Sightings from the bird hide
Words: Andrew Willocks, Nursery team leader, RHS Garden Harlow Carr
At RHS Garden Harlow Carr, the elderberry bush outside the bird hide is proving to be a popular source of food with members from the tit family and bullfinches alike. With luck and patience there are occasional sightings of blackcap, normally a migrant from Africa but can be seen wintering in the country as long as there is a good supply of fruit and berries. With patience it maybe seen weaving its slim body throughout the canopy eating the fruit along with the usual resident birdlife in the gardens.
Sightings from the bird hide at Harlow Carr
Tits: blue tit (left), great tit, marsh tit, coal tit,long tailed tit
Finches: bullfinch, chaffinch, brambling, greenfinch, goldfinch, siskin
Tree birds: goldcrest (left), greater spotted woodpecker, nuthatch, treecreeper
Crows: jackdaw, carrion crow, jay, magpie
Song birds: robin (left), dunnock, blackbird, song thrush, wren, mistle thrush
Birds of prey: tawny owl, sparrowhawk
Bildlife elsewhere at RHS Garden Harlow Carr
At Harlow Carr Gardens the ribbon of crab Apple ‘Evereste’, is laden with a bounty of orange fruits, this can be seen running between the new Kitchen Garden and Alpine Zone and is proving most popular with the resident and visiting thrushes from Scandinavia.
Crataegus laevigata or Midland hawthorn produces more rich, rounded red fruit and is native to Europe and India. From a protein point of view hawthorn has a high calorific value which makes it an ideal berry to be taken on board by blackbirds (left), song thrushes, redwings, fieldfares and mistle thrushes to build up fat reserves prior to the anticipated deep winter chill.
Yew trees are proving to be very popular with many birds as the nights are drawing in, providing a great roosting site from the dangers of predators and the chilly nights. As well as providing a suitable refuge the berries, even though they are very poisonous to humans, are eaten by thrushes. Mistle thrushes can get very territorial in the during the depths of winter often defending particular trees from other birds that have moved into its territory.