EARLY NIGHTS MEAN LESS WILDLIFE VIEWING TIME

I’d like to say there’s a lot going on in and around the garden, but as I’m away for most of the daylight hours it’s very difficult.

The weather has generally been typically autumnal, albeit generally quite mild.

On my morning walks to work I have once or twice noticed a flock of redwing and potentially some fieldfare, so I’m going to try and start out early one day (subject to getting the girls ready for school early).

The feeders have been fairly quiet recently, with only passing visits from the local blue tits, great tits, house sparrows and dunnocks.

There’s have been very few visits from blackbirds and no sightings of the long tailed tits.

The pond has been overwhelmed with leaves and I’ve had to be careful with removing them due to the fish, snails and other animals who now call this small amount of water home.

I’m amazed the fish from the stream are still surviving, which means they are finding food. Perhaps the larvae of midges or mosquitos, although the worry is that this food supply won’t last for long during winter.

It looks like cooler weather and colder nights are on the way as we head to December, so perhaps more birds on the feeders.

In the coming weeks I’m going to look at introducing some more video footage to this blog, perhaps with my daughters getting involved – I’m yet to ask them so we’ll see what is said!

CHRISTMAS CALM?

As we head towards Christmas and festive celebrations, there’s been another exciting development for the garden wildlife.

There’s been another new bird seen flying through the garden, a quick flash of blue and it was gone – a kingfisher.

Now the pond (small that is was) has long gone, but there is a small stream next to the garden which has small fish in, plus a pond nearby.

Whether it’s fishing in either or both is unknown, but it must be in the area for some reason and feeding seems the reasonable explanation.

It’s only been seen once, so there will be numerous eyes watching over the coming weeks for a winter flash of blue flying by.

Not much else to report, apart from the garden birds making use of the free handouts, particularly in the recent really cold snap.

Will the mild weather continue over Christmas and into 2018, or will winter have a dastardly plan for the weather?

Time will tell, but the local birds, and small mammals will be well catered for as their winter food supplies remain sparse.

NEW BIRD SPOTTED AS SPRING STARTS SLOWLY

An amazing sight from the garden has meant the lack of activity in the nest boxes and delay in spring taking a proper grip has not been too bad.

The small brook that almost borders the garden, had signs of life last summer with a small shoal of small fish.

It was presumed that they would go or not survive, but it appears this is not the case. And the presence of these small fish has not gone unnoticed!

The amazing sight of a kingfisher perched on a branch of a small tree overhanging the brook has been brilliant.

I don’t expect it to be a common visitor or even see it again, but just the one glimpse is enough.

Of course spring is not in ‘full bloom’ yet and I hope this is the reason why birds are not spending time in the nest boxes. It is unusual though that not one bird has spent a night in either nest box.

Time will tell, but with an Easter weekend of strong wind and heavy rain, I don’t expect things to change much as we approach April.

And April should herald the arrival of my favourite bird – the swallow.