GROWING CROPS, FLEDGINGS AND SNAIL WAR PART II

Tonight is the start of BBC Springwatch and I'm really looking forward to this annual extravaganza.

The house sparrow family in the tit nest box with the ‘broken’ camera, have fledged this week and both parents have been busy feeding the youngster.

The garden has become a very popular feeding station for the house and tree sparrows, so much so that the great tits, blue tits and robins are often out-competed for food by the gangs of sparrows.

In two days they went through two full feeders of peanuts, 250g of mealworms and two fat snacks. It was literally a feeding frenzy from dawn until dusk.

I did think about checking the nest box camera and buying, then fitting, a new power cable, but I’m going to leave them until I know the breeding season has finished.

I’m guessing the mother house sparrow will soon be on eggs again and I don’t want to disturb her.

This is something I think the tree sparrows are already on with, so maybe the sound of another hungry brood of sparrows will be heard in the garden again soon.

The swallows appear to be almost complete with the nest building and ready to start laying eggs and incubating. Updated on the first fledgings will on here soon – I hope!

Both the robins and blackbirds haven’t been seen for a week or so, which I suspect is down to the fact they’ve got fledglings and/or are sitting on a second brood of eggs.

I know the nearest robin family is nesting close to the garden and in the same area as a wren family, how much I’ll find about where the nests are, is something I’ll know more of later this summer. I plan to explore the area around the stream in the hope it’ll be a much drier than it is now and not get wet!

The slugs and snails, though fewer in number, are still after my plants, so dose number two of the pellets came into force overnight. The marigolds have been the hardest hit and just when the sole survivor looked to be growing again, another attack came and bypassed the pellets.

Last night that mission failed and the casualties are now stricken around the marigold and a couple of other plants.

 

The carrots are starting to grow while the potatoes are doing very well. Hopefully they’ll help in breaking up the soil in the garden area of the joint land and yield better crops in coming years.

Until then let’s have some sunshine, more fledglings and big juicy crops.