TYPICAL SPRING WEATHER?

It’s turning into proper early spring weather, with stormy conditions followed by calm and sunny weather, with cold nights.

Many days recently have had the dawn chorus become louder, varied and earlier, as birds anticipate the start of the breeding season.

This was particularly noticeable at the weekend, when songs from the usual suspects of blackbird, robin, blue tit, great tit, dunnock, house sparrow and more became evident.

There’s also been magpies appearing to nest in nearby trees, although I’m slightly concerned this will impact the garden birds and their nesting.

The lane has recently become a meeting place for a number of frogs, with them seemingly happy to place themselves in the path of traffic (ok not much traffic goes down the lane), in the hope of finding a mate.

The pond isn’t quite ready for them yet, and I only managed to get one oxygenating plant from a water world garden centre, as many others aren’t ready.

I will make another attempt this week, although one thing I did manage to get was some water snails, hidden in the plant.

I’ll make another attempt to get plants this week, at another garden centre that has said they ‘have loads’, but hopefully the pond will look good ahead of when we’ll experience lighter nights and warmer spring weather.

I doubt the frogs will use it this year, but I just want it to be established first.

I’ve not been able to fully check the nest box cameras, so it might end up being something I save for when we move house – that will be a sad day leaving here.

Until then it’ll be all about enjoying the wildlife in the small garden wildlife oasis we have.

WINTER IS ON ITS WAY

The cold of autumn has arrived, and it signalled the garden birds to descend on the garden; feasting on the peanuts and fat balls.

We’ve seen house sparrows, blue tits, great tits, the odd dunnock and a robin (for the first time in weeks).

There has been a number of jays around recently, and it’s great that they are now increasing their presence around the garden, while the local magpies pay almost daily visits.

No blackbirds have been seen for a while, so I wonder if the incident involving the tawny owl and blackbird at night a couple of months ago has impacted on this. If none are seen in the next month or so, then I might suspect it has.

A frost has lightly carpeted the lawn for the last two days, while the nearby trees and bushes are turning lovely autumnal shades of yellow, brown and orange – all apart from the evergreens!

This week feels the start of the change from summer/autumn to autumn/winter, and the early dark nights that we’ll have for the next five months.

Of course, the clocks going back doesn’t have any impact on the wildlife, but it does impact when we can help them with handouts – for me it’s weekends only.

In news from the lane, badgers have once again been seen, with two spotted on separate nights, a week apart but in the same area, exploring the hedges.

It happened around 8/9pm and is great news because we’ve not seen any badgers down the lane for years.

They were seen regularly, along with the odd fox and loads of rabbits, but it’s rare to see any of them now, which is not good for the rabbits because they were seen at least once a week; now they’re seen every six months.

WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER & AUTUMN IN THE SAME MONTH?

We’ve not yet finished April but we’ve seen weather representing all four seasons already.

Hail and a little snow started the month, before spring(ish) conditions followed, then last week summer took over, while autumn came along today and looks like staying until May – or until winter starts the sequence again.

What’s been lovely to see, up until today, has been the swallows dancing in the air, chattering and making plans for breeding, plans that may be on hold for now!

The nest building in the garden continues, with the blue tits and blackbirds making their choices of nest location well known.

The male wren has been entertaining the female at his nest in the previously unused nest box.

It’s been difficult to assess her feedback, although she has been spotted a few times so perhaps this nest ‘sale’ is still under discussion.

What’s been very distinguishable is the dawn chorus, and what a lovely sound the birds are making around the garden.

Wren, blackbird, blue tit, house sparrow, robin, dunnock, goldfinch, chaffinch, swallow, chiffchaff and great tit all providing a cacophony of alarm bells from the first chink of light – at the moment 5am is late for some birds!

The big question for the birds is will there be enough food for when the chicks arrive, particularly for those that have laid eggs recently, as the colder weather isn’t beneficial for the usual spring gluttony of caterpillars.

One thing I do is order mealworms, and the first batch is due to arrive this weekend, so it’ll be interesting to see which birds fly off with big bunches of them first.