CAN SPRING, SPRING INTO LIFE?

Good news and bad news this week. The good news is the nestbox camera started to work again and revealed some very egg-citing news. The bad news is towards the end of the week it stopped working again!

I’m just relying on hope that it’ll somehow come back online because I can’t risk disturbing the pair of blue tits at this stage.

As you can see from the images below, the news this week has been around the laying of eggs. The first one was laid on Wednesday night, with another one joining it on Thursday night.

 

 

 

Unfortunately I was ‘on duty’ for my own offspring on Thursday night so the only pic I got was of the female roosting, by Friday morning, when I expected to get the image of more eggs, the camera had stopped transmitting.

Over the weekend I’ve noticed increased activity around the nestbox and the blue tits are still going in and out of it, so I can only assume there are more eggs and in a couple of weeks there will be chicks.

My concern at this point is the availability of caterpillars for the youngsters to feed on. The weather reports for the next week suggest no real warmth and with very few butterflies and moths being seen I’m not sure if there will be much, if any, food for the chicks.

I’ve got my supply of mealworms, so will be ready to supplement the natural food supply when I think the chicks have arrived (hopefully know because of the camera miraculously working), so support is at hand for the blue tits and the other birds visiting my garden.

In other news I have seen a few more bees about, although nowhere near as many as in recent Aprils, so I can only hope that the flowers I’ve got blooming in my garden are able to help the insects that are currently active.

I’m now seeing the robins in singles rather than the previous duos, so I’m presuming the female is sitting on eggs somewhere. I’d like to know where the nest is, even though I have an idea, but for now I’m happy with seeing one of the prospective parents following me around whenever I’m working outside.

Looking back on my blog from last year I noticed that the swallows arrived back later than this year, with the first one sighted in 2013 just over a week earlier than in 2012. Is this a sign for a good summer?

The six that did arrive in mid-April have now become just a pair, I suspect it’s simply a case of the group splitting up to find suitable nesting sites, but I presume the pair that has stayed is either parents from last year, or one of their youngsters.

Finally my sparrow nestbox has had some visitors and is becoming a regular perching spot for some of the groups of house sparrows that visit my garden. I watched out of the window yesterday as a male and female perched there and started looking at the holes to gain access.

Perhaps the late winter and delayed spring did help in my quest to provide house sparrow accommodation this year!

SPRING BRINGS GOOD AND BAD NEWS

I returned from a week away with the family to find the nestbox camera isn’t working again! I can’t express how disappointed I am considering spring is finally with us and the blue tits seem to be very busy around the nestbox.

I suspect there are eggs in there, or will be very shortly, and therefore I’m not going to investigate or tamper with the nestbox as this will only disturb the family and I’d rather wait until the eggs become chicks and the chicks become bigger.

One way of testing there are chicks is putting out live mealworms and seeing how often the parent birds take the food to the nestbox.

I’ve ordered some today through www.livefoodsdirect.co.uk so later this week should be able to get an indication as to whether chicks are imminent or when they arrive.

This in turn will allow me to judge when, or if, I can try to get the camera working again. I’ll be reading my blog from the last couple of springs to check on how long it takes for the chicks to become too big for the parents to incubate them at night.

One positive was the return to my garden of the beautiful spring/summer sounds that bounce on the airwaves around the UK, made of course by my favourite UK visitor, the swallow.

I counted six individuals dancing in the skies around my garden, frequently swooping in the evening sun last night to catch insects that were gathering to enjoy some spring warmth.

I think they’re still catching up on the changes around the place, although whether they can nest in the sheds behind our house is open to debate given the idiots (and I use the word very carefully and with justification) that rented the house with these sheds.

They have since left, but whether the interiors are still enticing for the swallows and indeed whether the local population of five cats can access the buildings through the crumbling roof, is something I’ll be watching with interest.

Perhaps I’ll pay the buildings a visit in the next few days to check everything is ok.

One final note was the sighting of a bee this morning, which I will only be able to see as a positive if it is seen again and with plenty of others.

So one good bit of news and one not so good, but overall spring is here and hopefully the wildlife can start to get on with producing the next generation.

SPRING WEATHER BRINGS NESTBOX ACTION

The focus this week has been on the nestbox camera and what is turning out to be an interesting battle for breeding.

As spring finally begins to show itself the blue tits have built a nest and are showing signs that eggs could soon be on their way.

There is a twist to this story as the great tit pair are spending an increased amount of time in my garden and seem to be eyeing up the nestbox for themselves.

Interest from the great tits is not going unnoticed as the blue tits are now beginning to chase their adversaries away from the nextbox. What will happen in the coming week? Will the blue tits lay eggs and raise their brood without interference from the great tits? Time will tell and this little battle is what helps make watching wildlife so fascinating.

In the last few nights the female blue tit has been roosting in the nestbox and it’s been very interesting watching her say ‘goodnight’ to her partner in the fruit tree at the bottom of the garden, before they both got to their own roosting sites.

In other news the great spotted woodpecker has been heard nearly every day hammering away at one of the dead trees on the fields behind the house. Perhaps we’ll see him/her in the garden again soon, although not if it means the blue tit chicks are being predated!

There is a new bird nesting in the trees around the garden area, although not one that is welcomed by the small garden birds.

That’s right a pair of magpies are building a nest and while their presence sometimes causes the smaller birds to flee into the rose bush or hawthorn hedge, they don’t seem too bothered and it’s not affecting the numbers coming to my garden to feed. 

Below is a series of images taken over a ten day period up until today.

 

 

NESTBOX CAMERA NEST OWNER REVEALED!

The owner of the camera nestbox with its new nest has been revealed – and I was right the blue tits are back!

After a two year absence, because of a great tit pair claiming the nestbox, the blue tits are back for a third year.

They previously nested in the first two years after the nestbox was up, but were usurped by the great tits, leaving the blue tits to find a new site – which happened to be a small hole in the brickwork of next door.

It’s great to know that the nestbox will continue to be utilised to ensure it’s been used for every year since I put it up.

There’s only one thing I’m hoping for this year and that is the weather doesn’t affect the breeding season following last year and the heavy rain – this unfortunately meant the great tit chicks didn’t survive more than a couple of days.

One thing I listened to today that I’ve not heard for five years was the sound of a woodpecker doing his/her thing. I couldn’t see the bird, but I suspect it might be the great spotted woodpecker that’s been visiting my garden over the years, particularly in winter.

I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for the dead trees nearby that I think the woodpecker was creating the noise from.

With spring starting to show signs of finally arriving I’m hopeful that the local wildlife that hasn’t yet made itself known, will respond to the temperature rises and contribute to the wonderful season that we call spring.

Finally I’m hoping to get some images of the blue tits building their nest in time for the next blog post.

NESTBOX CAMERA IS BACK WORKING

The start of spring may still be delayed, but I feel it has begun after the nestbox camera started working today and revealed something very exciting.

After a phone call to the guys at Spy Camera CCTV, I tried once last go at fixing it and somehow it worked. Whether it’ll work for long is another question!

The camera revealed inside the nestbox a nest in the first stages of being built. I’m not sure which bird is doing the nest building but I’m hoping to catch it in action soon.

 

I suspect it’s a pair of blue tits and can’t wait to see if they continue to build it – I suspect it may be delayed due to the weather and lack of a spring, but perhaps this is a sign that wildlife knows spring is on its way!

The other nestboxes aren’t being used yet and while I still have hope for the new sparrow ‘hotel’ the other two are very unlikely to be used this year.

One other exciting development was the sighting of an animal I’ve never seen before around my house – a stoat.

With a number of farms nearby, including a chicken one, I’m surprised I’ve never seen a stoat or weasel around, but given that I first thought this stoat was a leaf blowing in the wind, it’s not surprising.

It was too quick for me to get a picture, although now I know one is around I’ll be on the lookout for it and possibly others in the future.