SNOW AT CHRISTMAS?

It would appear the title of this blog post would seem unlikely, particularly given the mild start to December.

Of course, things can change in the coldest season, but I suspect the white stuff will stay away until deeper into winter.

The birds have stayed away from the garden mainly, with just the odd visit from a blue or great tit, while the sparrows are visiting quite often to feed on the fat snack or peanuts.

I’ve checked the bird boxes this weekend and surprisingly found only two nests. One in the nest box that’s had nests in it for 11 consecutive springs, while one was also located in the box under the honeysuckle.

The regularly used nest box had blue tits in, and this is, it on the right.

This one was used by a robin family once since 2008, and a robin family used it again this summer. This is how hidden it was in the honeysuckle and here’s the nest in the box itself. The nest outside the box is above, next to the robin one.

I’d noted this earlier on this year, with the local robin pairing spending quite a bit of time in the garden, to recce two of the most unused nest boxes.

The first one they looked at wasn’t used this year and hasn’t been used apart from by a small wasp colony a few years ago.

The surprising find was the triple and new single nest box weren’t used at all, despite the triple one being used for every previous year it has been up.

So, they’ve all had a pre-spring clean, ready for any winter roosting, although with the cameras still not working it might be another bit of guesswork as to whether they will be used as roosting sites.

I do hope the robins use the nest box again this year; and there has been a noticeable presence from one robin recently, including some territory-setting tunes.

With the worst of winter yet to appear, I’m sure the garden will soon start filling up with birds, including the usual winter visiting family of long tailed tits.