Frequented by Feathered Friends...

Going off on a slight ornithological tangent here, I’d like to comment upon the variety and frequency of the feathered friends that have been visiting my balcony in recent weeks.

When my girlfriend and I moved into this flat a year ago, I put up a bird feeder with peanuts in, however we didn’t see any birdlife on our balcony for an entire 12 months. What’s truly remarkable in recent weeks however, is the amount of birds that now flock to the balcony several times a day.

It all started around three weeks ago with a solitary robin, which started pecking away at the bird feeder one morning whilst I was watching BBC breakfast news before setting off to work. Amazed, I continued to watch out for this robin and sure enough, he visited the bird feeder every single morning.

Well-known for my passionate impulses, I rushed out at the weekend and purchased a bird food fat ball (contained within a plastic mesh netting) and hung this up next to the bird feeder, whilst also sprinkling wild birdseed mix onto the balcony. Well, since then, the birdlife that has visited us has been astonishing.

The robin (who incidentally, we’ve named ‘Vic’) still comes every day, pigeons are practically resident and a varied range of tits and finches now frequent the balcony at intervals too. Readers mustn’t forget that I’m situated literally 10 metres from an extremely busy railway line, including freight trains – which led me to believe that I wouldn’t really see any wild birdlife, save for the odd London pigeon.

So far I’ve recorded at least 7 different species of birds, however I’m still attempting to classify some of these. I’m not an avid birdwatcher, however the addition of this unexpected surge of wildlife to the London Vegetable Garden project is an extremely welcome and enjoyable distraction.