A thousand birds are in my grove,
Melodious from morn to night;
My fruit trees are their treasure trove,
Their happiness is my delight. Robert Service The Bird Sanctuary
The swifts arrived this morning while I was out on the terrace watering the plants.
I had just commented to my partner that last year they arrived on April 7th when I heard a familiar chatter, looked up, and they flew over. It wasn’t their normal screeching sound – definitely more like a ‘well here we are – back in Granollers’ conversation.
About 7 or 8 of them and how lovely to see them surfing the currents high above our home.
Why do I never see people here looking up in wonder at the birds?
Speaking of which….one of the things I imported from the UK was a new bird feeder as I can’t find anything like that in Catalunya. I need to make up some seed mix though – any suggestions about what to put in?
food for birds!!????
Ja,JA,JA! P xxxx
No idea….the usual sort of stuff????
You could try the stuff they sell for pigeons in pet shops. In the Netherlands they even sell a mixture for turtle doves, which all the birds seem to like!
Christine
That’s a good idea – there is plenty of budgie food in the supermarkets but I think the wild birds need something more diverse. Perhaps someone in UK can look at a packet and let me know the ingredients? K x
The most popular thing in my feeder are the black sunflower seeds. When I used a mix I got very few birds but with strictly sunflower seeds I got bazillions. I have a recipe for making a mix of seed with peanut butter – you have to melt the peanut butter so it’s a bit of a process but I can dig up the paper if you are interested. I think the birds can find plenty of diversity in nature – berries and other things we wouldn’t even think to eat. Now I must go off and see what a swift looks like. The mourning doves are called that because the sound they make is plaintive, like someone in mourning.
I’d love the recipe Bodhi if you can be bothered. I know it’s not the season for feeding but I do like to have the visitors to the terrace and I’m willing to take a little time over it. Swifts – the best fliers in the world. Coo coo-cu Coo coo-cu! i love that sound. K x
Kate,
Are there still flocks of green parrokeets flying around the skies of Barcelona? They always startled me… I’d only seen them before in Brazil, where they did seem more at home. No swifts here yet. I think their screeching is one of the finest sounds in the world.
X Gilla
Hi Gilla – Yes there are! And some have started to appear here in Granollers too. Swifts – my heart in hiding stirred for a bird – says it all for me! K x
They’ve arrived here too now! Will the birds eat seed from a feeder? The reason I’m questionning it is that the first winter we were here I strung some peanuts up from one of the pine trees outside the window. Two years later I took them down, having never once seen a bird anywhere near them. Not even the mice had been nibbling them! But seeds may be better than nuts.
Jan, we put up bird feeders last year on the terrace and it took ages for anyone to come then some small ones started cautiously approaching and in the end came every day. Those were seed feeders as I didn´t have a peanut feeder. Now I have and am waiting to see if anyone wants a peanut. I can´t remember which birds like those and perhaps there aren´t any in the centre of Granollers. Must look it up!