WINTER STORMS ARE ON THE WAY

Winter is yet to really inflict any sever cold weather on the garden or surrounding countryside, aside from the odd frost.

We’re yet to see any severe autumn or winter storms, but it looks like this will change over Christmas with up to three due in.

The garden looks like it’ll escape the most severe winds, but will be hit by some significant gusts which, combined with heavy rain will likely deliver challenging times for the local wildlife.

The birds feeders are having mixed fortunes with the ones in the trees seemingly well used, indeed the birds seem to know when full ones are being place because they literally gather around the trees waiting for the delivery.

Unfortunately the local cats have made a hideout near to the two feeders in the garden.

After a few adjustments to the bushes and a few blockages put in the way, more activity is expected as these feeders in the near future.

Checking the nest boxes will have to wait for another week, although a quick check of the cameras has caused optimism in they can be fixed ready for the next breeding season.

Not many birds have been seen recently in the garden, only blue tits, great tits, robins, blackbirds, house sparrows and dunnocks. Not in great numbers or frequency, but regularly.

It also looks like a pair of magpies have moved into a tree next to the garden, which is the first time they have nested near the garden.

It might cause a bit of uneasiness within the local small birds population, but they are very good at spotting and disturbing cats.

BIRDS ARE NOW USING THE GARDEN FEEDERS

There has been a rise in the number of small birds visiting the garden and this must be down to a combination of cooler weather and the decreasing amount of natural food resources left in the countryside.

Of course it’s still very wet, but colder overnight temperatures mean the need to conserve energy by locating a good food source and staying close to it.

Unfortunately the weather isn’t cold enough to see some of the more infrequent visitors to the garden – so no long tailed tits, redwing, fieldfare etc.

Instead it’s the more year round visitors in house sparrows, tree sparrows, blue tits, great tits, blackbirds, robins and dunnocks.

It’s great to see these birds in the garden and I hope some will once again utilise the nest boxes in the garden or even the natural resources.

I’d just finished writing this post when a family of long tailed tits flew into the garden, spending about 20 minutes feeding and chattering. A lovely winter (or any other time) sight in the garden.

One of the jobs during winter is to clean out the nest boxes to make them a lot more hygienic for the birds – and provide them with something they can build something in rather than have a ready built nest from last year which is likely to contact bugs and even parasites.

It also gives a chance to look at how well the nests have been made and see just how many have been occupied.

In 2014 it was the tree and house sparrows that dominated the boxes, but this year I’m hoping to see at least one pair of blue tits or great tits nesting in the garden nest boxes.

The biggest clue will be when the winter overnight roosting takes place, which will need the weather to get a bit colder.

Until then the feeders will need to be topped up and wait for winter to bring its worst. I hope that’s soon so the midges and little flies that are plaguing the garden will be put out of action.

FLOODING, STORMS, NESTBOXES AND SPRING

The main topic of conversation this winter has been about the stormy weather and the affect it's had on the land and the people dealing with the after effects.

Flooding has been a huge problem for many people through overflowing rivers and streams, along with high tides and huge waves battering the coastline.

But a number of people have been affected by the rising water table and simply only realised the flooding was happening at their property when it started to come through the floors, not the doors.

In my garden and house we’ve been lucky so far, as we just have a very soggy lawn and borders, but this week it could have been so different following the most vicious storm of the winter so far.

We were subject to 100mph winds and heavy rain, which didn’t lead to massive flooding, but did lead to many trees, power cables and roof tiles down.

Having briefly assessed the damage it’s hard to tell if the house has suffered significantly or not, but luckily the trees and bushes emerged relatively unscathed.

The bird feeders have taken some damage, but I’ve now fixed them. The nestboxes must be more securely tied down than I imagined as they all were in situ after the winds died down.

It enabled me to do stage two of the sparrow nestbox camera construction.

The camera has now been fitted (see below) with a battery and now I’m hoping it’ll work and link up with the wireless receiver and show the inside of the nestbox on my TV, just like the single great/blue tit nestbox.

Next weekend I’ll be testing it and hoping that the wired version isn’t required as that’ll need an order putting in and an extra delay.

The tit nestbox camera isn’t revealing much yet, which I think shows that the roosting sites around the garden are still good enough due to the mild conditions.

It could also mean that the nesting instinct hasn’t yet kicked in, possibly due to the mild winter and the birds unsure of when spring is actually going to start. Hopefully the increase in daylight will start that breeding urge soon and the battle for nestboxes will start.

The spring bulbs are continuing to emerge and the later it goes in February, the closer it gets to spring actually starting to push winter away; whether the weather is any different is anyone’s guess!

WEATHER WARNING OR JUST WEATHER?

So the first snow of the winter arrived tonight as I arrived home from work. Only about a couple of millimetres, but at least something that should show the animals that will walk around the garden and surrounding areas at night.

I took my torch and filled a couple of the bird feeders to ensure some food for the small birds when they wake up in the morning. I’m unlikely to see them enjoying it as I’ll be away before first light and home after dark.

At least the weekend is here and Saturday should tell me how much the food was appreciated.

I’m expecting the feeders to have been more or less emptied, although that does depend entirely on how much snow does arrive.

The forecast suggested we’d get a fairly large amount, although I get the feeling it won’t be too much, certainly not enough to stop me being away all day.

Having snow in the garden is a great way of seeing the pattern of footprints, working our who they belong to and try to work out which order they went in to find out how each animal goes about its food search.

I sometimes use this knowledge to place food, or help cultivate an area. One of the key things I did in the autumn was fill the borders with dead leaves and cut grass to provide a layer of protection to the soil, a habitat to those small animals that live in and around the leaf litter and soil, a food source for birds and small mammals that eat those small creatures and fertiliser for the soil when spring comes around.

It has worked in previous years and I can tell be the fact the leaves are scattered around that the birds are finding food in there. The only thing I’d like to see is the birds, particularly the blackbirds, putting the leaves etc back!

So what will tonight bring? I hope snow and a few inches, but thing this is something others will enjoy and I will have to gaze at the news images and video and wonder what it would be like.