HAVE THE EGGS HATCHED?

Spring isn’t exactly helping the wildlife in and around my garden, just at the time when the nesting birds are looking for some assistance from Mother Nature.

The nestbox camera still isn’t working, although I’m positive the eggs have hatched as the parents are often seen scampering in to the tiny opening with little bits of food for the chicks.

I don’t know what the adult birds are bringing for the chicks to eat, as I’ve not seen any caterpillars around.

I’m constantly putting out small amounts of mealworms, although so far I’ve not seen the blue tit parents taking any.

What I have seen is other parent birds taking up to ten mealworms at a time to feed their chicks. There are two robin nests around my house, although exactly where they are is something I’m still trying to track down.

One things is for sure and that is I must find them this weekend otherwise the chicks will fledge and the only glimpses I’ll get is when they come to my garden to feed for a few days before disappearing into the wider countryside until last summer or autumn.

I’m hoping that spring will come soon and that will lead to the potential for the robins to have another brood, and if I find the nests then I’ll be very pleased to see the second brood growing up.

I’ve also had the usual visits from the house sparrow colony, although I don’t think they’re nesting in my sparrow nestbox.

Two visitors have surprised me this week, one was from a number of starlings, which is unusual because I’ve not seen many around the house over the years, but the other visitor was a male great spotted woodpecker, who was happily munching on the fat snack right in front of my kitchen window.

 

I managed to get one picture of him before he took flight, but I did see him returning on a number of occasions so food must be scarce out there for all sorts of birds and animals.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed for spring to finally spring into life and help our wildlife in the vital breeding season.