WINTER STORMS BLAST THROUGH THE GARDEN

In the last post it mentioned ‘non-stormy winter’, well that certainly isn’t true now! A pretty ferocious storm has passed and another one, with less ferociousness, is currently running across most of the UK.

The first one had a big impact on the garden and surrounding area, with trees down, bushes bent over and one of the birds feeders being blown into oblivion – never to be seen again.

Three others survived in situ and have been a welcome supply of food for the birds after they had to spend many hours hunkered down away from the wind and rain.

The two nest box cameras are working, albeit only one is able to translate night images, but both have revealed no activity at all, which is very unusual for this late in February.

One nest box designed for tits, which has never been used, has been redesigned to suit robins, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one of the locally resident birds use it.

It’s been semi covered with rose and ivy, so time will tell if that’s enough cover for them.

The blossom on the trees that emerged last week following the mild weather has been scattered over a wide area, so it may mean a depleted crop of fruit this year.

Cats are still a big problem and I wonder if them being in our garden is making the birds nervous and causing them to look for nest sites elsewhere.

The cat patrol has been stepped up and all cats near the garden are being firmly chased away.

Will it work? The birds will benefit if it does.

FLORA IN MY GARDEN

This week I’m looking at the flora in my garden, as the flowers, fruit and veg start to really take over.

The birds have been very scarce this week, with only a few visits from a female blackbird and the odd young blue or great tit.

There was one exciting moment when I could hear the alarm calls of about 100 swallows and turned to see a female sparrowhawk swoop across my garden and perch in a small tree, about a foot right above my head.

It then proceeded to try and flush one of a few small birds in the trees and bushes out, but appeared to fly off without any kill.

A very heart stopping moment for me and I’m pretty sure the sparrowhawk didn’t even see me.

On to the flora and the poppies are still flowering, but have been taken over by the sunflowers. I’ve got five varieties this year, but only the Russian Giant, Red Sun and Teddy Bear ones have so far flowered.

 

I’ve grown sunflowers for the last five years, all from seed, and they are brilliant flowers for attracting insects and birds.

 

The insects take to them first (as you can see with the bees on a couple of the images), before the birds take the seeds towards autumn time.

 

I’ve also had a beautiful lily flower, but I’m not sure of the variety as it was in a mixed bag that I planted at various places in the garden.

 

All three varieties of tomatoes are growing well, although none are ripe enough to pick, while the potatoes and carrots could soon be harvested.

I’m going to leave the swedes until autumn or earlier winter, so we can enjoy them on the darker nights, with maybe a few potatoes and carrots.

When the colder weather comes I love making a roasted vegetable and meat dinner. One day I’ll have a big enough garden to have a much bigger supply of vegetables and make more dinners from things grown myself.

So onwards with the flora, while the fauna explores the wider area to see which areas it will have successful foraging trips when the cold weather sets in.

FLEDGING IN THE RAIN?

The weather recently has been interesting, cool for spring and seems to be finally making its mind up that summer is a season we’re allowed in the UK.

With a few days of warmer weather of late, I’ve noticed plenty of butterflies and bees around and this is encouraging as a sign that the weather could actually be good this summer.

The blackbirds must have chicks as both the male and female are now seen regularly in the garden looking for the odd worm, insect or piece of fruit.

Both parents are also taking mealworms, which is good as I’d like all parent birds to make use of the food offering I’m giving out.

Where the blackbird’s nest is, I just don’t yet know, but it’s another one I’m eagerly looking for.

The blue tits are also making use of the mealworm hand-outs, although they do seem to have found some caterpillars, which is good news for a whole host of other birds too.

The caterpillars are very small so I think they’ve only just started emerging in the last week or so.

I think the blue tit chicks will be fledging very soon as the youngsters are being very vocal whenever the parents bring food.

One set of parents that seem to thrive on the mealworm hand-outs is the robins. Both local families are in or around the garden within seconds of me emerging from the house.

If I’m not around the garden and there are no mealworms, the robins seem to wander around, knowing I could be watching through the windows, trying to ‘force’ me to deliver a new batch to the feeding station.

The various house sparrow families are obviously still feeding up their youngsters as they are another bird, along with great tits and dunnocks, which are making short work of the mealworms.

I think I know where the nest sites are, but no definitive location has yet been found. Perhaps the next week or two will help my search.

Finally I’ve seen both the male and female great spotted woodpecker adults eating from fat snacks in and around the garden.

I suspect, just like the blackbirds, there are young chicks in their nest and as finding food has been difficult, they’ve ‘raided’ the next best food source, which just happens to be my fat snacks!

It’s really good to know they’re around and I hope they do stay, as winter visits are frequent, but summer ones are not.

In the next few weeks I’m looking at making contact with a hedgehog rescue group as I’d like to have these garden-friendly animals around our house and the surrounding area. More news on this next time.