The snow melt and heavy rain has led to lots of flooding, but also an
opportunity as temperatures rise and a host of flying insects took to the air.
Looking at the week ahead would suggest that the weather will be windy
and fairly wet, offering not much comfort for those insects. The good news is
those insects are about and hiding when the weather is cold.
I carried out the RSPB’s 2013 Birdwatch survey this weekend and it was
good to see plenty of the birds I usually see coming along for me to officially
count.
Three types of tits – great, blue and long-tailed – along with jays, blackbirds,
wrens, tree and house sparrows, dunnocks, chaffinches, robins and a lovely
surprise in a female bullfinch.
This survey is important and I had help from my young daughter who was
very excited seeing the robins and blackbirds.
The blackbirds are a couple and she now calls them Mr and Mrs, well
after I’d tried to tell her the colouring differences between male and female.
Perhaps I’ll leave that again for another day!
Watching the female bullfinch was a nice surprise and while I’ve seen
bullfinches before in my garden, their visits are rare.
One sight that is rare in the summer and not much more common in the
other seasons is the long tailed tit.
In winter I often see a flock of them hanging from all sorts of angles in
the trees, chattering to each other before one, and then the rest descend on my
feeders – mainly the peanut ones.
The flock numbers about ten and during the last few days they’ve been
seen every day.
So will the change in weather bring any more exciting visitors, or perhaps
more indications that thoughts of the birds and other wildlife are turning to
the breeding season.
I’m now going to try and fix the nestbox camera and see which if the
tits will be first to claim it for their own this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment