Where are the birds?

Hmm, have just looked out the window. There is one lonely sparrow on our neighbour's shed roof. I hadn't noticed a lack of birds until I read this. However it's quiet windy here which seems to keep them tucked away.
Maybe it is your new feeder.

Sparrows are conspicuous by their absence here, too, but we did have a blackbird this morning - first I have seen for ages. He came for the apples I chucked on the lawn.

Normally alongside the birds there is a gymnastic team of squirrels practising for the Olympics.
Nowhere to be seen today.

My rowan tree has yellow berries which the birds usually ignore until around Christmas when all the red berries have gone. However, in the last few days the blackbirds have discovered them, much earlier than usual. Apart from them, there isn't much avian action in my garden.

My sparrows have gone quiet lately as Mr Sparrowhawk decided to help with our pigeon problem and ate one on the lawn. But they’re still there, just keeping to the hedge and congratulating themselves on having survived.

We’re a bit low on blackbirds at the moment, I haven’t seen a thrush for a while and the mealworms I put out have been ignored, but the farmers are ploughing and there’s loads of berries in the hedges so perhaps they’ve gone on holiday.

I used to watch the birds in a tree the other side of my garden fence. But sometime while I was on holiday last month, it got cut down.
So now I only have seagulls and pigeons doing tap dances on my conservatory roof.:-(

It's completely normal for garden birds to be scarce at this time of year. Late summer and early autumn is the time of year after the breeding season is over, that birds moult and grow their winter plumage. Don't worty, they'll be back.
DH put up a new bird feeder in our garden and we've seen blue tits and great tits and a robin. They have been missing since nesting time.

I haven't seen my bluetits or robin for a little while. Still pigeons and magpies around though.

Oh goodness gmelon, us too! Just the other day, I was commenting to my DH that our sparrows have either left us or something must be killing them off.

Normally, it's not uncommon to see dozens of sparrows in our garden and all manner of birds throughout the year, since we are backed by woods.

I've noticed that in the last month or so, the sparrows are down to one or two sightings a day, at best.

gmelon same here, although we have put out tasty treats for them, only a very few are interested, and one squirrel.
I think it’s because of the wonderful and unseasonal Autumn we are having, plenty of apples on the ground still and loads of berries on the trees and insects still around.
They will appear when the weather changes and it gets much colder.

It's not just me they've abandoned then!

We had a fatality yesterday ... a pigeon flew into the living room window and killed itself! We're left with a ghostly white body and wings mark on the window and sadly the window cleaner has just been so it may stay there for a couple of weeks till he comes back!
We have our wee robin back though, and plenty other birds in the back garden where their food is. :-)

The sparrows almost deafen me with their chirping at around 4 in the afternoon! Visiting the bird feeder. Actually, I had to move it because of rats, so I hope they like the new location. If not, I will put it back where it was and feed the rats too.

Had a surprise this morning when a cormorant flew low over the garden.
We live on a coast road but that was a first.

Most of our sparrows seemed to have deserted us too - and there were at least two or three dozen of them in the hedge all summer.
I did notice three around the bird feeder the other day.

I wondered if this year's fledglings have flown away to find pastures new.

I saw a tree creeper the other day in the garden, that only happens occasionally!

I've a bird feeding house new to the garden since Sunday.
Sometimes they will avoid something new until the smell of human has gone

I bought a pack of 3 blocks of bird food from the pound shop and the sparrows are going crazy for them, I can watch their antics from the kitchen window and they are so comical. There are always about 3 sparrows on the ground to catch any bits that are dropped. I love them, we get great tits nesting each Spring but at the moment the sparrows are stealing the show. My sister in Bristol says she never sees any sparrows there. So sad.

The birds seem pretty hungry this year - I had about 30 small birds queuing for their turn at the bird feeders in the lilac bush yesterday - mostly blue tits, sparrows and nut-hatches

I have dozens of blue and great tits on the feeders; also a cheeky robin, sparrows, a couple of overweight pigeons and occasionally a nervous woodpecker, lots of geese overhead and swans on the nearby lakes so all well here in the Cotswolds

The blackbirds are back! Well, several of them. We usually have half a dozen at least in our small town garden but most vanish during the summer, and jour have come back today. I think it's because the weather has just turned cold.

On the subject of new bird feeders, we bought new ones this spring. Posh easy clean ones from the RSPB, but the perches are a different style and it took nearly three weeks before the sparrows accepted them.

We are living in a new estate. The garden is small, square and surrounded by a brick wall. There is a walk and nature part all round the outside. It is full of bird unlike my poor little garden. Why would they bother? I do have a feeder, big bushes and will not give up. I get a lone wagtail and a lone robin.

Keep putting feed out*Lully*, especially fat balls. They’ll come when the weather turns bad and the berries have all gone. Is there water nearby? I think the birds come to our garden mainly because we have a small water fall and pond. They love to bathe in running water!

Yes, thanks. Dumpling. I do work hard at it and the bushes are filling out. In my old garden I had a real variety including a woodpecker.. ( not even a squirrel or a magpie or a pigeon! )

Thanks for some great posts.
Still nothing on the bird front as yet.
I can't even see any flying around. The odd seagull.
No squirrels out there.
Have got a young fox taken to sleeping in the afternoon sun.

Last year I had great success with those blocks of bird feed. Very fatty suet type stuff. Local shop has fruit ones or nuts or insects the insect are horrid.
There have been fights amongst the birds to get a go. As a previous poster mentioned some birds were on the ground waiting for the crumbs to fall.
As of yet they aren't tempted this year.

I've got some bird peanut butter now. It's going out there tomorrow.
See if I can get them out of hiding.