ARE THERE EGGS IN NESTS?

Following the unusually warm Easter Bank Holiday, we’re now experiencing some proper April weather.

Heavy rain and even hail, along with lightning and thunder, has helped to fill the pond back up, and provide some much-needed water to the flora.

There isn’t much life in the pond at the moment, and what life there is, is very small.

However, it will probably be next year, when a full year in the life cycle of the water feature will have concluded, that we’ll see bigger users and habitants.

Life around the birds has quietened down a little bit recently, although the numbers of house sparrows has increased, while both a male and female blackbird have spent time feeding around the lawn and borders.

The great tits have been around, but have been much quieter, while the wet weather has brought in the robins to feed in the garden.

I’m still putting out fat snacks and peanuts, but this will only last until the warmer weather starts properly in May.

That’s when I’ll get in the mealworms, and I’m sure it’ll coincide with the emergence of many chicks in the garden and surrounding area.

I’m going to check the nest built in the fruit tree this weekend, as I suspect a pair of woodpigeons have been paying close attention to it – perhaps it was one they abandoned last year but will come back when the tree has more foliage.

I’ve not seen much of the swallows, although I did hear them quite a bit before the wet weather really took hold.

They’ll probably welcome the rain so they can make the mud to construct their nest(s), and they sometimes use the puddles near the house, so I’ll be keeping an eye on them.

THE FIRST SWALLOW HAS BEEN SPOTTED

For the second successive year I spotted the first swallow swooping around the house and garden on April 7^th.

It means they’re returning a full two weeks earlier compared to in 2015.

The current dates, since 2014, are:

2014 – 19^th April

2015 – 21^st April

2016 – 10^th April

2017 – 8^th April

2018 – 7^th April

2019 – 7^th April

I could go on endlessly about these birds, but for me they are my favourite bar none.

I think it goes back to growing up on a farm in Wales and having them nest every year in the outbuildings, often rescuing a chick that had fallen out of a nest.

They are graceful while airborne and close up, if you can catch them staying still for long enough, the colours are breathtakingly beautiful.

I’m hoping to get more glimpses of them over Easter weekend, and see just how many have returned.

A pair of great tits have been marking out the main nest box as theirs this year, including singing very loudly from 5am every morning by the bedroom window and regularly occupying the trees and bushes around the garden warning each other when we’re in the garden.

I’ve not seen any nesting activity, but hopefully Easter will again reveal evidence.

Finally, the pond and the area around it are really brightening up in the warming spring air, well maybe the sunny conditions with warming up starting about now.

It’s great to see the pond back and looking so good, and it means the girls can uncover more facts about wildlife in the garden and pond.

Luckily both are very happy to learn and take in the new flowers, birds and insects the garden and pond attracts.

STALLING THE BREEDING SEASON?

Given the cold weather recently, the wildlife could be forgiven if they have delayed spring for a few weeks.

The blossom may have blown from the trees, the buds may be showing and new leaf growth emerging, but the weather isn’t tempting many to start bringing the next generation into this world.

Now of course you could understand if they used Brexit as a reason for stalling, but this is one area that the wildlife has in their favour – they don’t know anything about it!

The dawn chorus has been somewhat dampened since the clocks went forward, although the voice of a few blackbirds is now competing with the robins to see who can wake us up first.

A female blackbird has been seen around the garden in recent days, so I wonder if they try to nest in the conifer hedge again – last year seemed to fail, which was probably due to the local cats.

I’ve not noticed any activity around the nest boxes, but with the lighter nights I’ll have more chance to investigate – but given the cold weather I doubt that much action has taken place.

The pond is very good shape, and while there is unlikely to be much large animal action this year, it’ll definitely be a good resource for insects as a refuge and birds as a drinking/washing station.

April will no doubt warm up, but I don’t expect much breeding action from the birds until we get to the end of the month.