WILDLIFE CAN BE SO CRUEL

After nearly two weeks of hearing the blue tit chicks chirping whenever the parents brought food to them, yesterday is all went quiet apart from one single chick, who seemed to be calling  for its parents.

Suddenly there was no sign of the parents and my concern grew this morning when silence greeted the mealworm breakfast I’ve been leaving out for the local birds to help with parenting.

Robins, house sparrows, blue tits and great tits have been making use of the mealworm donation.

Mid-morning I opened the nest box, confident the parents had left the nest for good, and was saddened by what greeted me.

A couple of days ago I’d noticed a couple of flies entering the nest and wondered if one of the chicks had died.

Unfortunately when I opened the nest box there was five chicks that had died, a couple seemed close to fledging while others seemed to have been slightly younger when they died.

As to the reasons for them dying it remains unsolved; I suspect four reasons.

1 – One or both parents were predated, although I think this unlikely as they were around yesterday and it’s rare to see a sparrowhawk in the local vicinity.

2 – Disease took hold and the chicks sadly succumbed over time.

3 – The parents didn’t bring in enough food, which again seems unlikely given the mealworm supplements.

4 – The parents fledged a couple of chicks but the others were too far behind and the parents left with the few older ones.

I guess it’ll remained unsolved, but it’s the first time a nest has failed this much.

While carrying out the nest investigations I could hear a couple of buzzards circling above, soaring on the thermals and not a crow or rook harassing them.

The robin nest, in the previous wren nest box, appears to be viable, although I remain sceptical there will be successful hatching of this nest

Perhaps they’ll surprise me, although what is surprising is the house sparrows who are paying close attention to the triple nest box, again I don’t think they have nested there this year, but could be wrong.

Finally the swallows seem to be on eggs, while the blackbird nest hasn’t had any sign of chicks being fed – maybe next week.

WILL THE SUMMER HEAT COME BACK AGAIN?

So summer has finally arrived, well at least for 48 hours anyway.

It felt like the heat of mid summer in Cyprus had hit us, but it’s gone again and left us with a tantalising glimpse of what our summers can be like.

The wildlife being seen in the garden is mainly insects, with an increasing amount of butterflies – some of which are making straight for the growing cauliflowers leaves!

The fruit from the greengage tree is ripening and falling everywhere, while flies occupy any bare human flesh causing irritation, which the wildlife must be feeling too.

Young robins and blackbirds are being seen with a little more frequency in the garden, while the numbers of swallows is increasing every day.

The youngsters are definitely learning how to manoeuvre in the skies and they’re hopefully going to start having an impact on the number of small flies that are annoying everyone.

There are no tomatoes yet, but plenty of flowers, while the broad beans probably only need a few more weeks before they can be harvested.

One thing that hasn’t done too well this year is the batch of sunflowers. Only one is taller than six foot and some are even flowering at less than two feet.

Perhaps it’s the new seeds bought in spring, or perhaps it’s the weather. Final conclusions can be drawn in August when they have all flowered.

Until then let’s wait, and hope, the summer heat comes back again soon!

A MILD WINTER?

It’s not exactly been a cold start to winter, although typically the coldest weather is normally reserved for January and February.

This is likely to be having an effect on the birds coming in to the garden, because they have not been in the numbers I would normally expect.

The big peanut feeder in the garden hasn’t needed topping up for a week and thoughts are turning to another reason why birds aren’t in the garden much – the local cats!

Between three houses there are seven cats, but one house feeds stray cats which increases the number to double figures.

The daily sight of at least two cats with small animals in their mouths is very unnerving and it’s not a good sign for the local wildlife population.

Cats eating rodents means that food for owls, foxes and kestrels will be in short supply, so they’ll move on, removing the area of apex predators. This will then increase the non-rodent populations of animals that will not be kept in check by the cats.

It’s really sad that people seem to have little or no respect for the area they live in; if you move to a rural location, make sure you respect it and don’t introduce a domesticated predator en-masse to a small area; it ruins it for wildlife and the people who have moved there because of it.

Cats aren’t welcome in the garden, although stopping them is almost impossible. The fact they think other gardens are free to use as their toilet is quite frankly disgusting and shows their owners have a complete disregard for humans, in particular children who might play in gardens and not understand the dangers of cat poo.

Anyway rant over.

While it’s still mild then many insects are active, including the spiders in the ivy and flies that keep coming into the house. A cold winter helps control such creatures, and many more besides, so here’s hoping that after Christmas the cold weather arrives.

Added to that is the increased risk of snow, which means snowmen, snowball fights and sledging! Bring on the snow.