the feeders showing how exposed we were once we cleared and before the fence
View of the back door area, this will be grassed this year now its all cleared.
Patio after clearing, before the fence was put in, full of bird song and low flyers in the summer!
This is how it looks now with the fence separating us from the park, we will get some planting done soon
​In January I was trying to get pictures of some of the birds who now are a bit further away and send to my parents and I commented how I would like to try and get some better pictures of my visitors to share with them, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something I might give up on or didn't enjoy so was reluctant to research cameras at that time. Turns out my mum had a camera she never used and it was packed up and sent to me the next day, and the rest they say is history! I loved taking photos of my visitors and posting them to my Facebook feed and it turns out people really enjoyed looking at them. So, I made a page just for my pictures (I am always worried that people will get really fed up with bird pictures every day). Then I was asked where people could see more of my pictures hence this website. I hope that it brings a smile to your face and if I can make just one person stop and think about looking around at what they have in their gardens and get some of the enjoyment I get, I am happy!
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For my pictures go to images, to see the latest garden update click on Garden March or find out about my garden friends, this shows some of my regular visitors some descriptions and stories.
