I was sitting in the garden recently taking random photos of wildlife when I spotted a very pretty Great Tit backlit by the winter sun sitting on my fence post. I took a quick snap and thought nothing of it, until I came to transfer my images onto my laptop and go through them. It was then I noticed that the poor bird had a very large tumour on its face and was very fluffed up 😢

I turned to Google to discover it is almost certainly due to Avian Pox. I’m already a member of the British Trust for Ornithology and through that was able to log a sick bird case with Garden Wildlife Health. They were excellent and sent me a detailed email the next day, advising to wash all my feeders with a weak (5%) bleach solution, thoroughly rinse them then leave them to air dry before re-stocking. Because I’ve only seen 1 case I don’t have to stop feeding but will need to keep an eye out for any more signs of Pox because that would necessitate stopping feeding for at least a couple of weeks.

You’re supposed to clean bird feeders every week but to be fair who in their busy life has got time for that, especially if you have several feeders. I will, though, be more meticulous about giving them a spray of Ark-Klens.

It was, though, as good a time as any for this to happen as birds are on their annual moult and to be honest the garden has been really quiet for feathered visitors. I haven’t seen the Woodpeckers in a month and even visits from the Sparrows and Blue Tits have been almost non existent. Not to wake to the sound of Blackbird song or to wind down in the evening to the melody of a Song Thrush has been properly weird!

While many of the birds have been absent I’ve taken the opportunity to re-arrange the garden a bit. I put a call out for a large tree branch on the village Whatsapp group and my neighbour came up trumps with a lovely 7ft long silver birch. I’d also bagged a couple of metal washing line poles on there last month as I was planning on moving my washing line, though in the end didn’t need them. My idea was to use the branch as a perch fairly close to the patio doors and move the bird feeders away from the wall (which is used by the local cats) and closer to the branch, so that in winter I can continue to take bird pictures from inside the house and the birds are safer from predators. I’ve lodged one end of the branch in-between two forked trunks on my small apple tree and tied the other to a cut down washing line pole held in the ground with a stake. It looks ideal for photography, so fingers crossed the birds use it as intended 🤞🏻

The feeders have been back out now for 4 days but I’ve only seen 2 Blue Tits visiting and absolutely nothing else 😮 This is unheard of in my garden. Usually if I put a fat ball out it’s gone within a couple of hours. I can’t tell you how much I miss having my first brew of the day while watching my furry friends and hope they come back soon.