Tough times for ‘Old King Coal'?
December 2012. New results from the British Trust for Ornithology's Garden
BirdWatch suggest that the Coal Tit is one of a number of species struggling to
find food this winter. Through its network of 14,000 ‘citizen scientists', the
charity has charted a substantial upsurge in garden use, with Coal Tits turning
to feeders in huge numbers.
Bad year for tree seeds
It appears that tree seed crops have been poor this year, leaving many seed-eating birds with little natural food on offer in the wider countryside. As a consequence, many species have been turning to bird table fare. Perhaps the most noticeable of these arrivals has been the Coal Tit, a species usually recorded in roughly half of gardens during November and early December, but this year nearly three-quarters of gardens are being visited.
It appears that tree seed crops have been poor this year, leaving many seed-eating birds with little natural food on offer in the wider countryside. As a consequence, many species have been turning to bird table fare. Perhaps the most noticeable of these arrivals has been the Coal Tit, a species usually recorded in roughly half of gardens during November and early December, but this year nearly three-quarters of gardens are being visited.
In addition to the patchiness of natural seed
crops, the recent wet weather has also proved problematic for Coal Tits. The
seed cones of conifers only open under dry conditions and damp weather leaves
them firmly closed; Coal Tits have to then find food elsewhere and we have seen
a resulting increase in the use of garden feeders. Coal Tits have visited more
gardens in the last few weeks than during the same period in any of the 17
years over which the BTO Garden BirdWatch survey has been running.
I have noticed no change in prevalence of the coal tit in woodland near my home in Bromley Kent. What I have noticed, this year and last is a prevalence of red feather mites on the birds I have photographed www.nature-photo.co.uk
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